New Delhi: Rajat Sharma's Hindi news channel "India TV" will go on air from today (April 18, 2004) with a daily three-hour election special. It will be launched as a 24-hour channel from the third week of next month.

The channel will be free-to-air and will be beamed on PAS 10 satellite, which also beams channels like Sony and Ten Sports, Independent News Services, which owns India TV, said in a statement in New Delhi.

"Responsible reporting supported by world-class technology, fresh faces and an international look will make India TV different," Sharma said.

Supported by wife Ritu Dhawan, Rajat Sharma's latest endeavour also includes head of news Ramesh Parida, editor (news services) Hemant Sharma, head (distribution) Arun Poddar and advertising and marketing head Sanjay Reddy.

The statement said India TV's broadcast centre at Noida is spread over 80,000 square feet and has fully automated digital newsrooms, four studio floors and computer-controlled lighting specially designed for 24-hour live news broadcast.

It said India TV will have a reporter "every 100 miles" and the channel will use fibre optic links for video transmission. These fibre optic links will connect 110 stations to the broadcast centre.

Sharma said the election special, called 'Chunaav ki Baat' will co-hosted by him and Tehelka chief Tarun Tejpal and the three-hour non-stop programme will carry out in-depth analysis of each day's election events.