Dr Menon negotiated for a transponder on the Russian satellite EKRAN, with a powerful beam over India, which meant that using a cheep spiral antenna the signal could be received all over India.

Four of the leading newspapers and PTI itself, were to join in with Dr Menon as the Chief promotor and Mr Unnikrishnan at the helm of the Channel (after his retirement from PTI). When the Central government scraped Doordarsan’s monopoly, Mr Unnikrishnan was among the first to react and with Dr Raji Menon they planned to start a National channel.

When Mr Unnikrishnan initiated the idea of PTI TV, Dr Raji Menon’s nephew Mr Sasikumar was appointed. Dr Raji Menon became a successful businessman based in Moscow and Mr P Unnikrishnan became the General Manager of PTI in India. Dr Raji Menon was a student there and Mr P.Unnikrishnan was the correspondent of PTI in Moscow. In 2014, Star India took full ownership of Asianet Communications.Īsianet’s story starts much earlier than in 1993, it starts in Moscow. Star India bought a 51% stake in Asianet Communications and formed a joint venture with JEV in November 2008. In late 2006, Dr Raji Menon partially pulled out of Asianet Communications, turning over control to Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Jupiter Entertainment Ventures). The channel was originally promoted by Dr Raji Menon in the mid 1990s.

Asianet serials in youtube