MUMBAI: Beating the recession, Hyderabad-based Associated Broadcasting Company Ltd (ABCL), which operates news channels under the brand name TV9, is investing Rs 380 million to launch two city-centric news channels in Mumbai and Bangalore.

TV9 Mumbai and News 9, the channels for Mumbai and Bangalore, will be launched simultaneously on 9 January.

ABCL will invest Rs 220 million in the Hindi news channel TV9 Mumbai and Rs 160 million in the English news channel News 9.

"We are investing Rs 380 million and will be launching the two city-centric channels tomorrow," ABCL vice president operations KVN Murthy tells Indiantelevision.com.

TV9 will follow up the launch of TV9 Mumbai with Bollywood news channel Lehrein. "We are adding three channels in the quarter to take our total number of channels to eight," says Murthy.

With the launch of News 9, the group will, thus, have two news channels in Karnataka. "News 9 will be targeted at the upmarket, young audiences in Bangalore. It will complement our Kannada news channel," says Murthy.

TV9 Mumbai will have 70 per cent of its programming on news and current affairs while the balance 30 per cent will be a mix of lifestyle and entertainment news content.