Aaj Tak signs ABS as UK playout service provider

India ‘s largest privately-owned news
channel, Aaj Tak, has signed Advanced Broadcast Services (ABS) to provide
television playout services via the Sky satellite multiplex. This latest
contract makes the channel’s mix of news and entertainment available to Sky
viewers throughout Britain.

Aaj Tak (meaning ‘Until now’ or ‘Up to the minute’) was launched on December 31
2000 by TV Today Network as a 24-hour Hindi news channel. An independent poll
on behalf of BBC/Reuters named Aaj Tak as the most trusted Indian news source.
Aaj Tak has won the Indian
Television Academy’s
Best News Channel award for six consecutive years. Other accolades include the
Abbys, RAPA, Promax, Indian Marketing Awards
and Indian Telly Awards. Aaj Tak is part of TV Today Network Limited, India’s No. 1
News Network. Along with Aaj Tak, the network has three more 24-hour news
channels – Tez (Hindi), Headlines Today (English) and Dilli Aaj Tak and is
rapidly expanding its footprints in India and Internationally.

“We are very pleased indeed to have been chosen to manage Aaj Tak’s UK
playout,” comments Sass Jahani, Managing Director of ABS. “We tried
hard to match the channel’s expectations and I am confident that we have
succeeded. Our focus is on supporting niche channels so we knew exactly what
the requirements were and the time-frame in which we had to deliver. We are
providing cue-tone-based commercials insertion to localise the programme stream
with UK-specific advertisements and promo interstitials from our server which
plays content for the duration of each break.”

“We have extended our broadcast reach to Britain, European and the USA in
our endeavour to become a global network,” adds TV Today CEO and Executive
Director G. Krishnan. “ABS was recommended to us by several of its current
clients and, having used the service, we can well understand why. ABS has
proved exceptionally helpful as well as flexible in its approach. We look
forward to a long partnership.”

Located at Park Royal, West London, Advanced
Broadcast Services (ABS) has been active in the satellite TV sector since 1991.
The company is Britain’s
leading low-cost fully-managed provider of broadcast archiving, scheduling and
transmission facilities. The playout operations centre currently supports a
large number of television channels, staffed by a team of fully qualified
technical and operational personnel using ultra-modern equipment and facilities.

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters

;
SVGLogoHR_NOTAG-200

The Latest in Sports Video Production & Technology
in Your Inbox for FREE

Daily Email Newsletters Monday - Friday