New TV channel launch from tomorrow
LAHORE- A new private Pakistani television channel, TV2, will formally be launched on 13 August.
Muhammad Nafees, its owner, told that test transmission was already being shown through some cable network. With TV2 launch Pakistan will have another channel on the Indian-dominated cable TV. In fact this is what induced Nafees to take a plunge into this venture. “I want to counter Indian film invasion on cable”, he said.
Purely an entertainment channel, TV2 will initially begin its transmission from Lahore. After eight days it will also be available in Karachi. Its daily duration will be of four hours beginning at seven in the evening and continuing till 11 at night.
This four-hour capsule will be repeated twice everyday, first re-run will be between 12 midnight to 4 am and then from 8 am to 12 noon the next morning. New capsule of programmes will begin again at 7 pm on that day. The transmission will begin with a religious programme featuring Qira’at. This will be followed by a 25-minute duration sitcom, a music-based programme entitled Cocktail with music videos of local groups and singers, then a 50-minute duration serial after which Khabarnama from PTV will be shown live followed by music programme till the end. Nafees also plans to telecast Pakistani films, films songs, film-based magazine shows and other film-related stuff. Sport programmes are also on his agenda. “We will also exclusively cover street sport, Nafees added.
The programmes shown in these slots will be a blend of new and old. The channel will purchase programmes from various parties. Some of these will be new while there will be reruns of popular private TV productions like serials, long plays, series, sitcoms, music and magazines shows.
Nafees is in the process of finalizing a deal with UK-based Indian channel Lashkara on which he also plans to show religious programmes produced by him.
The format of TV2 will be on beta and also CD-based. All the programmes shown will be properly censored for family viewing. “We are also dealing with the Bangladesh TV to show some Pakistani programmes there”, Nafees said. “This will promote our culture and plays there too. Most of the plays shown there will be our blockbuster serials. Negotiations are also under way with Canadian and British companies for showing our programmes there. There is a very large Urdu speaking audience in these countries who are interested in watching our programmes.”
Nafees also has a production house, which is the first proper private production set-up in Pakistan.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/12/2000
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