Bangalore: WorldSpace, a pioneer in satellite radio broadcasting, plans to expand its operations in India by late 2001, offering up to 35 channels of fade-free, near- CD quality channels with news and entertainment programming.

WorldSpace's India head Mathewkutty Sebastian said, the US head quartered firm had sold 10,000 receivers in the country following a tie-up with Indian electronics major BPL. WorldSpace plans to begin local production of the receivers soon, with the manufacture of mobile receivers slated for 2003, Sebastian told IANS.

“Our target is to have 35 channels by end 2001. We currently have 23 channels on the platform and we have signed up for four more channels. These include two channels by BPL Indigo and two channels from RM Radio of the Asianet Group, one each in Tamil and Telugu,” Sebastian said.

“We are exploring the possibility of showcasing the unknown India as well as the India that has a rich audio heritage and an array of songs and folk music from a number of languages. I am sure that smaller languages which have only a few million speakers, like Konkani will definitely have a place in WorldSpace,” said Sebastian, referring to the organisation's efforts to create an India-specific channel.

WorldSpace, which was founded by Ethiopian expatriate Noah Samara, began operations in India and other Asian counties earlier this year after touching down in Africa. Special receivers are required to receive WorldSpace broadcasts from the Asia Star satellite.

Among the broadcasters available on the WorldSpace platform in India are big names like BBC, Bloomberg and CNN. Discussions are on with a "number of selected broadcast partners" and Sebastian expects these discussions to be concluded in the next few months.

Currently, WorldSpace's free, multi-lingual programs are put out in a multitude of languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

“We have already signed up with BPL for local manufacturing of our receivers. Also, a PC card version of the receiver has been developed and it is undergoing tests and evaluations. We expect these PC cards to be in the Indian market by June 2001,” Sebastian said. The PC cards will allow owners of WorldSpace receivers to download large amounts of data at 128 kbps from the Internet.

WorldSpace is also in the process of finalising deals with a number of leading organisations to use its platform for educational applications. “We are in discussion with a leading medical company to launch a multimedia service for medical professionals,” said Sebastian.

“It is only a question of identifying an appropriate partner and adapting the system to meet a specific application. Imagination is the limit of applications in a WorldSpace kind of a system,” he said.

India Abroad News Service

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