Punjab Today, a 24 hour digital news channel hits the airwaves on Monday.

The new channel floated by STV Enterprises claims to be an attempt to bring Punjabis across India and those settled abroad closer by bringing news and events occurring in their home state in their mother tongue. STV chairman Jugal Jain says Punjab Today is just the first in line of a series of channels, which will be unleashed in the next six months. An Urdu channel for the state of Jammu and Kashmir is next on the cards.

Jain says Punjab Today will provide what other Punjabi channels have not done so far - coverage of local news and programming. The target viewership is 15 million Punjabis in over 100 countries, with the ultimate aim of reaching every Punjabi household around the globe. The Punjab Today team comprises senior professionals with a background in journalism, reporting, advertising sales and television software production. Former Hindustan Times staffer Avinash Singh is the COO of the channel, which will air content that has 80 per cent of news related to Punjab and the rest 20 per cent will cover areas like Udham Singh Nagar, Haryana, Himachal, J&K and other places where Punjabis have a presence.

Punjab Today will also feature other news-based programmes, including regular industry, agriculture, finance, development, and sports related content. There will also be current affairs shows, investigative features, employment news and human interest stories. STV has its own set of state-of-the-art studios and other infrastructure in Delhi, Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Mumbai. The nerve centre of newsgathering for Punjab would be Jalandhar.

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