It’s great news for Indians in Singapore. A brand new MediaCorp (Singapore’s National TV broadcaster) channel – ‘Vasantham’ was launched last week. ‘Vasantham’ was unveiled in a show that celebrated with more than 100 local artistes and award winning Kollywood playback singers Krish and Neha Bhasin. ‘Vasantham’ is Singapore’s first full-fledged free-to-air Indian channel. It will broadcast nine hours of programming daily instead of the previous two and a half hours. Previously called ‘Vasantham central’, it used to share a single channel with both ‘Arts Central’ and ‘Kids Central’. These are exciting times for local artistes and TV audience, as the number of locally produced and acquired programmes have doubled.
There are many reasons for this new channel. Two of the main reasons stated are the influx of Indian foreigners working in Singapore demanding more quality shows and the increased competition from various Indian cable channels. In the end however it all burns down to money. More airtime = to more advertisements = to more $$$, simple as that. Increasing pressure among local Indians for more show time has also been a reason. However putting all that aside, it feels great to finally have a channel to call our own. Looking at the start the channel has made the future looks bright. This is just the beginning and not the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment