Walt Disney‘s latest flick ‘Lilo & Stitch‘ that raked in impressive box office collections, will soon appear as a television series and a video sequel.

According to the company, the film crossed the $100 million mark at the box office in the first three weekends following its release in the US. The video sequel, currently entitled ‘Stitch! -- The Movie," is slated for release next year and will serve as a bridge between the feature film and the television series. The series, currently in development under the working title ‘Stitch! -- The TV Series‘ will become a global television franchise following its anticipated launch on Disney Channel late next year. It will unveil on the Disney Channels and Disney-branded TV programmes across the globe.

There are 15 international Disney Channels and nearly 100 Disney- branded blocks of programming in 51 countries reaching 600 million television viewers worldwide currently, the company claims. The channel‘s launch in India, expected this year, has been delayed due to various reasons.

The initial 39 episodes of the series will be directed by Vic Cook ("Disney‘s The Legend of Tarzan," "101 Dalmatians, the Series") and Don MacKinnon ("Disney‘s Teacher‘s Pet," "Disney/Pixar‘s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command").

The cast from the film will also feature in the video premiere and the television series. They include Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames and Kevin McDonald.

The ZeeTelefilms Ltd board is scheduled to meet on 18 July to consider and take on record the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended 30 June, 2002, an official release states.

Discovery‘s mission is clear. Build up the audience base by offering content in regional languages. With this objective in mind the channel on Wednesday announced the launch of a Tamil-language broadcast fuelled by the encouraging response to its 24-hour English and Hindi language feeds.

An official release informs that the channels decision to diversify into Tamil was based on a study that showed that Discovery?s viewers who converse in neither English nor Hindi want to watch and understand programmes in their mother tongue. This prompted the channel to move into the region-specific ?mode? and ?speak the viewer?s language?. The release states that the channel will maintain the relevance and quality of the content through the use of colloquial and ?viewer-friendly? terms and phrases.
For starters the Tamil broadcast will air in the ?Family Time? timeband from 8 to 10 pm, Monday to Friday, with repeat telecast from 10 am to 12 noon. The channels long term goal is to gradually make the broadcast 24 hours a day. Tamil programmes will concentrate on fact based entertainment programnmes which are based on theme nights. They are History on Mondays, Science on Tuesdays, Forensics on Wednesdays, Health on Thursdays and Special Premieres on Friday.

Speaking on the latest initiative MD Discovery Communications India Deepak Shourie said, ?Discovery in Hindi achieved an enormous jump in viewership for the channel in regions where Hindi is predominant. With Discovery in Tamil, we are confident of attracting a large Tamil-speaking viewer base to the channel and expanding viewership in South India. We decided to begin the Tamil-language broadcast as Tamil Nadu comprises the largest number of cable and satellite television channel viewers in South India. After Tamil, we plan to diversify into more regional languages in South India."

Reports indicate that the Tamil channel will be followed by a Telugu one. Judging by viewers response the channel will consider launching feeds in Malayalam and Kannada.

The release informs that as of now the Discovery Channel is available in 33 languages worldwide. The Tamil-language broadcast reflects Discovery Channel?s international strategy to be accessible to the largest number of people and to showcase high-quality global content in region-specific languages.

Launched in India in 1995, Discovery is today the sixth most-widely distributed channel in India and reaches over 21 million households.