Lashkara, part of the eight-channel bouquet of Reminiscent Television Network (RTV), has just completed two years in existence and is currently the No.1 Punjabi language channel, a company release states.

Lashkara has a C&S penetration of 80 per cent in Punjab and just under 50 per cent in Delhi, the release states, quoting AG Nielsen‘s TAM data.

"In this short span of two years, Lashkara has not only emerged a market leader amongst Punjabi channels but has also carved out a niche for itself with the non-Punjabi audiences all over the world. This has been a remarkable achievement for us and we plan to build further from here, by focusing on mainstream entertainment programming in the near future," says Subhash Menon (managing director, India operations, RTV).

Some of the brands associated with Lashkara include Pepsi, Coke, Colgate, Wipro, Marico, Johnson & Johnson, Dabur, Tata Tea and Cadburys, according to the release.

The channel has also announced the presentation of its first ever annual Punjabi music awards - the ‘Lashkara Punjabi Music Awards 2001‘, to be held on 22 June at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.

RTV beams in Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Tamil and also reaches South East Asia, Africa, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

In India only the Lashkara and Gurjari (Gujarati) channels are available.

Sandeep Goyal, the man promoter Subhash Chandra has chosen to head broadcasting operations at Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL), takes charge tomorrow, company sources have revealed.

When the announcement of Goyal‘s appointment was made on 15 April, it was said that he would be coming in only in June. He was "persuaded" to advance the timing of his arrival at Zee headquarters, the sources said.

Goyal takes charge at a time when things are certainly looking better at Zee. After hitting the bottom of the barrel at Rs 71 when news was swirling of a probe by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) into the affairs of the company, the scrip has seen a steady rise and is now trading at Rs 114.

On the programming front too there is heartening news. Zee has finally broken the monopoly of Star Plus as far as the Top 10 ratings go. Zee‘s Koshish Ek Aasha (a soap, what else) was slotted at number 10 for the week ending April 28 as per AC Nielsen‘s TAM data.

With 11 of its programmes in The Top 50 viewed list, it has also edged out Sony Entertainment Television which has one less. Star still leads the pack by a long way with 29 of the top 50.

Goyal has 15 years of advertising industry experience with agencies ranging from HTA, Trikaya Grey to Mudra. He comes too Zee from advertising agency Rediffusion DY&R, where he was president.