NEW DELHI: Zee News in association with Dish TV has decided to extend its mass awareness campaign- "Iss Tasver ko Badal dalo - D for Digital" till 7 November to encourage viewers to switch over to digitisation.

The transition from analogue television to digital will bring in a bouquet of benefits to the consumer. Being a pioneer with many path breaking initiatives to its credit, Zee News had launched a mass awareness campaign - "D for Digital" - from 12 October to educate people the new way of TV viewing experience. The campaign has already empowered citizens about key issues and helped them make informed choices for a better future.

Understanding future needs and trends on information and broadcast mediums and the critical role digitisation will play, Zee News said it "extends full support to government’s decision to go for digitisation in the TV space - a move that will help in expanding and growth of the electronic media industry as well as benefit viewers as they can now select what they want".

"To keep ourselves abreast with the modern world it is important to embrace digital in our daily life. We are already very late in the process in implementing digitization in the broadcast industry. Through our dipstick research we have come to know that there is a lot of ambiguity amongst consumers/viewers about Digital cable TV. Hence we decided to empower our viewers through "Iss Tasveer Ko badal dalo - D for Digital" campaign across Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in the first phase. The ground activation aims to create awareness and educate viewers/customers about importance of digitisation and its benefits." says Zee News marketing head Rohit Kumar.

Zee News has already held a series of engagement activities in three metros - Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata- like quiz, debates, painting etc under this mass education campaign. In addition to this, a live demonstration, with support of Dish TV, about the impact of digitisation has also been executed. This has facilitated product experience and awareness for smooth transition from analog to digital for an improved and hassle free high quality TV viewing experience.

The on-ground campaign started from Delhi on 14 October.

MUMBAI: Infotainment broadcaster Discovery will launch a Hindi feed for Discovery Science on 1 October.

Discovery Science will now be available round the clock in Hindi and English on both analogue and DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon D2H and Airtel Digital TV.

Discovery South Asia senior VP, GM Rahul Johri said, "Since its launch, Discovery Science has successfully driven the mission to bring science back into the spotlight and showcase how indispensable it is in our daily lives. Discovery Science has gone beyond the imagination to explore the unknown and present the greatest discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs in a relatable and refreshing format. We have received an encouraging response from our viewers, affiliates and advertisers across India and the launch of the Hindi feed will deliver an enriching viewing experience especially in the Hindi-speaking markets."

Speaking on this Discovery India VP marketing Rajiv Bakshi said that the decision was the result of viewer demand. "There comes a stage in a channel?s lifecycle when more needs to be done. Discovery Science is present in over 20 million homes. Hindi is the pre dominant language. Languaging helps boost the time spent, it gets in new audiences and also helps with viewers who find that English as a language is a barrier."

Discovery Kids launched earlier this year in English, Hindi and Tamil. TLC and Animal Planet are in English and Hindi. The flagship channel Discovery is in English, Hindi, Telugu and Bangla. In addition, Discovery has a separate channel for the Tamil market.

Bakshi adds that there no plans to have Discovery Science in more languages. Also there are no plans to dub Discovery Turbo and Discovery HD for now. "There is a cost in doing language feeds. There has to be viewer pull and an immediate benefit."

On the programming front coinciding with the Hindi-language feed launch, Discovery Science has announced five series which will be aired over the next three months. ?Prophets of Science Fiction? will present the stories of the strange lives of the visionaries and reveal the secrets of their uncanny ability to see the future; ?Dark Matters? will expose some of history?s most bizarre experiments; ?Alien Encounters? will explore how alien life might communicate with Earth; ?How Tech Works? features the latest and future technologies of the world.

Meanwhile, ?Combat Tech? takes a look at the greatest military engineering accomplishments. Additionally, Discovery Science will feature a line-up ?Space Week? with programmes that focus on space, the universe and astrophysics from October 1 -7, every day at 8 pm.

NEW DELHI: Staying ahead of competition, Dish TV has launched the first-ever standard definition box with recorder to cater to the majority of subscribers who are not hooked on to high definition.

Dish TV expects the pricing to be a killer as recording facilities offered by rival direct-to-home (DTH) service providers are only in high-definition boxes and are much costlier.

The STB with recorder to be known as Dish+ would cost a mere Rs 100 more than the present STB which is priced at Rs 1590. Dish TV is also giving a 4 GB pen drive free as promotional offer.

?Dish+ is a comeback of recorders in the living room and is a clear differentiator vis-?-vis other alternatives including digital cable. Its highly competitive launch price will position it as a preferred option amongst all DTH buyers?, Dish TV chief operating officer Salil Kapoor said

Dish TV?s high-definition box which has a recording facility is priced at Rs 2690. Dish would charge another Rs 200 for installation.

Any USB port can be connected to the standard box for recording, and there is facility for unlimited recording.

A budget of Rs 250 million has been set aside for a 360 degree marketing campaign, Kapoor told Indiantelevision.com.

"The high-definition market at present is just five per cent of the total households (around 50,000 subscribers). The majority are, thus, deprived of any recording facility. Since the video cassette recorder fades out for recording facility, most subscribers are going to welcome this new innovation."

The government has mandated digitisation in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by 1 November. "The second phase will cover a total of 40 cities. We want to be able to give the viewers an option," said Kapoor.