Asianet

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The Asianet Logo

Asianet is an Indian Television company . The company is owned by Asianet Communications Limited, headed by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, with its head offices at Studio Complex, Puliyarakonam, Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum). The channel has its reach over 60 countries including the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, China, South East Asia, Middle East, Europe, USA and the lower half of the former Soviet Union.

Asianet Cable Vision(ACV) was early a sister concern of Asianet TV, which provided services on cable TV, broadband internet connections, web hosting and VoIP services. Now ACV is a separate company, which is also based at Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum)

Asianet operates three Malayalam television channels, including the Asianet channel, which was the first private television channel in Kerala. The other channels being Asianet Plus and Asianet News. The channels cater to a wide variety of programs, such as game shows, news, serials (soap operas; an example of one would be Manthrakodi), live TV chat, music video shows, and much more.

Asianet also operates a radio channel in the United Arab Emirates, named Radio 648 AM.

See also: Media in Trivandrum

[edit] Evolution

Asianet began its operations by telecasting for two hours daily in 1993 which was increased to round the clock. The Global channel came into being first as a segment catering to the Gulf viewers and grew into a 24-hour channel in 2001. The channel was relaunched as Asianet News on May 1, 2003 signifying an increased stress on news and current affairs in deference to viewers' demands. On July 23, 2005 Asianet launched its third channel - Asianet Plus, a complete entertainment channel for the youth.

The signals of Asianet cover the entire Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, China, the South East Asia, the entire Persian Gulf, the UK, Europe, USA and the lower half of the former Soviet Union. This is virtually half the Globe, reaching sixty-odd countries. Asianet's majority shares have recently been acquired by Jupiter Entertainment Ventures. Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar is now the Executive Chairman & Editor-in-Chief.