Disney Brings ABC To DTH
By Nikhil Pahwa - Wed 11 Oct 2006 05:10 AM PST
If the government allows downlinking, 24 hr news channel ABC News Now will be available in India via Zee TV’s Dish TV. Disney owned Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP) announced that the channel should launch before the end of this year, but awaits the nod from the I&B Ministry. More details at Moneycontrol.com.
It’ll be interesting to see how the news channels in India react. Maybe I’m in a minority here, but I’ve got major issues with news on TV in India dumbing down and switching to an entertainment focus. Let’s see if ABC does things differently. Dish TV may have a large spread, but this deal can’t be exclusive. Interestingly, the DTH surge means that you’ll have the TV space operating in a manner similar to mobile - three or four main operators who own the distribution networks, unlike a democracy (shoddy, but still a democracy) that existed with all those cable operators, though quite a few were neighbourhood monopolies.
Posted in: DTH
