[Swprograms] XM To Add International Content w/South Asian Channel

[jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Press Release Source: XM Satellite Radio 

XM to Launch Dedicated South Asian Channel in October
Tuesday September 18, 10:14 am ET 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- XM, the nation's leading 
satellite radio service with more than 8.2 million subscribers, and 
Asian Television Network International Limited today announced the 
creation of "ATN-Asian Radio," a 24-7 radio channel featuring 
dedicated programming for the South Asian community. Produced by ATN 
for XM and XM Canada, ATN-Asian Radio channel (XM159) will launch in 
October, providing the South Asian community across North America with 
the latest news, sports, music and entertainment. ATN currently 
operates 14 television channels in Canada and has programming 
alliances with leading international broadcasters.

"ATN is delighted to collaborate with XM and XM Canada in providing an 
ATN branded super station across North America. We expect this to 
attract a wide audience and will compliment our existing South Asian 
television channels. It will be a compelling package," said Shan 
Chandrasekar, chairman and CEO of ATN.

ATN-Asian Radio will feature a variety of talk and live listener call-
in programs covering issues relevant to the South Asian community, as 
well as shows dedicated to news and current affairs. The channel will 
also offer live cricket commentary from ATN, Canada's largest 
distributor of World Class Cricket.

In addition to talk, news and sports content, the programming on XM's 
ATN- Asian Radio will include a broad range of music, highlighting the 
best of Bollywood and popular South Asian artists. Listeners to the 
channel can expect to hear Ghazals, Qawalis, Bhajans, and nostalgia 
through Golden Greats, as well as devotional music in Sanskrit and 
Shabad Gurbani. The channel will also broadcast Hindustani classical 
and carnatic music and will feature pop, folk, chutney and re-mixes.

While the majority of the channel's talk programming will be in 
English, there will be a substantial amount of content broadcast in 
South Asian languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali, 
Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Sinhalese, among 
others. ATN-Asian Radio will serve a massive South Asian diaspora in 
North America with origins in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, 
East and South Africa, The West Indies and other parts of the world.

ATN-Asian Radio will be available on the XM lineup beginning in 
October. More about the channel and its programming will soon be 
available online at http://www.xmradio.com and 
http://www.asiantelevision.com.

About Asian Television Network (ATN)

ATN-Asian Television Network is a licensed broadcaster providing 
premium specialty television programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 
across Canada. ATN was among the first in North America to broadcast 
television programming aimed at the South Asian community in 1971. 
With over 3 decades of experience ATN is the largest South Asian 
broadcaster in Canada, currently operating 14 television channels 
including 2 general interest channels, 2 Bollywood movie channels, a 
sports channel, a news channel, a music channel, a spiritual channel 
with yoga and fitness and several South Asian regional language 
channels.

ATN has programming alliances with leading International Broadcasters 
such as Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Television, News Corp. Star India 
Plus, B4U, ALpha Punjabi, Jaya TV, ARY Digital, New Delhi Television 
(NDTV), Aastha, Kairali and more. ATN is Canada's largest distributor 
of World Class Cricket. ATN has been the exclusive Canadian Television 
distributor for several World Cup cricket games since 1986. ATN 
recently brought the Cricket World Cup 2007 to Canada including the 
current and first ever ICC Twenty/20 World Cup live. ATN has 
programming alliances in world class cricket with organizations such 
as Directv, Echostar Dish Network and ESPN Star Sports.

ATN's live music concerts and large scale events include performances 
by the world renowned Ravi Shankar at the Roy Thompson Hall to 
the "Nightingale of India" Lata Mangeshkar, and the Oscar nominee A.R. 
Rahman at the Toronto Skydome. ATN owns and operates a fully self 
contained broadcast facility. ATN has also received more digital 
specialty television licenses from the regulatory authorities which it 
intends to launch in the future.



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