US media giant Walt Disney Co plans to launch three television channels in India in the next 12 months and is in talks with a potential local partner, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"We want to launch three channels in India," business daily Handelsblatt quoted David Hulbert, president of Disney unit Walt Disney Television International, as saying. "We will certainly start within the next 12 months," he added.
Hulbert told Handelsblatt one of the three channels would have programming similar to Disney's US network ABC, while one would be a children's channel. The channels would be partly funded by advertising revenues and partly by cable fees.
Disney, the world's second-largest media firm, wants to operate the channels in a joint venture with an Indian partner and is currently in talks with a candidate, Hulbert told the paper, but declined to reveal who the company was talking to.