Mumbai: English general entertainment channel Zee Caf? is gearing up to launch Outsourced on 19 January.

The comedy based show will air Monday-Friday at 11 pm.

Zee Caf?, which focuses on sourcing the international content to the young, urban Indian palate, showcases programmes ranging from popular sitcoms to reality series and live concerts to stand-up comedy acts. With the new show, Zee Cafe aims to bring American television for Indian audience.

The show revolves around US-based Western Novelty that decides to outsource its personnel to India and as a result a large number of employees are let go. When the call center Todd manages in Seattle is outsourced to India, Todd travels there to train his replacement. A lone American is supposed to manage the call center and must explain American popular culture to his employees. Todd Anderson is instructed to travel to Gharapuri to train Purohit to replace him. He travels there via Mumbai, and finds his name comically mispronounced as ?Toad?. He finds that he must sensitise himself to the Indian culture before he could even think of Americanising Purohit and his subordinates. Housed in a new building that looks like an above-ground bunker, the call center is staffed by willing novices whom Todd trains to sound American.

With the assistance of the new assistant manager, Asha Bhatwadekar, he sets about learning about gods and deities worshipped in India, reveling in Holi festivities, common lingo, the importance of cows, and eating at Mc Donnald?s. And he soon finds that a new ?India? has been discovered for outsourcing and what is meant by ?Holiday in Goa?.

The show got nominated for People?s choice Award 2011 for favorite New TV comedy, Best Performance - Comedy and for People?s Choice Awards 2011 for NAMIC.

MUMBAI: Factual entertainment channel History TV18 has announced the launch of its Gujarati feed.

History TV18 is the first international channel to launch in Gujarati. With this launch, it is also the only factual entertainment channel to be available in an unprecedented seven languages ? Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Hindi and English.

All the programmes and the fixed programme chart (FPC) schedule will remain identical in all the language feeds.

Viewers using digital platforms will be able to choose their preferred language through the remote control.

A+E Networks TV18 president Ajay Chacko said, ?Our objective is to grow the genre and make it a relatively main stream alternative for viewers in the near future. With this objective in mind, we intend to make the channel available in every Indian language possible and entertain audiences all across India.?

A+E Networks | TV18 JV VP. programming Sudheer KG said, ?As Indian audiences mature and seek out more international content in their own languages, there is no better a time than now to launch our Gujarati feed. The incredible level of aspirations of people speaking that language and a large youth population make it all the more appealing and lucrative. We have taken care to ensure that the translation retains a certain local flavor, making the channel more accessible and relatable."

Gujarat is an important market for factual entertainment after Mumbai and Delhi contributing as much as seven per cent to the genre in 1 Mn+ towns, according to estimates.

History TV18 said it has been a strong player here with the highest viewership in 0.1-1Mn market cluster and also highest time spent per viewer in 1Mn+ market cluster. Through this initiative, the channel hopes to strengthen its position.

NEW DELHI: The Government has permitted TV Vision Ltd, Mumbai, to bring in Rs 2 billion by way of FDI/NRI inflows for induction of foreign investment by way of issue of equity shares through an initial public offering (IPO) to undertake the business of broadcasting a non-news and current affairs TV channel. TV Vision already operates music channel Mastiii.

Meanwhile, based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the Finance Ministry rejected an application by UT Starcom India Telecom to undertake additional activity related to the telecom and Information and Broadcasting sectors.

A proposal by Springer India to increase foreign equity up to 100 per cent to carry out the business of publishing and re-printing of scientific, technical, medical and other no-fiction books in electronic and printed forms in any language was also rejected.

The Ministry turned down the application of Springer Editorial Services to increase foreign equity up to 100 per cent to carry on the business of publishing services, content, development, content management, content outsourcing, providing a comprehensive service including data conversion, editorial services, pre-press, pre-media services, digital communication services, data based management, digitisation services and data based engineering

Omnimedia SL was asked to approach the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for amendment of Clause 2 of the FC approval to undertake the business of publishing/ printing of scientific and technical magazines/ specialty journals/ periodicals in the name and style of ?Energetica-India? and circulation of its digital version. This will not involve any additional inflow.

The consideration of several applications in the realm of information and broadcasting were deferred. These include one by Oxigen Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon, ex-post-facto for induction of foreign investment to carry out the business of providing B2B services like mobile, direct-to-home TV, and broadband recharges.

A proposal by Alliance Data Pte. Ltd, Singapore, for undertaking the additional of publishing and printing an Indian edition of a foreign specialty magazine was deferred.

Another proposal deferred was that of Packt Publishing, Mumbai, for induction of foreign equity to carry out the business of writing, editing, summarising, compiling, printing, publishing, exporting or importing books pertaining to areas like information technology.

A proposal by Fine Publishing India for induction of foreign equity to carry out the business of publishing specialty technical magazines covering the subject of wine and champagne was deferred.

Another proposal deferred was that of Reed Elsevier India for publishing and co-publishing research journals in or outside India in any media.TV Vision already operates music channel Mastiii.

Meanwhile, based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the Finance Ministry rejected an application by UT Starcom India Telecom to undertake additional activity related to the telecom and Information and Broadcasting sectors.

A proposal by Springer India to increase foreign equity up to 100 per cent to carry out the business of publishing and re-printing of scientific, technical, medical and other no-fiction books in electronic and printed forms in any language was also rejected.

The Ministry turned down the application of Springer Editorial Services to increase foreign equity up to 100 per cent to carry on the business of publishing services, content, development, content management, content outsourcing, providing a comprehensive service including data conversion, editorial services, pre-press, pre-media services, digital communication services, data based management, digitisation services and data based engineering

Omnimedia SL was asked to approach the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for amendment of Clause 2 of the FC approval to undertake the business of publishing/ printing of scientific and technical magazines/ specialty journals/ periodicals in the name and style of ?Energetica-India? and circulation of its digital version. This will not involve any additional inflow.

The consideration of several applications in the realm of information and broadcasting were deferred. These include one by Oxigen Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon, ex-post-facto for induction of foreign investment to carry out the business of providing B2B services like mobile, direct-to-home TV, and broadband recharges.

A proposal by Alliance Data Pte. Ltd, Singapore, for undertaking the additional of publishing and printing an Indian edition of a foreign specialty magazine was deferred.

Another proposal deferred was that of Packt Publishing, Mumbai, for induction of foreign equity to carry out the business of writing, editing, summarising, compiling, printing, publishing, exporting or importing books pertaining to areas like information technology.

A proposal by Fine Publishing India for induction of foreign equity to carry out the business of publishing specialty technical magazines covering the subject of wine and champagne was deferred.

Another proposal deferred was that of Reed Elsevier India for publishing and co-publishing research journals in or outside India in any media.