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Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, ABNL CMD-CEO
Kirit Mehta says, "Our aim is to take Aastha to every home
across the world. We've got the licenses from the Canadian Radio-Television
& Telecommunications Commission in Canada and the Office of
Communications (Ofcom) in the UK. In about two weeks time, we'll
also be available to the ethnic viewers in Canada and by August
we'll also be available in the UK and Europe for the immigrant population."
On the future plans of the company, Mehta revealed that the company
is further planning to reach out to viewers in South Africa, Middle
East, Australia and New Zealand.
Mehta reveals, "We are in the process of negotiating with
DSTV in South Africa, Pehla TV in the Middle East and Vision Asia
in Australia and New Zealand."
Aastha's step into the global market is seen as a drive to generate
pay revenues even as there is very little scope for spiritual channels
to augment advertising revenues in the Indian market. The strategy
in terms of programming is also to tap the fastest growing immigrant
segments across the globe who are hungry for more ethnic spiritual
and wholesome family front programming.
In terms of raising funds for the new ventures, Mehta says, "We'll
be on the pay platform across the world. In the initial stages we
hope to generate enough revenue from USA, UK, Canada and these funds
will be utilised to meet our operational and marketing costs in
the other countries. Apart from that, we also hope to raise funds
from the market."
The network currently has two channels -- Aastha, which is a spiritual
channel with a focus on discourses and live Yoga demonstrations,
and Aastha 2, which airs bhajans and kirtans, Gurbani from Nanded
with aartis from Vaishnadevi, Shirdi Saibaba and Tirupati Balaji
in the pipeline. The international channel Aastha will be a mix
of content from both Aastha and Aastha 2 as well as some premium
niche programming will be generated from the local markets across
the world.
When queried on whether any new channels will be added on, Mehta
says, "We plan to launch two more channels in the future. For
the southern audiences, it will be a mix of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada
and Malayalam. Then there is another one on Jainism that will be
for a specific niche audience."
In India, Aastha broadcasts programming in Hindi, Gujarati and
English. This year, the channel has plans to air locally originated
programming as well. Currently, both the channels are free to air
but over a period of time the company plans to go pay with Aastha
2.
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