English Entertainment
EPIC Channel presents the first ever India Centric Quiz Show
MUMBAI: In keeping with its mission of exploring India through innovative and engaging programming, EPIC Channel – India Ka Apna Infotainment, recently announced its newest TV show. The much anticipated ‘EPIC India Quiz Challenge’ is a one-of-a-kind, India centric quiz show that promises to be a brain teaser for participants and viewers alike. Hosted by multi-faceted anchor, actor, singer, Meiyang Chang; the series will air from 14th October 2019, every Monday at 7:00 PM, with a repeat telecast at 10 pm.
Aimed at challenging the brightest minds between 5th to 10th standard from across the country; the quiz show is built to test their ‘IQ’ or ‘India Quotient’. Teasing and tantalizing questions across history, politics, geography, current affairs, mythology, general knowledge, and several diverse disciplines will leave the participants & viewers enriched in ways like never before.
Shortlisted from 3000 registrations across 70 cities, 500+ schools battled it out to make it to the sets in Mumbai for the final face-off. Brands like Club Mahindra, Furtado’s School of Music, KidZania and METZ Premium German Televisions (India), partnered with EPIC Channel to curate a special set of prizes for the young champions.
In line with its programming ethos, EPIC India Quiz Challenge adds to the already diverse offerings of the channel. Produced by Optimystix Entertainment India Pvt Ltd. the show aims to reach out to Indians across the board and enlighten them on the often overlooked intricacies that have shaped the Indian sub-continent.
Meiyang Chang, Host, EPIC India Quiz Challenge found his quizzing stint most illuminating and encapsulated his experience as follows: “This was my first time in the quizzing genre, and shooting for this show was amongst the most fun and educational experiences I’ve ever had. The show took me back to my school days, and I learned new facts & anecdotes and relearned a lot of old ones about India. I loved being the quizmaster for such a spectacular group of kids, and hope that the viewers of EPIC Channel can see the energy and joy we felt while shooting this one-of-a-kind show.”
Akul Tripathi, Head – Content and Programming, EPIC Channel, said “At EPIC Channel we are constantly pushing ourselves to present innovative and diverse content to our viewers. EPIC India Quiz Challenge and the concept of testing people’s ‘India Quotient’ is a natural progression of the channels core proposition. The show is built with a view to present unique facts, trivia, and fascinating tidbits about India through the question-answer format. Chang has been a splendid quizmaster, and the execution by Optimystix has created an exciting show which we are proud to present on our channel.”
EPIC Channel is available across the operators Tata Sky, Airtel TV, Dish TV, Sun TV and streams live on it’s OTT platform EPIC On; as also on Sony LIV, and MX Player. In case you miss out on an episode you can catch it on the EPIC On app available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV and MI TV.
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.
