The Sahara India Group‘s ambitious plans to launch a national Hindi news channel, along with a number of independent city-based regional news stations (mainly in the Hindi-speaking belt), is taking longer than initially planned.
According to Sahara TV vice-president (publicity, promotions & PR) Priya Raj, the launch of the news channel will most probably be in August. If the channel does launch then, a likely date to start broadcast could well be 15 August (Independence Day) because of the patriotic linkages.

Queried as to the reasons for the delay (the original plan was for an April kick-off), Priya Raj said there were no specific reasons other than the fact that getting everything in place was taking longer than initially anticipated. Priya Raj added that Sahara was looking at a simultaneous launch of the news channel and the broadsheet weekly newspaper the group was starting.

Priya Raj said there were four key people who would be heading news operations. Arup Ghosh and Shirin, former anchors at Prannoy-Roy‘s NDTV who left in September 2000 to start their own operation Network One, head the main national channel.

Heading the North Indian regional channels is veteran journalist Prabhat Dabral.

The way the news heads have been positioned, it does appear that the original rollout plan of one main news channel and 37 regional stations, is going to see some modifications.

See related headline: Sahara TV to launch 38 regional news channels

Arianespace has reported a loss of 193 million euros for the year ended March 2001.

The losses have been attributed to Arianespace‘s decision to take charges to account for rapidly deteriorating commercial conditions in the global launch services marketplace during the past months, and the impact from a stand-down in Ariane 5 flights after the launcher?s 10th mission was affected in July 2001. The company has posted sales of 807 million euros, according to an official release.

Commenting on the results, Arianespace chairman and CEO Jean-Marie Luton has said that an aggressive action plan to allow a rapid return to the breakeven point in the company‘s operations will now be put into place. In a move of solidarity, the company‘s board of directors confirmed its full support for a further strengthening of the its launch system, and backed its commitment to deploy measures needed for Arianespace to successfully continue operations in line with the strategic and commercial goals.

Arianespace has carried out six launches since January 2002, including the Ariane 511 mission in February that marked a resumption of Ariane 5 launches. With seven more Ariane flights scheduled for the remainder of this year, the company is set to perform a total of 13 launches in 2002.