The Hindu : Karnataka News : Chandana channel set to acquire new look

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 10, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Chandana channel set to acquire new look

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, MARCH 9. Doordarshan's Chandana channel is all set to change content, look and format with greater appeal, according to its Director, Mahesh Joshi.

Mr. Joshi told presspersons here today that and the viewers' letters inspired the makeover. "Hello CM," the phone-in programme featuring the Chief Minister and other ministers to answer questions from the public will make a comeback, spruced up with better technology and viewer-friendly features.

"Thatt antha heli," the hour-long quiz programme telecast three times a week, which has clocked high TRPs despite being a 10 p.m. telecast, has been refurbished, and the frequency increased to five times a week. In the new format, the quiz, which covers Karnataka's culture, literature, language and other facets, has books in Kannada offered as prizes for each question answered correctly. There are also special episodes featuring celebrities.

Mega serials and daily soap operas are also in the offing and the infotainment content covering science and technology, medicine, health, public grievance, current events, employment news, is set to increase as well, Mr. Joshi said.

The Superintending Engineer, Lakshminarayana Rao, said seven news bulletins and programmes telecast during the day are able to feature events in the hinterland within two hours of the event, thanks to the innovative use of Internet to receive inputs from district correspondents.

All news inputs arrive into a dedicated server, from where the studio in Bangalore edits and telecasts them faster than other centres.

"The Bangalore kendra is the first to introduce this innovative transmission of news. The news reaches us for as little as Rs. 40," he said.

The kendra is planning to revive the daily movie programme and telecast quality Kannada films for which discussions are on with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce and the Karnataka Film Producers' Association. While presenting classic black and white films, DD has come up with a novel way of featuring the hero or director of the movie to reminisce and narrate interesting trivia about the film.

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