Music India to broadcast Golden Temple Gurbani
With ZEE Punjabi ending its coverage of Shabad Gurbani from the Golden Temple this month, BizAsia.co.uk can exclusively confirm that Music India will be the new broadcaster of the popular telecast.
From Friday 16th September, Music India will exclusively broadcast Shabad Gurbani from Sri Harmandir Sahib – the channel’s biggest coup since it launched in the UK.
The Golden Temple coverage is seen as a premium property and with Music India snapping up the rights; it will no doubt boost the channel’s profile. Furthermore, it will be the first time the coverage will be shown free-to-air. Prior to this, ZEE Network had telecast the show on its subscription channel ZEE Punjabi.
ZEE Punjabi has been the broadcaster of the Golden Temple Shabad Gurbani coverage for the past nine years since ZEE Punjabi (Alpha Punjabi then) launched in the UK.
Rabindra Narayan, President PTC Network, said, “We wanted to make Gurbani from Sri Darbar Sahib available to maximum viewers possible in Europe. This is why we chose the FTA channel, Music India. Now devotees do not have to pay anything to watch Gurbani.”
Prashant M. Chothani, CMD & CEO of Music India said, “We feel indeed blessed to have been chosen by the Gurus to spread their message across Europe. We have no doubt that we are just a medium and the divine powers have blessed us by giving us strength and resources to be able to bring this holy offering for everyone.”
“We are very delighted to be associated with Music India and work along to be able to broadcast the coverage of Shabad Gurbani from Golden Temple every day and that too free-to-air for the first time as against it being subscription based ever since it launched nearly a decade ago,” says Rajiee M Shinde, co-promoter and COO of PTC Network.
In 2008, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) decided to award the rights to the PTC Group after years of an agreement with ZEE Network. However, in the UK, ZEE Punjabi remained the broadcaster of the Golden Temple Shabad Gurbani due to PTC Punjabi not having presence here.
With PTC Punjabi’s launch in the UK delayed, the coverage of the Golden Temple Shabad Gurbani will be shown on Music India, which thusfar has been broadcasting PTC News bulletins.
Music India will telecast the Shabad Gurbani slots same time as ZEE Punjabi – 04:00 – 08:00 and 16:00 – 18:00 daily, from Friday 16th September.
Music India UK is distributed by World Media Connect, which also handles Imagine Dil Se.
“This along with the already airing PTC News bulletins will consolidate Music India�۪s position specially among the Punjabi population of UK & Europe” says Sumant Bahl, President European Operations for World Media Connect.
Music India is available free-to-air on Sky Digital channel 822.
