MUMBAI: Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited is all set to launch its Hindi music channel. "We are launching the channel in the next few weeks," said Sahara One Media and Entertainment CEO Shantonu Aditya.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Sahara would be launching a music channel to expand its bouquet of entertainment businesses.

The music channel will be encrypted but free-to-air. "We are big in Bollywood. A music is a natural extension for us. It will be a free-to-air channel at this stage," Aditya said.

The name of the channel has yet to be finalised. The company launched its movie channel Filmy in February.

Sahara One head Shailendra Singh said, "I am delighted to inform that we will soon be launching our next channel, which will be a Hindi music channel. It will cater to millions of music lovers across India and worldwide. Along with Sahara One Television and Filmy, our music channel will complete the genres of mass Hindi entertainment from Sahara One, and will strengthen our bouquet immensely."

According to a statement issued by the company, Sahara One's forthcoming Hindi music channel will showcase the best of Hindi music from Bollywood films and non-film albums, along with music events and original programming.

Aditya said, "As a genre, music channels have tremendous potential for mass acceptance and popularity, and we will try to give the same kind of innovativeness to our music channel’s programming that is seen on Filmy and Sahara One Television."

He further added, "The new channel will also provide excellent synergy to the motion pictures business, which produces several films each year, thereby creating a lot of fresh content for our television businesses. In fact, Sahara One Motion Pictures, Sahara One Television, Filmy and our music channel will all be mutually supportive of one another and will enable us to deliver tremendous value to viewers and advertisers alike."