The Hindu Business Line : ETC Networks plans 2 more channels

IN a bid to drive growth and hedge its risk, ETC Networks Ltd is planning to add two additional channels to its bouquet of two channels during the second quarter of the current fiscal.

One of these is a religious channel for the Punjabi speaking populace in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Delhi; the other being a music channel catering to the Southern States.

The religious channel will have an exclusive six-hour daily telecast of Gurbani from Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) at Amritsar, hitherto telecast by etc Channel Punjabi. The latter will become a Punjabi general entertainment channel, said Mr Jagjit Singh Kohli, Chief Executive Officer, ETC Networks.

Currently, etc Channel Punjabi's content comprises 50 per cent religious and 50 per cent general entertainment.

The proposed music channel for the South will be on similar lines of `etc Music' with music content and advertisement from films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.

"We think there is a significant demand for a music channel in the South," Mr Kohli said.

He believes that the turnaround time for these channels will be less than two years. "The investment involved in setting up these two channels is incremental. And we have developed the expertise in low-cost operations," he said.

He acknowledged that the model for the music channel for the South would be different from `etc Music'. This is primarily because the Tamil film industry does not encourage promos while bulk of etc Music's revenues come from Hindi film promos.Setting up a religious channel will help ETC Networks to garner additional ad revenues on account of a spill over from etc Channel Punjabi. "At present, commercial space on etc Channel Punjabi is limited because of the live telecast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple. During the Gurbani telecast no commercials are allowed as per the deal with SGPC," Mr Kohli said. However, the religious channel will have other kinds of programming based on religious topics during when commercial breaks will become possible.

ETC Networks will be setting up operations in Bangalore and a couple of other cities in the South to facilitate the launch and distribution of the music channel. The recent merger with Econnect India Ltd provides the company with some infrastructure.

The setting up of two channels will impact to a small extent the bottom line of ETC Networks during this fiscal.

ETC Networks had ended fiscal 2003-2004 with a net profit of Rs 14.42 crore (Rs 14.13 crore) on net sales of Rs 46.93 crore (Rs 43.79 crore).