MUMBAI: Targeting the Indian diaspora in the US, the Aroon Purie promoted -- TV Today Network officially kicked off its Hindi news channel Aaj Tak and English news channel Headlines Today on 1 December at New York's bustling Nasdaq marketsite.

This October, TV Today, had tied up with EchoStar's Dish Network, a leading satellite service provider for South Asian programming in the US. The network runs three channels in India-Aaj Tak,Headlines Today and Tez.       

Aaj Tak, which launched in India in 2000, is being offered as pay-channel in overseas markets, even though it is a free-to-air service in India, English news channel -- Headlines Today, launched in 2003, which has been modelled to suit the viewing habits of English-speaking viewers and Hindi news channel -- Tez, which launched this year in the month of August, has been designed to focus to provide headlines news in Hindi.

In a rare interview to Indiantelevision.com in February 2004, when quizzed about plans for making international forays, Purie said, "Aaj Tak is already available on a pay platform in the Middle East. We would consider going into the US and the UK markets with Aaj Tak or a combination of both the news channels. We are looking into the economics of transponder costs and as soon as the costs reach a level that would make good business sense for us, we'd consider tapping other markets."

The Indian news channels also present catering to the Indian disapora, includes Star News, Zee News and NDTV 24X7. Dish Network offers 117 international channels from over 25 countries in more than 28 languages, including Urdu, Tagalog, Armenian, Korean, Greek, Italian and French.