Briefing the media in Bangalore on Tuesday, Menon said with the facility Menon Impex would broadcast four general entertainment, music-format channels in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telegu. The channels are expected to hit the air by July.Speaking on the occasion, WorldSpace president and chief operating officer Harold B Adams said AsiaStar which covers India and other Asian countries and was launched in March this year - was currently undergoing detailed in-orbit and systems-verification tests and would be operational by July 2000. The satellite has three beams and each beam would cover an area of over 14 million square kilometers delivering a wide variety of programmes ranging from global, national, regional to local in CD quality.Besides AsiaStar, the company has two more satellites -- AfriStar and AmeriStar -- with three beams, each capable of delivering more than 50 channels.

WorldSpace director (business development) M Sebastian said any digital signals could be uplinked through the satellite and could be brought to the cables and the receiving end.

Adam said to manufacture the digital receivers globally, the company had joint ventures with Hitachi, JVC, Panasonic and Sony.

Adams said WorldSpace was planning a total of 50 channels of which 10 would be directly broadcast by the company while the rest would be by others including Menon Impex, CNN, BBC, Bloomburg, etc. ``We are in talks with international broadcasters like Radio Asia, Metro East, Sunrise besides a number of regional, local players.'' The company was also at the final round of negotiations with 15 leading broadcasters in India. ``We will zero in on four firms by mid-June and they will have four channels each,'' he said. WorldSpace would also invest $5 million in India this year, in addition to the $1.5 million it has already pumped in.