Raj TV plans Kannada, Malayalam channels  ( June '21,2003, HBL)

AFTER its foray into Telugu on June 23, Raj Television Network Ltd is planning to start channels in Malayalam and Kannada, besides launching a 24-hour national news channel and a multi-lingual music channel christened Raj Musix.

The Rs 60-crore television network, which runs Raj TV and Raj Digital Plus in Tamil, has embarked upon a Rs 100-crore expansion plan to increase the number of channels to seven, according to Mr M. Ravindran, the Director of the TV company.

Anouncing the launch of Vissa, Raj's Telugu channel on June 23, he told newspersons that Mr Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, would inaugurate the channel. The Chennai-based company has already invested Rs 15 crore so far on Vissa. "We will spend Rs 20-25 crore more in the coming years to acquire 250 films and create content," Mr R. Radhakrishnan, the Associate Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), said.

"We are expecting to break even in the first year itself as we did in Raj TV," he said.

Stating that the channel would stand out from the crowd by telecasting some innovative programmes, Mr Sumanth C. Paranji, the Vice-President (Planning), said there would be three news bulletins in Telugu and one in Hindi, each of 30 minutes duration.

Three months later, the Vissa programmes would be beamed in the US, UK and Canada as well.