Aastha Broadcasting Network Ltd Historical Share Price Data

Aastha TV is an Indian spiritual Television channel, owned by Acharya Balkrishna in India.^[1] Established in 2000, it is owned by Aastha Broadcasting Network Ltd. The network's directors are Santosh Kumar Jain and Prabhat Kumar Jain.^[2] In 2005, the channel started the broadcast of Aastha International through UK affiliate as it had done previously in the United States as a 24x7 service on the DTH platform of BSkyB in UK.^[3] By 2006 it was reaching 160 countries around the world.^[4]

Its programs feature spiritual discourses, socio-cultural ceremonies and religious events, accompanied by meditation techniques and devotional music. They include information about places of pilgrimage, festivals, and vedic science, such as Yoga, Ayurveda, astrology.

Starting 1 July, the new shows will also be liberally sprinkled with “aaiye dekhte hain break ke baad." Or, coming up right after the break.

Earlier, advertisements tended to be inserted as a running scroll during shows or in between programmes.

“This is a first-ever time on Aastha," says Joshi, adding, “we have never had commercial breaks before, but we are now revising our rate cards to have three breaks in a half-hour show."

Industry watchers say that most religious channels haven’t fully realized the potential of smart programming and the effect it can have on revenue. They say the channels have been run like mom-and-pop enterprises, perhaps the pet project of a business leader, who happened to be religious. Thus, sponsorships have languished and not been formalized.