India’s Reliance Broadcast plans new HD channel

Wednesday 12 Oct 2011
India’s Reliance Broadcast expects to launch a new high definition channel this quarter, a senior official said today, The Economic Times reports.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm runs its radio business under BIG FM and has launched three English entertainment channels under its joint venture with a division of CBS Corp.

“The new HD (high definition) channel will have selected content from all three channels we have under the BIG CBS Network,” Nikhil Mirchandani, business head, television channels, told reporters in Mumbai.

The company also plans to launch two channels under its partnership with European entertainment network RTL Group in the coming months.

Mr Mirchandani also said he expected the company’s subscription revenues to rise to 25 percent by Jan 2012 from 10 percent currently on the back of a rise in demand for fresh programming content it has acquired.

Reliance Broadcast gets 90 percent of its television broadcast revenue from advertising and the remainder in the form of subscriptions from cable and direct-to-home operators.