MUMBAI: Fox International Channels and the RCN Television Group (RCN), headquartered in Colombia, jointly announced the formation of a joint venture which will launch MundoFox, a new Spanish-language television network catering to the US Hispanic market.

The network, scheduled to launch during the Fall season of 2012 in Hispanic homes nationwide, will aim to bring a similar sensibility as the Fox Network to Latino audiences.

Fox International Channels president, CEO Hernan Lopez said, "Our partnership with RCN is a key step in the launch of MundoFox. There is an increasing demand for quality Spanish-language content in the U.S. from both viewers and advertisers. FOX saw similar dynamics in play 25 years ago when it launched the Fox network, and it would be a missed opportunity not to provide an alternative for the 50+ million Latino viewers who currently have limited options in Spanish-language broadcast television. Our partnership with RCN will help us do this and we aim do it in a big way."

RCN CEO Gabriel Reyes said, "RCN has provided the main Hispanic networks in the US with much of their prime-time content for over two decades. We now plan to maximize our capabilities and bring an increasing variety of fresh and innovative productions directly to Spanish-speaking viewers. I am certain that Fox is the best partner to make this a successful network".

Fox International Channels operates 350 channels in 35 countries, and has had success with a consortium of three cable networks targeting the U.S. Hispanic consumer: FOX Deportes, Utilisima and NatGeo Mundo.

RCN is one of the largest producers and exporters of Spanish-language television in the world and operates cable channels throughout the Americas.

Content for the network will come from several sources, including:

1. RCN Television. Past successes have been the original ?Ugly Betty?, called ?Betty La Fea?, the only Spanish-Language series to have inspired a mainstream US network drama; and ?El Capo?, an action-packed prime time daily series.

2. Fox International Channels ? over the last several years, Fox has produced weekly dramas for prime time that combine US-style, character-driven story-telling and visuals with Latino sensibility. Additionally, it has produced gripping factual series and a wide array of lifestyle shows.

3. Fox Deportes ? the sports brand for the U.S. Hispanic market, with US Spanish-language rights to the UFC, as well as various soccer tournaments, including Copa Santander Libertadores, Copa Bridgestone Sudamericana, and European tournaments. Some of these events will be broadcast on MundoFox.

4. Shine Group ? a producer of unscripted and scripted programming worldwide (including formats ?The Biggest Loser?, ?MasterChef? and ?One Born Every Minute? and international dramas including ?Merlin? and ?The Hour, will be producing their first original Spanish language content for MundoFox.

5. NTN24 ? RCN?s international channel that offers Spanish-language news, analysis, opinion, sports and entertainment news programs from a uniquely Latin point of view. NTN24 also produces online, English language content with an emphasis on news from the Americas.

6. Third-party Suppliers ? Additionally, MundoFox will license and/or commission original programmes and movies from a variety of third party producers, both from the English-language world as well as Spanish.

Although distribution is currently being established, MundoFox has plans to be carried on stations covering 75 per cent of US households. The network currently has several affiliate deals being finalised in top Hispanic markets across the US.

MUMBAI: US comedian Jay Leno has come under strong criticism from India for his comment on the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the holiest Sikh shrine.

The skit appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC television on 19 January. It showed the temple as the summer home of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The derogatory depiction of Sri Darbar Sahib as the home of rich is contrary to the reality and hurtful to the sentiments of the Sikhs. As a follow up, the Sikhs of America have protested en-mass by calling up the studios of the show and voiced their concern.

On the other hand, the visiting NRI affairs minister Vayalar Ravi, on Sunday, objected to the remark and has directed Indian Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao to take up the matter with the State Department.

"It is quite unfortunate and quite objectionable that such a comment has been made after showing the...Golden temple," the minister said. "Golden temple is Sikh community?s most sacred place. Even our Prime Minister went there for praying in the New Year. I believe that the person who has shown is not that ignorant. The American Government should also look at this kind of thing.

While the Sikh community has launched an online petition, an Indian minister called the comments objectionable. The online petition, organised by members of the US Sikh community, drew the attention that Leno has been pronounced guilty for passing derogatory comments on Sikhs earlier.

Leno has yet to comment on the matter.

MUMBAI: Truck expert Robb Mariani will feature on Discovery Turbo?s new show ?American Trucker?, as he hitches a ride to talk about this highly demanding profession. He unveils some of the most iconic trucks, the famous routes they followed, and the cargo missions that made history.

The show kicks off on 11 January at 9 pm.

Discovery Turbo?s new series American Trucker will showcase big rigs and people who drive them. Trucking enthusiast Mariani takes viewers on a journey across the US into the world of the American Trucker. He spends endless days driving amidst mind-boggling traffic, dangerous roads and difficult deadlines.

Viewers will hear firsthand from the truckers about this intriguing job and lifestyle, as they navigate dangerous routes and face the many challenges on the road to deliver their cargo to untold destinations. Mariani visits factories that manufacture large size heavy haulers, rides with "push rigs? - the heavy trucks that help trucks stranded by snow and ice, drives a truck with a traveling carnival, and showcases best custom rig shops and their decked-out rides.

MUMBAI: The documentary team behind ?Planet Earth? and the co-production partners of ?Life? will present ?Frozen Planet? in March 2012 on Discovery Channel in the US. The series will be narrated by actor Alec Baldwin.

Discovery Channel, TLC group president Eileen O?Neill said, "Discovery Channel is very excited to have someone as passionate and talented as Alec Baldwin to lend his voice to such an important landmark television event."

A Discovery Channel/BBC co-production four years in the making, the show aims to provide the ultimate portrait of earth?s polar regions, where the scale and beauty of the scenery and sheer power of the natural elements are unlike anywhere else on the planet. The show will reveal a world filled with creatures, variety, colour and spectacle including the birth of an iceberg bigger than the largest building on earth, a caterpillar with antifreeze in its veins, the greatest concentration of sea birds on the planet, and tiny baby polar bears, who at birth are 25 per cent smaller than human babies. Never-before-filmed sequences will include the growth of a saltwater icicle (brinicle) that freezes everything it touches and orca whales working as a team to create killer waves that wash seals off ice floes.

To capture nature?s majestic power - as well as its ultimate fragility the filmmakers utilised the latest cinematographic techniques and technology to capture groundbreaking imagery both above and below the ice in some of the most extreme and remote regions of our planet. Combined, the team filmed in every nation inside the Arctic and Antarctic circles during a record 2,356 days in the field, 1 1/2 years at sea, more than 6 months on the sea ice and 134 hours beneath that ice, filming in the polar oceans.