(5 July 2005 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Sahara will be taking its three channels overseas. First on the agenda is the US where it plans to be on the direct-to-home (DTH) platform of EchoStar, a source in the company said.

Hindi general entertainment channel Sahara One, news channel Sahara Samay and the proposed movie channel 'Filmi' will be available on EchoStar, the platform which also offers a range of Indian channels including SET, Max, Zee TV, Zee Cinema, B4U, Sun TV, KTV and Tara Muzik.

"We plan to take all these three channels this year," the source said. The movie channel is planned for a September launch.

DirecTV, the other DTH platform in the US controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, offers the Star channels (Star Plus, Star One, Star News and Vijay TV), ETV Gujarati, ETV Bangla, ETV Telugu and Aastha channel.

Sahara also plans to launch on the DTH platform in the UK. "Talks are on with BSkyB. But the UK launch will only be after we are available in the US," the source said.