BBC’s Hindi channel to storm middle-class bastion

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New Delhi, Sept 10: India figures second among six key focus countries for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) regional language expansion. BBC World was likely to launch a 24-hour Hindi news channel in early 2008, a senior industry source told FE.

Since foreign companies can take a maximum of 26% equity in a domestic news channel, it can’t be launched unless BBC identifies an Indian partner for the balance 74% stake.

A proposal for the Hindi channel had been sent to London and a go-ahead would set the ball rolling, sources said. It will have to be registered in India with an India CEO. It is likely to be a pay channel and will be available on both direct-to-home and conditional access system platforms.

In India, the channel has conducted an in-house research on the Hindi news market. “BBC World has concluded in its in-house report that there is a definite scope for a 24-hour Hindi news channel for the Indian middle-class,” the source said.

Though BBC has not formally announced its India plans, company executives in India maintain that it has been exploring options for expansion. In July this year, the company had asked consultants KPMG to recommend possible partners for the Hindi channel. KPMG is believed to have suggested Reliance Industries, the Tata group and Bharti as the best possible allies for the news channel. None of these companies is in the business of broadcasting now.

“BBC World has identified six languages for launching 24-hour news channels by 2012. After launching an Arabic channel in 2007, Hindi and Urdu channels will go on air by 2008,” the source said.

The Urdu channel is likely to be beamed into both Pakistan and India.