MUMBAI: At the back of the government deciding to split the state of Andhra Pradesh into two states- Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, one of the country’s oldest broadcasters run by Ramoji Rao, the Eenadu group has decided to venture in the newly formed state with a dedicated news channel christened ETV3.

The channel that went on air on Wednesday at 9:00 am will cater to the people of Telangana by focusing on issues relating to the development and progress of the state. While the channel will initially be called ETV3, very soon it will be renamed to ETV Telangana. The channel is being headed by Rajendra Prasad, who has been with the Eenadu group for over 15 years.

For now, the channel will be available on all multi system operators (MSOs) platforms in the Telangana region such as Hathway, Digicable etc. The decision to distribute it in Andhra Pradesh has not been taken as yet. Riding on the back of the Lok Sabha elections, the decision to launch the channel was taken by the Ramoji Rao group.

ETV3 is a pay channel broadcasting from Insat 4A, the licence for which was acquired in 2012.

Some of the shows on the channel are Assembly Election Special that speaks about the upcoming elections for the legislatures of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Jai Kisan on agriculture, Idi Sangathi a magazine programme that deals with contemporary issues, Sakhi- a show for housewives, ETV 360 degrees – a news bulletin, Pratidhvani and National Election Specials.

The Telugu channels of Ramoji Rao are under his ownership and not with TV18.  According to sources, post 2015 the name ETV News will be rechristened to News 18 for the channels acquired by TV 18 while the name ETV will be retained by the Eenadu group. TV18 had in its offer document requested for permission to use the Eenadu brand name till February 2015.

Currently ETV Telugu and ETV2 are the other two channels with Ramoji Rao.