The channel will have its own independent 30-minute news slots and will commission low-budget teleserials. As many as 250 Tamil films have been purchased at a cost of Rs 6,000 per film for the channel. A studio is being built in the city to cater to the requirements of the channel, for which a sum of Rs 10 lakh has already been spent.

The company is also planning to offer four FM channels which can be `heard' through existing cable connections. This is possible by splintering the line -- one end relaying FM and the other for the regular TV channels.

The company has introduced a menu-driven interactive response from the customers' end in which various menus are seen on the TV screen by dialling a particular telephone number. The appropriate menu is selected by pressing thenumber displayed alongside the menu on the telephone instrument.

Likewise, the asterisk button has to be pressed for the next page display.The menus currently show air, train timings and emergency numbers while interactivity is restricted to song and dance sequences a customer wants for immediate telecast.

While choice-enabled interactive programmes are also available in other cities such as Bangalore (with its Choice Channel), according to Ramkumar this programme is more customer-friendly. The software has been sourced from a Salem entrepreneur and is being used by cable operators in Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

Not to be outdone by other cable operators offering internet services, Hathway has conducted pilot trials from one of its five control rooms. The group has tied up with VSNL to provide the service.

Meanwhile, Hathway is planning to widen its network by roping in two more cable operators in the city, one in North Chennai and the other in the South which should take the network's share to 90 percent, from the present 65 per cent.

The Raheja network is looking for tie-ups with these two cable operators through joint ventures, though a straight buyout has not been ruled out.