SUNWORLD TV LAUNCHES IN THE US

The southern Indian language network, Sun, made its US debut on 15 February with a 24-hour service called SunWorld TV.

SunWorld TV is being distributed by Canadian ethnic Asian-targeted service Asian Television Network (ATN), which beams off Telstar 5. ATN is amongst the oldest of ethnic Asian channels distributed in the US and Canada.

SunWorld TV consists of a mix of programming from the four language channels of the Sun Network -- Sun TV (Tamil), Udaya TV (Kannada), Gemini TV (Telugu) and Surya TV (Malayalam). (Indian company CTV Entertainment is acquiring the programs from Sun and repackaging them into a channel for the US market.) 35% of the programming time on SunWorld TV is devoted to Tamil programming. Ditto with Telugu shows. Malayalam and Kannada programs share the remaining 30% of the time. SunWorld TV airs a mix of series, soaps, and cultural shows in the various languages. SunWorld TV has plans to offer live coverage of news from India and even transmit important events live by 14 April.

The subscription package for SunWorld TV is $19.99 a month with the dish costing $199. The channel is targeted at the 1.8 million Indians who are currently residing in the US.