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ETC goes global, looks to compete with “mainstream” channels

Entertainment Television Channel (ETC), the 24-hour music television service of Entertainment Television Network Limited (ETN), is now available on the global beam on ThaiCom 3, thus reaching millions of viewers of the Indian diaspora in 77 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Middle East and the African continent.

The international beam will be digital resulting in enhanced picture and sound quality. Indian cable operators can receive both the international beam as well as the analogue beam. Additionally, the channel has also increased its bandwidth from 18 MHz to 27 MHz leading to better signal strength on its analogue feed.

ETC is latest version of the erstwhile ATN music channel, promoted by Siddharth Srivastav, now promoted and managed by Yogesh Shah, Yogesh Radhakrishnan and Jagjit Singh Kohli. Announcing the channel’s global intentions, Yogesh Radhakrishnan said that the on-again, off-again status of the channel was a thing of the past now that a new management had stepped in.

He also averred that the constant changes in the channel’s brand-name had not affected its commercial viability and standing. “The constant chopping and changing (of the channel’s brand name) has had no effect on its fortunes. It is content loyalty and not brand loyalty that matters,” he declared.

Claiming “immense popularity” in the eastern and northern parts of the country, Radhakrishnan said that the channel’s cumulative TRPs and GRPs (Gross Rating Points) were higher than competing music channel’s like Channel [V], MTV and Music Asia. He said that the channel was looking to compete with mainstream entertainment channels in popularity. He conceded that ETN would look at a regional band to broaden its appeal in other parts of India and live up to its tag-line of 100 % Indian, 100 % music.

While being cagey about the investments that had gone into transforming the channel from a local player to a global entity, Radhakrishnan said it had no intention of encrypting its signal. The channel is now available in nine million cable and satellite (C&S) homes, although a press release claimed that it “already reached almost 14 million homes”. On the distribution side, the Hinduja-promoted In CableNet has been refusing to carry the channel on its network. Jagjit Singh Kohli, director, ETC, sought to downplay this aspect saying its was only a “four head ends in Mumbai” that didn’t carry ETC. “But non-availability of signals is no reflection on its popularity,” he said.

Sandeep Belagaje