News Channel Blooded With Hi-Tech Blitz
The colt from the STAR TV stable, STAR News, is being pampered. State-of-the-art broadcast equipment, bulk booking of satellite time through Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) and a line up of brand new election-related programmes.
Both STAR and New Delhi TV are leaving no hi-tech stone unturned. And for good reason. It will be baptism by fire for the recently launched 24-hour news and current affairs channel which made its debut in the midst of heat and dust whipped up by the onset of general elections.
To blood a news channel in such a scenario is no mean task. Sample this: the NDTV/Star duo has at its disposal almost 80 minutes of satellite time per day for the next 40-odd days for the transference of data and images from various parts of the country for its news bulletins.
There is nothing very special in this as VSNL offers this service at commercial rate to anybody who is interested, sources in STAR said. However, lot of planning has gone into it. Quietly, the latest gizmos have been imported and installed too.
Expenses, of course, are not much of concern for STAR TV. According to the sources, STAR has invested approximately $10 million in hardware in the news channel for the present. Add to this, the expenses incurred on new programmes and the costs escalate sharply.
But our main aim is to help voters make better-informed choices, said STAR TVs chief executive (South Asia), R Basu. Concur other senior STAR TV executives: When we have the best in Prannoy Roy, then why think of minor details like expenses as long as we are not extravagant.
In the absence of direct uplinking facility, STAR has made use of the existing facilities to live up to peoples expectations. Knowing fully well that the quality of images and data transferred over video-conferencing links is not very good (a facility which was being resorted to), satellite time with VSNL was booked much in advance. Cost: about Rs 8,300 for the first 10 minutes with every subsequent minute costing about Rs 330. Interestingly, Zee TV has about 180 minute/day satellite time.
VSNLs facilities can be used to transfer news feeds from the six earth stations which it has. To add a zing to its coverage, NDTV has also gone in for high-speed leased lines and intermediary facility for hops. Such elaborate steps have been taken to give the viewers a daily feel of events in our programmes and our digital equipment will gloss over the little floss.
Can the news channel be marketed at a time of recession? The market is highly enthused, STAR sources responded. BPL is going to be main sponsor for news bulletins on STAR News, which will be by the hour, while there will be six more associate sponsors apart from spot advertisers.