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164 << Diasporic Entrepreneurs and Digital Media

Table 5.1. Prominent Television Initiatives Targeting South Asian American
Audiences
Company Name Launch date Ownership Carriage
TV Asia May 1998 TV Asia Cable (various local networks), DBS
(Dish Network)
Asian Variety Show July 1988 Private Cable (various local networks); DBS
(AVS) (Dish Network, DirecTV)
ZEE TV July 1998 ZEE TV USA Cable (various), DBS (Dish Network)
Bollywood On De- August 2004 212 Media/Sch- Cable (Comcast, Time Warner Cable,
mand (BODVOD) ramm Sports & Cox)
Entertainment
ImaginAsian TV August 2004 Private Cable (Comcast, Time Warner, Charter,
Champion Broadband, Patriot Media),
Broadcast Stations (W36AS, Edison, NJ;
KTVY, Las Vegas; KBCB, Seattle)
American Desi January 2005 Private DBS (Dish Network)
AZN May 2005 Comcast Cable, telecom (AT&T U-Verse, Verizon
FiOS)
MTV Desi July 2005 MTV Networks DBS (DirecTV)

Note: DBS stands for Direct Broadcast Satellite.
Sources: Cable and Broadcasting, India Abroad, and India West.

themselves as an alternative, offering a “variety of programs that visibly man-
30
ifest themselves as South Asian for South Asian viewers.” This holds true in
the United States as well, where a range of Indian television channels target-
ing different linguistic groups are offered through Dish and DirecTV’s satel-
lite television services. But even a cursory look would confirm that India-
centric media, nonsubtitled television programming in particular, also ends
up marginalizing Desi youth who might have neither the linguistic skills nor
the level of immersion in the politics and culture of the Indian subcontinent
to engage with its soap operas, sitcoms, and reality shows.
In one sense, then, MTV-Desi is symptomatic of a larger problem con-
fronting diasporic television production—of being caught between the
nationalist logics of two powerful media industries. But we could also under-
stand MTV-Desi as an initiative that represented an opportunity for Bolly-
wood to become part of a broader arena of diasporic cultural production
instead of remaining ensconced in the ethnic cable and satellite TV packages
that target primarily first-generation immigrants. However, given the diffi-
culties of creating programming that cuts across and speaks to the diversity