Delhi viewers get high on Hallmark

NEW DELHI, Aug 2: A new TV channel has arrived in town, quietly, discreetly. Minus the barrage of advertisements, the press conferences a...

NEW DELHI, Aug 2: A new TV channel has arrived in town, quietly, discreetly. Minus the barrage of advertisements, the press conferences and other promotional gimmicks. It8217;s called Hallmark no, it has nothing to do with the card company and it offers couchers a non-stop, free-to-air channel of English language programmes. Its unique selling point? No commercials.

Though all cable operators do not relay the channel, everyone is talking about it. But nobody knows where it is coming from or who owns it. Rakesh Dutta, an independent cable operator says: 8220;We were told that it is a part of the STAR network of channels.8221; But STAR denies any ownership. Its officials are as surprised by this channel as anybody else. 8220;It is a wonderful channel, but it is not ours,8221; says Jaya Ramanathan, vice-president programming. The mystery surrounding the channel is more rivetting than much of its programmes essentially made for television movies. Some cable operators tell you the channel is being signalled from USA,while others claim it is from Singapore. Your local cable operator doesn8217;t care: he is only interested in knowing if you like the channel or not.

Those who have not yet heard of this 8220;wonderful channel8221; only have the neighbourhood they live in to blame. The locality you live in never mattered more than now because only the fortunate few have access to this channel. To receive this 8220;cool8221; movie channel, you have to live in East of Kailash or Preet Vihar and some select south Delhi colonies.

People who are lucky enough to receive Hallmark say it is the best thing to have happened to them in a long time. Those who have not yet seen it are dying of curiosity. Which says something about the quality of programmes on existing channels because most of the programmes are B-grade telefilms with a message, starring film and TV actors who either never made it, or hadn8217;t made it when the films were made.

Nevertheless, cable operators claim they are flooded with calls from people wanting to know more about thechannel.

8220;The entire set-up is in the US and they do not have a representative here,8221; says Dinesh Bidichandani, a cable operator in Saket with great conviction. 8220;It is an independent satellite channel, which is free-to-air at the moment. It is likely to become a pay channel later.8221; It is however a digital channel and operators need to have a digital receiver to catch it. Since STAR has gone digital, it is the major supplier of the receivers.

Hallmark International, the apparent name of the TV channel8217;s company, has not formally entered Indian air space, though according to Bidichandani there are plans of doing so in the future. Meanwhile, other cable operators say the channel is letting its programming do the talking for it and that it will formally launch only when the channel has gained a bit of popularity.

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Others, however don8217;t buy this argument and instead, subscribe to a 8220;conspiracy theory8221;. 8220;Decoders are being supplied by STAR to only few cable operators creating a monopoly situation,8221;claims Datta,8220;and we have brought this trend to the notice of the Iamp;B Ministry.8221;

But STAR8217;s Ramanathan says digitised signals can only mean better quality transmission. 8220;It is a modern methodology and the signal will be clearer. And we give decoders to any operator who asks for it.8221;

Hallmarks availability or non-availability has once again highlighted the complaint of independent cable operators, who say that the trend of encrypting channels is resulting in large networks such as Siticable and IN Cablenet monopolising distribution. The losers are the independent operators. And viewers who don8217;t receive the channel.