TV Southasia's on air. Being beamed since the 19th of April, 2008, through THAICOM 5 satellite on a downlink frequency of 3991 MHz, symbol rate 13.330 Ms/sec, FEC ¾, polarisation vertical. It is visible in all the 5 countries of the region.

I guess it's time for a brief on the project. So here we go...


Broadcast Worldwide Limited, a company registered in India, licensed to broadcast satellite television channel under the branding of Tara took the initiative in convening a meeting of representatives from Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan in Kolkata on the 2nd and 3rd of December 2006 to explore the possibility of using the electronic media in the South Asian countries for a similar purpose. The response was extremely positive and resulted in the formation of an entity named Southasian with the goal of rediscovering and reinforcing a South Asian identity based on shared history, civilization and culture.

Southasian launched its first initiative in the form of a weekly television programme on the eve of the SAARC summit in New Delhi in 2007. This 30 minutes programme in English continued to have a magazine format that carried news, special features, reports on cultural events, profiles of, and interviews with, celebrities from South Asia. Several television channels participated in the programme by contributing content from their respective countries and providing a slot on their channels for broadcasting the programme. The contributions received were packaged at the Broadcast World Wide's studios in Kolkata and uplinked via Thaicom 5 owned by Shin Satellite Company (Ltd) of Thailand. The partner broadcasters down linked the programme and simulcast it on their channels. They were also be free to dub the anchor links and voice-overs in the local language.

At that point, the participating channels continued to be: Channel I from Bangladesh, TARA from India, Maharaja TV from Sri Lanka, Aaj TV from Pakistan, and Image TV from Nepal. Since this is the only collaborative venture between private entities in the media space in South Asia with largest representation from all the five countries, and since the project is stepping into completion of its first year, we take great pleasure in announcing the preview of the new channel TV Southasia on the 15th of April 2008.

TV Southasia will have a contributory and collaborative look with the participation of five channels from across the region. Its programme slots will be of rotational in nature and the content from the individual countries will be unedited. The objective of this project is to focus on harmony, secularism and peace which will be conveyed through programmes like talk shows, vox pop, music, quiz, features, tele films, documentaries, interviews, lifestyle, cuisine, architecture, fashion, reviews from the region on commerce, trade, show biz, etc.

TV Southasia, a year back started its journey through a single pilot programme and has evolved in texture and colour but has remained steady in its character of unity. TV Southasia invites you to visit its website: www.tvsouthasia.com that speaks of its commitment and vision. Currently the project has launched a musical contest in search of a Southasian Superstar in which 5 participants from each channel selected through the channel's own selection process are being sequentially presented through a weekly programme called: Music Southasia with a target of having the finals within June 2008. TV Southasia focuses on not only promoting collaborative broadcasting, but is also looking at SHAPE-ing Southasia. SHAPE stands for what Southasia needs at this hour: Skill, Health, Awareness, Poverty alleviation and Education All our programmes will carry this message through out the region. We take this opportunity to invite you to be a part of this unique Southasian initiative that hopes to bridge differences and celebrate unity.