MUMBAI: Eenadu Television (ETV) has taken two of its Telugu channels - ETV and ETV2 - pay with effect from 1 February.

The combined price of the channels is Rs 10. While ETV is a general entertainment channel, ETV2 is a news channel.

"We have priced the two channels at Rs 10. We will decide on our other channels at the appropriate time," said a senior ETV executive.

ETV, which has a host of 11 satellite language channels, has only taken its Telugu channels pay. The other language channels are ETV Telugu, Bangla, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu, Madhya Pradesh, Oriya, Gujarati, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.

The two pay channels, however, are free-to-air (FTA) in Chennai which is a conditional access system (CAS) market. "We haven't decided yet whether we should stay FTA there. We are waiting for our local team's report," said the executive.

A few other pay channels have taken the strategic decision to stay FTA only for the Chennai market. Adithya and Teja News, both Telugu channels from the Sun Network stable, are not pay channels in Chennai. Pogo, the Hindi kids channel from the Cartoon Network stable, is also a FTA channel in Chennai.

ETV is using Homecast decoder boxes. The company's internal distribution team will handle the two pay channels including its placement on cable TV networks.