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Reminiscent stages a coup in British-Asian TV scene

Paran Balakrishnan in London

Reminiscent Television, one of the newest players in the Asian television industry has staged an ambitious coup by forming a consortium of eight channels that aims to become a major player in the fiercely competitive British-Asian television market.

The new consortium includes channels in Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi. Reminiscent is launching its Gujarati channel Gurjari in a few days.

The Reminiscent network now has more channels under its wing than established players like Zee TV and B4U. The Zee group has three channels in Britain - Zee, Zee Music and Alpha Bangla, its Bengali channel. B4U has two channels and is poised to launch some more.

Reminiscent has struck alliances with existing channels like Bangla TV and Asia 1, which started broadcasting last September. It will also have a stake in Leicester-based MA TV, the only terrestrial Asian television station in Britain.

Cee TV, the group's Tamil channel, will be a newcomer to the British scene and so will Anjuman, an Urdu channel that will telecast the proceedings in Mecca.

The Reminiscent Television network is owned by two brothers M Suneel and Subhash Menon. The group owns television studios and two television channels in India - Gurjari and the Punjabi-language Lashkara. Lashkara and Gurjari have already begun broadcasts to North America. Reminiscent made its British debut in May when it launched Lashkara. The group is planning an initial public offering on London's Alternative Investment Market for small and medium-sized companies in the near future.

There are now about 20 Asian television channels in Britain. The market leaders are the companies with deep pockets - Zee, Sony and B4U.

Reminiscent hopes to keep its expenses down by sourcing a large chunk of its programmes from its studios in Punjab.

Asia 1, now part of the newly-formed consortium, was started by Birmingham-based businessman Amrik Singh Sahota in September 1999 as a channel that would broadcast in Punjabi, Hindi and English for second generation British Asians. However, there have been indications that it was finding the market highly competitive.

Bangla TV was originally backed by Bangladeshi businessmen and broadcasts 12 hours a day.

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