We have 6 Indian channels - Zee TV, TV Asia, Set Max, Sony TV, Zee Cinema and B4U Movies. Most of the time we are tuned to one of these channels. 3 of the Star channels (Star TV, Star News and Star One) are also available on Direct TV (we have Dish Network 
). I was surprised to know that MTV Desi and Aastha channels can be subscribed @ Direct TV.
I was watching Kahin Pyar Na Hojaye @ B4U and started flipping channels, by accident I landed to channel 584 (only relevant to ppl. who have Dish Network) and I saw that they were showing some channel called “Samay.” It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what it is. Well, it is Sahara’s news channel Sahara Samay. I never heard about it before, not even when I was in India.
I was delighted to see a 24 hr. Indian News channel and on top of it, it shows commercials from India, which means no more crappy Ajmeri Baba and Peer Syed Sahib Ads. There is another Ad which irritates me a lot, I’ll post about it later.
Indian channels are swamping USA now. Zee has started Zee punjabi and Gujrati and there are other channels (mentioned above). So, generally we get to see free preview channels on weekends, so I am not sure if its a free preview or they showin it for free forever.
While writing this post, I searched to check if the Samay is a free preview…..and guess what, I found out that I can also watch Sahara One!!!!!! I think when I was in India, I saw a commercial of Chacha Chaudhri @ Sahara One 
I wish they are not just preview channels, but they come w/ Indian ads also.
Some of you (esp. who live in India) must be thinking, whats the big deal….why am I getting so excited (if you didn’t know that I am excited rt. now then - I am)….Its just that I am fed up of those bloody Baba Ads and definetly the Zee and Sony are not too much youth oriented….they just keep showing that fijul ki rimjhim all the time. I want to see what is meant for Indian (living) population and not fijul ke tailored progs. for Intl. audience with subtitles 
and apart from that I want to see Indian ads and know what exactly is going on there. Although web is a good place to keep yourself updated….but TV has a visual delight. So now most prolly am gonna watch the newly discovered channels, whole night and may be will discover another channel :p.
I watched about 30 minz of Dus today and liked it a lot, hopefully am also gonna complete it tonight!!
PS: Yes Shahara One shows CC
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8 Responses
poonam
August 14th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
1ya i have been watching sahara as well..its a good channel…seems to be right on with what’s happening in india..where the rest of the channels are behind…zee is three weeks behind..sony is a week behind..the way to tell is to start watching the serials.
yup..i thought abt. buying direct tv..but the whole buying american channels with it isn’t appealing for my fam yet…cuz we already have cable..and then it gets too expensive..so anyway…it would have been nice if dish network would have bought rights to star.
Ankur
August 15th, 2005 at 6:27 am
2But you will surely miss your favorite Baba ADs
Amit
August 16th, 2005 at 5:56 am
3Well if you will be still watching Zee Cine and other “original 4″, I’m sure you’ll still get to enjoy the Baba’s. Man….there should be a rule to ban them!!!! How much money have they given to these networks???? Geeeeezzzzz!!!!
Anyway, SAW (South Asia World, with cutie Shareen Bhaan), American Desi, and the new Sahara feeds are without the Babas. Thank God!!!!
Well it’s unfortunate that DirecTV has Star networks, but it’s not that they have a deal with Star, but DirecTV itself is owned by Star’s parent company. If Rupert Murdoch has his ways, don’t be surprised to see Dish Network being bought out my DirecTV in a few years.
What sucks now is that Dish has screwed its cricket package, and now DirecTV offers an awesome Cricket deal. But as Poonam says, why would I want to buy additional American programming, when I only want certain features????
Gaurav
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:54 pm
4Poonam - I thought, Sahara and Samay will fade out as soon as the weekend is over….but they r still there
Ankur - There is another Ad, which is a real torture, more than freakin Baba Ads. I will dedicate an entire post on it, I have even found out about the owner of that product.
Amit - Thanks for visitng my site. After reading your comment, I did the obvoius thing, googled for Shareen Bhaan, Google corrected me as she is Shereen Bhaan. Is American Desi a channel? Never heard bout it b4.
Didn’t know that Direct TV was Rupert’s company. I also heard about the DirecTV gettin aggressive with their ckt coverage. My cousin told me that they charge something like $400 per year for 200 or may be 300 hrs. of ckt
I am not sure about it though.
Gaurav
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:57 pm
5lol…Actually found her # (dunno if it is right or not)
Shereen Bhan
Anchor/Producer
CNBC India
3533985,3533986
src
Amit
October 5th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
6Gaurav,
Add more to the foray of Indian channels on Dish Network. Surprise, surprise, as I was flipping through the channels I got Aaj Tak and Headlines Today. These came out of nowhere, and from what I hear, B4U Music is to be coming on air pretty soon!!!!
Being of Marathi extraction, I wonder when Zee Marathi will hit the air……
pushpa
October 25th, 2005 at 8:02 am
7have you seen the new ad of ajmeri baba (The old man and the young in the park) Its the crappiest one. I was wondering if I can downloading it and send to my friend in India. Just for fun. Any help here?
sandeep
July 15th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
8USA - Complaints About Broadcast Advertising:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/advertising.html
UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA):
http://www.asab.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/
File a complaint. Try to contact them via phone.
Peer Syed’s website:
http://peersahibji.com/flash/homepage.htm
PEER SAYED SAHIB
Suite No. 8
Cheshire
SK9 5AJ
(UK) England.
Telephones:
01625 520033
07980 007120
I strongly recommend that everyone file a complaint againt all fake babas.
If they get more complaint, most likely they will take some action.
So please call them. feel free to pass on to this info to everybody.
Also file a complaint against all TV channels for misleading and false advertise.
Thanks
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