One more channel joins the entertainment bandwagon. Sahara TV was launched yesterday amidst much fanfare. And this one's claiming freshness in its content too.

The channel officials said that they have pre-tested each of their programmes before commissioning them. The channel which has hi-tech studio facilities at Noida as well as Mumbai, says that it will avoid reruns as far as possible as it has 11 hours of daily fresh content. Sahara is placing a lot of emphasis on the look as well as quality of the channel. Plus many reputed TV producers & directors have been commissioned to make programmes for Sahara TV. According to the officials, the channel has also tried to create new genres of programming in order to provide freshness to the channel.

When asked about the distribution network of the channel, a senior official said that "Sahara TV has the largest distribution team in the television industry. We have worked out a comprehensive support plan for cable distributors, which include ready information on equipment upgradation, easy finance schemes and a helpline. Besides Sahara India Pariwar is a household name in the Hindi belt. Also our 6 lac committed workers as a part of the pariwar will help promote the channel all over the country. Thus we expect a cable penetration of 65% of the total 30-million C&S homes to start with." The channel is also looking at forming their own DTO bouquet and forging alliances with other channels. But first it will concentrate on its main entertainment channel.

The channel is also closely monitoring Internet as a powerful communication medium of the future.