English Entertainment
Discovery looks to spice up life with ‘Feast India’
MUMBAI: Spicy, pungent, sweet and sour! Discovery takes its viewers through a colourful glimpse into Indian culture, food and customs in Feast India every Saturday at 9 pm for the next two months.
The English-born chef Barry Vera savours the delights of simple street food and the variety of regional cuisine as he immerses himself and viewers in the diverse cultural influences that make each region of India so distinct. Along the way, he enjoys a delectable meal at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi; where several thousand devotees are served daily.
From the small town plantation town of Kumili in Kerala to the chaotic buzz of Mumbai – the home to Dubbawallahs, from the village wedding in Pushkar to the festivities of Diwali, Feast India captures the this diverse and intensely beautiful country.
Discovery India brand dierctor Raja Balasubramanian said, “Feast India highlights the diverse Indian cuisines as Barry Vera takes viewers through a culinary journey across India. Apart from its gastronomy, the series also presents the fascinating and colourful cultures and festivals of India.”
From g delicacies to age-old customs and festivities, viewers will watch the best India has to offer. Kochi, The Backwaters airs on 8 April at 9 pm. On the humid, lush coast, famous Chinese fishing nets operate just as they have for the last 600 years. In Kochi, the delicious street food and abundant fish vie for attention in the local markets. Cruising the palm-fringed backwaters and dining delicious Indian thalli, the episode gives viewers a taste of life in a south Indian island village.
In Old Delhi on 15 April the Mughal architecture looms above the narrow lanes and delicious Muslim food is served in an atmosphere of friendly chaos. Unusual delicacies are offered in the aromatic labyrinth of one of the largest wholesale spice markets in Asia. Viewers also get a glimpse into the kitchens of Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, where enough food is cooked to nourish tens of thousands of pilgrims each day.
Jodphur – Salt Mines airs on 22 April The busy bazaars of Jodphur will hook viewers with Rajasthani tribal women haggling for bangles. In contrast, down the quiet back streets of the old city is a serene picture of blue houses.
On Spice which airs on 29 April 2006 the Malabar Coast is home to the essential ingredients of every Indian meal- black pepper, cardamom, ginger and tea plantation. In the daily cardamom auctions, buyers and sellers converge in a spirited display of commerce.
Mumbai takes centrestage on 6 May 2006. In Mumbai, the famed Dabbawallahs perform the daily ritual of getting thousands of home-cooked meals delivered to the right offices, landing them in the Guinness Book of Records. Viewers will also meet the city’s Dhobbis, who seem to wash the clothes of the entire city in a gigantic open laundry. Viewers end the journey with a feast of snack foods at Juhu’s nightly carnival on the sand.
The episode on 13 May celebrates the frestival of Diwali which ends with a bang as fireworks light up the sky across the length and breadth of India. Huge quantities of sweets are consumed, tools and account books are prayed over, houses are decorated with colourful lanterns to guide passing gods and millions of gifts are exchanged in this explosion of divine fun.
On Indian Offering on 20 May Vera explains how he has been inspired by the people and the food of India and provides an understanding of the spices that make up the myriad flavors he has enjoyed. Barry applies his imaginative touch to a selection of simple, tasty dishes that are deeply Indian at heart.
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.
