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BANGALORE:
Real Estate TV, promoted by Bangalore-based real estate company
Alliance Infrastructure Projects (AIP), will be on test signals
from 1 September.
A formal launch and broadcast will commence a month later,
once the channel gets its distribution strategy in place.
This was stated by Alliance Broadcasting COO T K Vibhaker.
Alliance Broadcasting is the broadcasting arm of Alliance
Infrastructure Projects.
Ramesh (ex-Times Now) has been appointed as head of distribution.
The
channel is in advanced talks with the various DTH operators
– dishtv, Tatasky and DD.
Real
Estate TV is a niche English language information, analysis
and entertainment channel (infotainment as Alliance Broadcasting
Pvt Ltd. adviser Sashi Kumar of the Asianet fame succinctly
calls it) that will focus on the real estate and around 270
allied industries.
Initially,
the channel targets garnering around a million plus eyeballs
mainly from the Cas (conditional access system) and DTH subscribers.
The channel will particularly target the NCR and Mumbai regions,
where large number of real estate and associated players are
present.
Kumar
also revealed plans to have the channel on the IPTV platform
in a format comprising of a combination of webtexting and
webcast video streaming, taking into consideration the low
internet bandwidths and speeds in many places.
The
internet version of some of the programmes will have a longer
time slot than on television, and a few of the televised programs
may not feature on IPTV. The channel intends to also target
viewers abroad through this platform.
“We
are looking at viewership in tier 1 cities in the first phase,"
informed Kumar. “We are trying to cut through the clutter
and rationalize distribution. By definition, Real Estate TV
is not a broadcast but more of a narrowcast channel. Advertisers
want to know the profile and purchasing power of your viewership.”
Besides
the live event programmes, the channel already has about three
months of software content in the cans. Though the channel
has kept a low profile, even within the real estate fraternity,
Kumar and Vibhaker are confident that it will grab a fair
share of the target eyeballs and advertisers attention.
In
the first phase the channel will have studios in Bangalore,
Gurgaon (for uplinking to Insat 4A through Delhi based Indiasign’s
license), Mumbai and Chennai.
In
the second phase, the channel plans to make its Hyderabad
studio operational. The main link is through Reliance’s
fiber optic cable between Bangalore and Delhi, with a reverse
link between Delhi-Bangalore, Mumbai- Bangalore and Chennai-Bangalore,
informed Vihbaker.
As reported earlier, the channel plans to supplement content
generation through stringers in 20 locations across the country,
besides the cities in which they have studios.
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