To strengthen its foothold in the global news scene, Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera International which operates from Kuala Lumpur, will begin airing its new English-language news and current affairs channel from November 15. The channel’s inaugural broadcast will be beamed worldwide from its headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The network’s International office was set up here six months ago. An official from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission confirmed that Al Jazeera had been given license to air in Malaysia.
News anchors who joined Al Jazeera from rival networks like BBC and CNN, and who will be based in Kuala Lumpur, include Divya Gopalan, Veronica Pedrosa, Teymoor Nabili and Hamish McDonald.
Al Jazeera Network Director-General Wadah Khanfar said that with broadcast centres in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, the network was a new force in the global English-speaking media. It will relay 12 hours of live news plus interview programmes, and in-depth features and analyses from the world’s hot spots over 24 hours. The announcement of the English channel’s launch coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the Al Jazeera Arabic-language channel. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s English-language website is being re-launched to reflect editorial content of the English channel, local newspapers said recently.
Indian TV channels take war to UK
Sky’s subscription revenue may have crossed £4 bn last year, while advertisement revenue was also close at £3.8 bn.
After India, the turf war of entertainment channels moves to UK as Star is all set to fight the popular Zee TV and Sony by launching Star One and Star Gold in addition to its Star Plus channel. Indian entertainment channels reach over 8 million Asian homes in England and accept local advertising on the channel.
In UK, both Star and Zee bouquets are aggressively priced. While Star is available on Sky platform on a monthly subscription of £7.50, Zee bouquets are available at £5.99 monthly fee whereas stand-alone Zee Gujarati and Alpha Punjabi cost less than £4.
“Indian channels like Zee TV, Sony and Star Plus are growing in popularity among the south Asian community. While subscription revenue drives the pay TV market in UK, advertisers too are sticking to Zee and Star,” an industry analyst said.
Unlike India, in UK consumers have to obtain a licence for viewing TV. According to an estimate, the public spending on TV includingthe licence fee averages £5.15 a week. Subscription revenue of Sky is estimated to have crossed £4 billion last year, while advertising revenue was also close at £3.8 billion, industry sources said.
Star Plus that was launched in March 2004 is currently available on Sky platform under Sky family pack and Sky Asian mix pack with a monthly subscription of £7.50. “Shows like ‘Coffee with Karan’ and Simi Garewal’s shows are very popular. Star One’s growing popularity in India and Star Gold’s strength in movies has led to the upcoming UK launch,” a company official told the press.
Rival Zee cashes in on the sentiments of Indian diaspora as its Zee Gujarati and Alpha Punjabi target the Birmingham’s NRI-Gujarati and Punjabi community in a big way.
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs finale fetches 11.1 TVR
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs finale live event on October 28 fetched the channel a whooping 11.1 TVR in rating, making it the highest rated programme in the entire GEC segment. The three-and-a-half hour long programme had a reach of 30 per cent taking Zee TV to 350 GRPS, while STAR Plus and Sony had 454 and 151 GRPS respectively.
An elated Punit Goenka, Business Head, Zee TV remarked, “We are thrilled with ratings of the finale. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs has been a very successful series since its inception. We have been overwhelmed by the response the show has garnered over the past few weeks. It provides an impetus to strive harder and clearly boosts the morale of the team. We will continue to put in our best efforts into making other shows such a grand success. As the average break TVR was 8.4, the show garnered high visibility for our partners as well. “
Peak rating of 15.4 at 10p.m.Also in the three metros from where the three participants were:
Kolkata - Rating 15.8 and reach 39%
Mumbai - Rating 13.9 and reach 29.6%
Delhi - Rating 11.4 and reach 29%