Middle East Television opens bases in Kerala

Tuesday, 06 May 2003, 19:30 IST
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indian expatriates-owned Middle East Television is expanding its base in India with the opening of two TV studios in Kerala. The studios will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. The channel also plans to open studios in Kozhikode, Mumbai and Delhi. Middle East Television, owned by five Keralites based in the Gulf region, mainly targets Malayalam speaking people but it has programmes in other languages also. Bahrain based Ali Hassan, channel chairman, said Monday: "Thirty percent of our programmes are English based. We have Tamil programmes and are planning slots for programmes in other Indian languages besides an hour's programme in Arabic." Dubai Media City-based Middle East Television beams programmes into 165 countries and is the only Malayalam channel that boasts of a presence in Africa. It was launched in November last year at a cost of 250 million. John Thomas, managing director of Middle East Television, said here: "We are working out with people in the U.S. for the distribution of our channel in that country, where there is a considerable Malayali population." The expansion into Kerala is basically to strengthen the channel's news network. Currently news is being telecast from its Dubai office and in due course, Kerala may become the hub of news and news based programmes. "Our aim is to bring Malayalis residing in different parts of the world under one umbrella through our channel. We expect to break even in three years. We have just begun and are still in the infancy period, so we do not intend to compete with existing Malayalam channels," said vice chairman Soman Baby. Channel officials say one of the biggest advantages they have is the difference in time zones. On Thursdays and Fridays, holidays in the Middle East, the channel focuses on a bouquet of programmes for that region and on Saturdays and Sundays it concentrates on holiday viewers in Kerala. "This (time zone differences) is good as far as marketing is concerned and for advertisers too," said Sudhir Kumar, executive director in charge of marketing. Bahrain based businessman Ravi Pillai is a director of the channel and the fifth stakeholder in the venture apart from Hassan, Baby, Thomas and Kumar.
Source: IANS