Sneha Media ties up with TV9 tie up for US news broadcast

Hyderabad: Telugu channel Sneha Media and Entertainment, which is based in the US has entered into an alliance with TV9, a city-based Telugu news channel, to broadcast news bulletins and other programmes for its viewers in the US.

Ramesh Annam Reddy, president and chief executive officer of Sneha Media and Entertainment, said: "Sneha TV which began by launching one-hour programmes for the non-resident Telugu audience in a few cities in the US in 2002, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with TV9 to start telecasting news bulletins on a pilot basis in April this year. If this receives a good response from the subscribers, we will broadcast TV9's hourly news and other interactive programmes to subscribers in the US."

Sneha TV, which also announced plans to raise around $2 million from venture capital firms, was launched with an initial investment of $1.5 million funded by promoters. It plans to use the funds raised from venture capital companies to set up studios in all the major cities in the US and one in Hyderabad. The channel employs 73 people.

Sneha TV is a pay channel in the US and charges subscribers at the rate of $14.95 per month. The channel is broadcast in the US using the DTH platform on Globecast.

The channel is targeting two lakh subscribers this year in the US alone and expects this to increase year-on-year. The channel is also planning to talk to Telugu movie producers and distributors for securing exclusive telecast rights of new Telugu movies abroad.

Expansion plans include setting up operations in Europe by July this year and then to the Southeast Asian countries where there are a substantial number of non-resident Telugus according to Reddy.

A Krishna Prasad, managing director of TV9 said, "This tie-up is part of our expansion plans."