XM to Launch Dedicated South Asian Channel in October
September 18, 2007
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- XM, the nation's leading satellite radio service with more than 8.2 million subscribers, and Asian Television Network International Limited today announced the creation of "ATN-Asian Radio," a 24-7 radio channel featuring dedicated programming for the South Asian community. Produced by ATN for XM and XM Canada, ATN-Asian Radio channel(XM159) will launch in October, providing the South Asian community across North America with the latest news, sports, music and entertainment. ATN currently operates 14 television channels in Canada and has programming alliances with leading international broadcasters.
"ATN is delighted to collaborate with XM and XM Canada in providing an ATN branded super station across North America. We expect this to attract a wide audience and will compliment our existing South Asian television channels. It will be a compelling package," said Shan Chandrasekar, chairman and CEO of ATN.
ATN-Asian Radio will feature a variety of talk and live listener call-in programs covering issues relevant to the South Asian community, as well as shows dedicated to news and current affairs. The channel will also offer live cricket commentary from ATN, Canada's largest distributor of World Class Cricket.
In addition to talk, news and sports content, the programming on XM's ATN- Asian Radio will include a broad range of music, highlighting the best of Bollywood and popular South Asian artists. Listeners to the channel can expect to hear Ghazals, Qawalis, Bhajans, and nostalgia through Golden Greats, as well as devotional music in Sanskrit and Shabad Gurbani. The channel will also broadcast Hindustani classical and carnatic music and will feature pop, folk, chutney and re-mixes.
While the majority of the channel's talk programming will be in English, there will be a substantial amount of content broadcast in South Asian languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Sinhalese, among others. ATN-Asian Radio will serve a massive South Asian diaspora in North America with origins in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, East and South Africa, The West Indies and other parts of the world.
ATN-Asian Radio will be available on the XM lineup beginning in October. More about the channel and its programming will soon be available online at http://www.xmradio.com/ and http://www.asiantelevision.com/.
About Asian Television Network (ATN)
ATN-Asian Television Network is a licensed broadcaster providing premium specialty television programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across Canada. ATN was among the first in North America to broadcast television programming aimed at the South Asian community in 1971. With over 3 decades of experience ATN is the largest South Asian broadcaster in Canada, currently operating 14 television channels including 2 general interest channels, 2 Bollywood movie channels, a sports channel, a news channel, a music channel, a spiritual channel with yoga and fitness and several South Asian regional language channels.
ATN has programming alliances with leading International Broadcasters such as Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Television, News Corp. Star India Plus, B4U, ALpha Punjabi, Jaya TV, ARY Digital, New Delhi Television (NDTV), Aastha, Kairali and more. ATN is Canada's largest distributor of World Class Cricket. ATN has been the exclusive Canadian Television distributor for several World Cup cricket games since 1986. ATN recently brought the Cricket World Cup 2007 to Canada including the current and first ever ICC Twenty/20 World Cup live. ATN has programming alliances in world class cricket with organizations such as Directv, Echostar Dish Network and ESPN Star Sports.
ATN's live music concerts and large scale events include performances by the world renowned Ravi Shankar at the Roy Thompson Hall to the "Nightingale of India" Lata Mangeshkar, and the Oscar nominee A.R. Rahman at the Toronto Skydome. ATN owns and operates a fully self contained broadcast facility. ATN has also received more digital specialty television licenses from the regulatory authorities which it intends to launch in the future
About XM
XM (NASDAQ: XMSR) is America's number one satellite radio company with more than 8.2 million subscribers. Broadcasting live daily from studios in Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Toronto and Montreal, XM's 2007 lineup includes more than 170 digital channels of choice from coast to coast: commercial-free music, premier sports, news, talk radio, comedy, children's and entertainment programming; and the most advanced traffic and weather information.
XM, the leader in satellite-delivered entertainment and data services for the automobile market through partnerships with General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota, is available in 140 different vehicle models for 2007. XM's industry-leading products are available at consumer electronics retailers nationwide. For more information about XM hardware, programming and partnerships, please visit http://www.xmradio.com/.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements in this press release include demand for XM Satellite Radio's service, the Company's dependence on technology and third party vendors, its potential need for additional financing, as well as other risks described in XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.'s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 3-1-07. Copies of the filing are available upon request from XM Radio's Investor Relations Department. All programming subject to change.
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
SOURCE: XM Satellite Radio
CONTACT: Anne-Taylor Adams of XM, +1-212-708-6171, annetaylor.adams@xmradio.com
Web site: http://www.xmradio.com/
http://www.asiantelevision.com/
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