Sahara to air news channels in 2 mths

Sahara Television, a part of the Subroto Roy-promoted Sahara group, is set to roll out the first of its 30-odd news channels within the next two months.

The company has already finalised a phased launch of its channels over the next few months but its flagship national news channel and a regional channel catering to the Uttar Pradesh region will be launched first.

This will be followed by the immediate launch of the channels catering to the national capital region, Mumbai and the channels dedicated to Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

The national news channels will have the brand name Sahara Samay, while the regional channels will also include the regional name along with the main brand.

"All the proposed news channels as well as the general entertainment channel of Sahara TV will be free-to-air but we would leverage on the vast untapped regional advertising market which will be the mainstay of our business model," said Prriya Raj, vice-president, Sahara Television.

"We would be leveraging our vast network of over 1600 V-SATs deployed all over the country to be the best in the business of providing news and information with a strong flavour of local news. This V-SAT network could probably be the biggest for any broadcasting company in Asia," Raj added.

The company has already deployed more than 1300 V-SATs all over the country and the rest are set to be deployed shortly.

The company has already started conducting trial runs for its two channels to and the rollout is expected to be after all preliminary glitches are ironed out.

The company has already tapped cable operators and provided them with the necessary reception equipment required to access the digital news channels that would be beamed from Asiasat 3S satellite.

The equipment, which is essentially set top boxes have been provided to the operators through various financial schemes.

Sahara Television had announced its plan to launch its news channel way back in 2000 has reworked its plans over the past couple of years owing to the drastic changes that the media and broadcasting industry underwent.