|
|
|
| indiantelevision.com's Breaking News |
| |
| Aaj Tak English channel may launch in
10 days |
| |
Indiantelevision.com
Team
(24 February 2003 2:00 pm) |
|
| |
| NEW DELHI: TV Today Network, part of The
India Today Group, is all set to launch its English channel over the
next 10 days, even as last week it roped in Alok Verma, a senior television
professional, as executive producer. |
| |
|
| |
"We don't want to create a hype and hoopla
about it, but it (the channel launch) can happen very soon, maybe
over the next seven to ten days. It can also happen much before a
10-day period," a source in Aaj Tak informed indiantelevision.com.
The company has been testing the signals, off an INSAT satellite,
for quite some time now.
However, the name of the channel is being kept a secret.
It seems that the endeavour is that with the Budget, slated to be
presented in Parliament on February 28, a soft launch of the channel
is done. But some technical aspects are still to be smoothened.
TV Today Network has been the target of maximum poaching with quite
a few top notch anchors, reporters and news producers leaving for
rival organisations like NDTV and Star.
In a bid to beef up its act, the company is getting on board new recruits
at all levels, including Verma who joined them formally this week.
Verma as the executive producer, along with senior people like Uday
Shankar (the No. 2 at TV Today after chief executive G Krishnan),
will be responsible for editorial and production aspects of both the
channels.
A former print medium journalist, Verma moved on to the electronic
medium early and has worked with Zee News, during its better days
in the late 1990s, and has also done a stint with Star India at the
company's Bangalore-based interactive TV division, amongst other media
assignments.
TV Today Network, not part of any bouquet, does not want to take a
chance with the distribution angle of the proposed English channel
and is leaving no stones unturned to see that the boxes meant for
the digital free to air channel is fairly well seeded in the market.
Will the Hindi Aaj Tak go pay simultaneously with the launch of the
English channel? A question difficult to answer at this point of time.
Industry sources indicate with the government pushing aggressively
ahead with conditional access implementation, Aaj Tak or its soon-to-be-on-air
sibling doesn't want to get caught in the transition hiccups. That
means, Aaj Tak may remain free to air for some more time. |
| |
| Click for more
Headlines |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
