News Broadcasting
Hallmark’s digital movie channel to debut in Jan 2004
MUMBAI: The Hallmark Movie Channel, which is Hallmark’s first digital service, is set to debut in January 2004. Crown Media Holdings Inc., which operates the Hallmark Channel worldwide, has selected Scientific-Atlanta’s PowerVu Digital Distribution System for the transmission of its upcoming digital movie channel.
The channel has reportedly lined up a broadcast of Hallmark Hall of Fame Collection movies as also the original movies and miniseries’ from the Crown library.
The library has about 700 titles, including Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck and Patrick Stewart, The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All with Cicely Tyson, Anne Bancroft, Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland and Blythe Danner and the winner of four Emmys and Storm in Summer, which is a two-Emmy winner featuring Peter Falk, Nastassja Kinski and Andrew McCarthy. It will also buy movies from other providers.
This new channel will join the Hallmark Channel, which was launched in August 2001 and is broadcast to about 110 million cable and satellite households worldwide. In the US alone, it reaches about 56 million of the 92 million cable or satellite households.
The news of this deal with Scientific-Atlanta comes in the wake of Crown Media announcing a distribution deal with Comcast, the largest cable company in the United States. That deal is expected to give the Hallmark Channel access to an additional 10 million to 12 million US households.
“We’ve been very pleased with the PowerVu digital system which we use to deliver our east and west coast feeds,” said Hallmark Channel vice president of operations Bob Young.
Added Richard Buchanan, senior vice president of operations and business development, “In our planning, we examined various delivery systems for the digital movie channel. Our prior experience with Scientific-Atlanta’s PowerVu system worldwide provides a great amount of confidence that the capabilities of this technology solution will enable us to move forward rapidly with our launch of the Hallmark Movie Channel.”
Scientific-Atlanta Inc. is a leading supplier of digital content distribution systems, transmission networks for broadband access to the home, digital interactive set-tops and subscriber systems designed for video, high-speed Internet and voice over IP (VoIP) networks, and worldwide customer service and support.
Currently, more than 400 Scientific-Atlanta digital video compression systems are said to be transmitting over 2,000 channels of digital programming.
News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
