Aaj Tak, the Hindi news channel that has forayed into the UAE with a tie-up with a cable operator late last year, plans to cover the entire Middle East in the near future.
Aaj Tak signed a deal with E Vision, a leading UAE cable company in November 2001 offering the channel on a free to air window to all subscribers of the cable op, spread in Dubai and parts of UAE. According to CEO G Krishnan, the channel will shift to ‘a la carte mode‘ from mid-February. In effect, the channel will be available to subscribers for a nominal payment after that. The deal, says Krishnan, was struck to explore the international market within the footprint area of its existing carrier satellite Insat 2 E. Aaj Tak is currently targeting Asian homes through E Vision, owned by ETISALAT.

No English news channel this year - Aaj Tak CEO G Krishnan

The channel is also rationalising its rate card from 1 April 2002 in order to make it more attractive to advertisers. "Our ad revenues have consistently grown from the time we launched", he says. The channel‘s only source of revenue is advertising and Krishnan hopes to exceed revenue targets of Rs 400 million for the current fiscal. One big success that Aaj Tak has chalked up is in managing to mop up a wide range of ads from players who were traditionally not known to set aside budgets for television.

At the time of inception, the Living Media group, TV Today‘s parent had decided to offload up to 25 per cent in the new entity. While the Bharati group picked up a 10 per cent stake in the company recently, ICICI Venture Funds holds another 10 per cent. Krishnan says the company does not plan to offload any more equity in the near future.

The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (ISRO) latest multi-purpose geostationary satellite, Insat 3C, has been successfully maneuvered to move it into geo-stationary orbit. The satellite will be ready for use by month-end, Isro chairman K Kasturirangan, has been quoted as saying, with 30 more transponders being added to the capacity.

The first manoeuvre was carried out on 25 January that raised the orbit from 570 km to 9,350 km. The second manoeuvre was carried out on 26 January to raise the orbit to 18,340 km while the third was carried out on 28 January raising the orbit to 32,448 km. The last manoeuvre was on 30 January bringing the satellite to near geo-stationary orbit. The satellite is currently at 63 deg East longitude and drifting at 2 deg per day towards its designated orbital slot at 74 deg East longitude.

Meanwhile, the deployment of Insat-SC‘s appendages was completed on 31 January 31. First the solar array on the south side of the satellite was deployed followed by the deployment of the antenna on the west side at 10:35 am.. The solar array on the north side of the satellite was deployed at 11:47 am and finally the antenna on the east side was deployed at 12:21 pm. Insat-3C has since been put in its final three axis stabilised mode on 1 February.

All the systems of Insat-3C have been performing as per predictions. The satellite has 488 kg fuel left on board which will be sufficient for its design life of 12 years, an official Isro statement says.