MUMBAI: The Senior Group Companies, which runs a Delhi centric news and current affairs channel S1, has roped in former Sahara Media and Entertainment senior vice president and senior print journalist, Ambikanand Sahay, as head of editorial and news operations.

The Group, which is primarily into real estate business, is planning to launch a national general news and a music channel. The music channel has been christened as S1 Tadka and is set for launch in December. The news channel, to be launched in mid-2006, will be called S1 National.

The Group is planning an ambitious investment of Rs 1.10 billion for the two channels. Says Senior Group chairman Vijay Dixit, "We are planning a bouquet of channels. We are looking at investing approximately Rs 110 crore for these two channels."

The Senior Group of Companies has inducted Sahay to beef up its existing news channel and future news operations. During his tenure at Sahara, he was responsible for the launch of the NCR and many other regional- centric channels including Sahara Uttaranchal, Sahara Bihar and Sahara Madhya Pradesh. The music channel will be headed Joy Sebastien, who was earlier associated with Jain TV.

According to Delhi cable operators, S1 is facing distribution problems. But Dixit disagrees and claims to have 83.5 per cent connectivity across the national capital region (NCR) region. "We are happy with the distribution of the channel and our own team is handling it. We have no plans to outsource distribution," he says.