Travelxp to launch in UK on April 30, looks to expand global reach

On the company's India plans, the company said it will be launching its 4K service once the infrastructure and distribution ability comes into place

Travel channel Travelxp on Tuesday said it is entering the UK mainstream market through Freeview platform that will enhance its global reach to over 91 million TV homes, from 75 million at present.

The company will launch the channel in the UK on April 30, reaching close to 16 million TV Freeview homes there.

"We are launching in the UK as a mainstream service, which is a first for an Indian company," Travelxp and Media Worldwide chief executive officer and co-founder Prashant Chothani told PTI.

"This is the first market in the world where we are going standard-definition (SD) because this is the first time we are testing an advertiser-funded market as we are launching on Freeview," he added.

Chothani further said they would be launching a high-definition (HD) service on a different platform in the next six months and a 4K service further down on a different platform.

"In the UK, we are strategically putting different resolutions on different platforms depending on audience acceptability, commercial viability and potential to reach as many British citizens as we can. We are in talks with all the platforms (pay view) and in the next six to eight months, we should be available everywhere," he added.

Once the HD service is rolled out in the UK, it will add another 15-18 million homes there, according to Chothani.

Travelxp has a presence in over 35 countries across the world and plans to be in 50 countries by the year-end. It has over 1,000 hours of content, all produced by the company.

On the company's India plans, Chothani said it will be launching its 4K service once the infrastructure and distribution ability comes into place.

It would also look at expanding the language feeds to Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and others, from Hindi, Tamil and Bengali at present, he informed.