Mr Badrinath told The Financial Express that prior to the nationwide introduction of the channel, the company would run a two-month pilot in Bangalore starting from November. Post pilot, the channel would be launched in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi.

He said the company would take the channel national by March 2002 with 2300 studios (of 150 sqft each) besides an equal number of call centres. To this end, currently the company was in talks with various FMCG firms, consumer electronics durable manufactures and marketeers, besides cable TV operators and CATV head-end firms, Mr Badrinath said.

In Bangalore, the channel would have 30 studios (five initially) and equivalent number of call centres. Each studio would require an investment of over Rs 10 lakh. All these small studios would be connected to a main studio while call centres would be connected to a hub. ``Each metro will have a hub,'' he said.

Mr Badrinath said to set up the pilot in Bangalore the company would pump in over Rs 15 crore -- raised internally -- while to part-fund other expansions, the company would go in for venture capital funding.

``We are currently in talks with two VC firms in India and Singapore and the deals are expected to be closed by October,'' he said. ILI Technologies had recently hired a consultancy to value the company and a formal valuation report was expected within a month, he said,

He said the channel would air interactive ad-based -- area specific -- programmes three hours a day. In Bangalore, the company would take care of the logistics directly while in other metros it would be a mix of direct and franchise basis. Mr Badrinath said ILI Technologies would facilitate detailed data on buying habits and customer tastes to advertising agencies and marketers. To this end, the company was currently in the process of designing a vortal cum portal.``We will also provide links to other related portals and to this end we are currently in talks with various portals,'' he said.