A six-year contract of the Channel with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandak Committee (SGPC) in which it has been given the exclusive rights to telecast the live shabad-kirtan, daily waak and at Harimandir Sahib fulfils a long-standing demand of the Sikh community all over the world. Dr Kharak Singh, convener of the committee formed by the SGPC for telecast of the Golden Temple Kirtan, says, ``The contract is to our satisfaction. Earlier, we were trying a contract with Punjab Television but they were not able to deliver the goods even though they had promised that the telecast would begin on September 1.'' The SGPC will not chargeanything from the channel for the first year but from the second year onward they will take 10 per cent of the profit.

With test signals already on the air and office set up at Neeti Bagh here, Pavan Malhotra, Managing Director of the channel with the very Punjabi catch line of Tuhada Apna Channel (Your Own Channel) says he means business and there is no question of not meeting the deadline. ``On November 1, which is also the Punjab day we go on air. Ours is a 24-hour-free-to-air channel and it will be relayed from the Thaicom-3(satellite). What makes us special is that we are an emotional channel catering to the spiritual as well as entertainment needs of 20,000 Punjabis scattered all over the globe,'' adds Malhotra.

The Managing Director, who was earlier the Manager product Development with HMV, is quick to spell out that it is a Punjabi channel and not just a Sikh channel even though it will do a major chunk of Sikhism-oriented programming. ``Ours is a secular channel and if we have seven hours ofGurbani repetitive programmes, we will have two hours of Mata di Bhentein (songs sung to the Mother Goddess) in Punjabi, says Malhotra. Besides, there will be films, soap operas, news and news-based programmes and of course music which will go under the name of Chakki-Mix,'' says Malhotra. The effort, he says, is to provide mainstream popular entertainment.

However, sanctity of the religious programming will be maintained by giving no advertisements or any other kind of music during those slots. One of the criticisms in Punjab was that how could gurbani and bhangra go together. But this is is going to be made possible by giving a gap with serious programmes in between. ``We are sensitive to this factor and have worked out a schedule to take care of this,'' says Malhotra.

To begin with the shabad-kirtan from the Golden Temple will be recorded in advance and cameras are already at work in the Temple but from March it will be daily live telecast. The SGPC is hoping that the channel will be able to telecastthe waak live daily from the beginning but the modalities of it are still being worked out here. The channel when it starts will cater to Middle East and South-East Asia and from March it will go global bringing the USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe where a large number of Punjabis are settled. The channel is also exchanging a lot of software with Pakistan.

With Kishore Motiani as Chairman the channel has Yashpal Kapoor, formerly of TVI, and Rabindra Narayan as directors. The two creative advisors are eminent Punjuabi critic, Satinder Singh Noor and dramatist C.D. Sidhu. For a month or so after the channel goes on air, it will telecast religious programmes, two films a day and songs and after that it will be a brand new package of entertainment.