English Entertainment
Discovery’s ‘HRX Heroes’ hosted by Hrithik Roshan to launch on 2 November
MUMBAI: Hrithik Roshan is all set to host a new show for Discovery channel called HRX Heroes, which will launch on 2 November.
The show is based on real stories about people who have come over their physical limitations and challenges and come out as heroes in real life. Incidentally, HRX is also a fitness and sportswear lifestyle brand launched by Roshan with the tagline – Push Your Extreme.
HRX Heroes will consist of nine episodes, which will be aired on Discovery Channel twice a week on Monday and Tuesday at 9 pm with a repeat over the weekend. The show, which is an original concept created by the Discovery creative team, will be filmed across India and it will be directed by Samar Khan.
The promotions for the show will be done across platforms on digital, print and television. Speaking on choosing Roshan as a host and the brand HRX, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific EVP and GM-South Asia Rahul Johri said, “Discovery is known for real and compelling stories. These are great stories about courage and endorsement, which we are bringing to the audience. Hrithik Roshan and the brand HRX are examples of the same. He has overcome physical disabilities when he suffered from stuttering. It will give a personal touch as he will be playing the host.”
Commenting on the show’s content Johri asserted, “We went through many proposals and ideas, which keep coming to us and found this script. Each story line is very strong and inspiring. It is amazing how they have come such a long way, the amount of success they have achieved despite obstacles. Moreover, the way in which Hrithik has presented the show is fantastic. The format of the show is engaging and will appeal to masses. That is the reason why we thought it would be the right thing to do it. Apart from that, the show will showcase different stories and diversities in India with the help of the nine stories.”
Impressed with the script and the theme of the series, Roshan added, “I wish to share with the world and spread the belief that it is possible to look adversity in the face and emerge victorious by overcoming it. HRX Heroes will bring to focus these incredible real life stories, which the entire nation needs to admire. I believe Discovery Channel is the ideal platform to spread the message of courage and determination, which in turn will inspire thousands of more such heroes.”
The actor further added that he relates to the series as it is about overcoming obstacles to become real life heroes. While Roshan has previously been seen on the small screen as a judge for a dance reality show, with HRX Heroes he will make his debut as a host.
The nine-part series will present real life stories of men and women from across India, who had very little going for them but they did not give up on their dreams and emerged as heroes. The channel will kick start the series by featuring wrestler Sangram Singh, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at a very young age. After fighting for several years, trying to overcome his illness, Singh became Commonwealth Heavy Weight champion in 2015.
Other real life heroes, who will be featured on the show are Harshini Kanhekar – India’s first female fire engineer, overcoming gender discrimination; Kalpana Saroj, who was born in poverty, married at very young age but later went on to become a celebrated entrepreneur and Navin Gulia, an accident survivor who is now a recognised adventurer, philanthropist and a motivational speaker.
The show will also feature Sajo Thomas, who built his own aircraft even after being congenitally deaf and mute; Sudha Chandran who became an accomplished actor and dancer even after losing her one leg in an accident when she was 17 year old; Shekar Naik, under whose his captaincy, The Blind Cricket Team of India won the Blind Cricket World Cup in 2014 and Shibhareet Kaur Ghumman, who followed her dreams to become a dancer even after losing her one leg.
Discovery has roped in as many as six sponsors for the show.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
