The Hindu Business Line : Xenitis Group plans foray into satellite TV

THE Xenitis Group, makers of the Amar PC range of personal computers, has announced a Rs 100-crore foray into satellite television. Some time early next year, group company SST Media Pvt Ltd will launch Kolkata TV, a 24-hour information and entertainment channel in Bengali.

Speaking at a pre-launch press conference, Mr Santanu Ghosh, Chairman of the Xenitis Group of companies, said the channel would offer viewers the "ultimate TV content in terms of news, current affairs and infotainment." A total of Rs 100 crore would be invested in the channel within a 12-month period. The project would be funded by the promoters and a consortium of banks even as break-even was expected within 11 months from the date of launch of the channel.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Suman Chattopadhyay, Director & Chief Editor of Kolkata TV, said that while the channel would be a Bengali channel, "its content would be `global'." Kolkata TV would focus on facilitating professionalism "which seems to be found wanting in the Bengali audio-visual news space."

The filmmaker Ms Aparna Sen would be the Creative Director of Kolkata TV and would oversee the `look and feel' of the channel.

Xenitis, which clocked a turnover of Rs 178 crore in 2004-05, hopes to generate a turnover of around Rs 600 crore in the current year. The group has formed a joint venture with Guangzhau Motors Group Company of China to manufacture two-wheelers here in West Bengal. Xenitis is firming up plans to float an initial public offering within the next one year. The group also has plans to get into the print media, according to Mr Ghosh.