|
CANNES:
Zee Group CMD Subhash Chandra's keynote at Mipcom today was
also an occasion for him to talk about a pet project of his
- Veria, the alternative lifestyle channel he has just launched
in the US.
Chandra
revealed in his interaction with Chris Forrester, Rapid TV
News Editorial Director, that a total investment of $ 200+
million had been earmarked for the channel. Veria is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Essel Group.
Available
in the US in 15 million homes currently in the free preview
period, Veria will in due course be encrypted as a pay channel.
Queried by Forrester as to why he chose lifestyle as a genre
for his first direct entry effort in the US, Chandra pointed
out that while the channel fell into the lifestyle segment,
there was nothing like Veria anywhere in the world created
specifically around alternative lifestyle. Chandra terms Veria
as a 360 experience that connects the TV screen, the web as
well as direct consumer interface through a network of 'wellness
centres' that would be set up acrss the US.
"We
would like this product to be global in next five years. That
is what is planned. The next step is to dub this content into
Spanish to serve the Hispanic population of America, Latin
America, and then go to Europe and Canada. And slowly perhaps,
come to India as well," Chandra concluded on a wry note.
|
