Kerry Packer's Channel 9 to kick off broadcasting in India

Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer's Channel Nine will kick off broadcasting in India next week, officials said on Friday.

"We will begin airing our programmes Monday onwards on Doordarshan's metro channel," a spokeswoman for HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India Private Limited said.

Packer's Indian fare is called the Golden Hour and will be "hard core entertainment" consisting of sitcoms, variety shows, Hindi film-based programmes, game shows.

"All the programmes are original and indigenous and in the Hindi language. They are specially produced by us by top-rated television software producing houses," said the spokeswoman.

"From October we will add on another hour to our programming, making it a total of three hours," she said.

The Golden Hour has signed on several Hindi film stars to host its shows.

"We expect to have a viewership of 350 million in six weeks time," the spokeswoman said.

HFCL-Nine Broadcasting has signed a one-year contract with Doordarshan and has agreed to pay it Rs 1.2 billion ($28 million) for the prime time slot.

Packer's Indian operations are a joint venture with telecom company HFCL.

HFCL holds a 51 per cent stake in the venture, with Packer's company Publishing and Broadcasting Limited holding the remainder.

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