The English news channel by the Prannoy Roy-promoted New Delhi Television will be branded 24x7 (24 hours, seven days a week), while its Hindi news channel would be called NDTV India, with "India" in Hindi, sources close to NDTV said.

Both the channels are expected to go live on April 1, 2003, when NDTV's contract with Star TV to produce news from India expires.

NDTV had recently unveiled its new logo designed by the Los Angeles-based TAG Creative Brand Solutions in collaboration with NDTV's design team, as a prelude to the launch of its two channels late last month.

NDTV is expecting to ride on a presence of local programmes and local language coverage to build a viewership base.

While the NDTV Hindi new channel would be run by the company called NDTV World, the English channel would be under NDTV Ltd.

NDTV has tied up with The One Alliance, a Sony Entertainment and Discovery joint venture, to distribute its two news channels in India. NDTV's news channels would be digital as well as encrypted.

However, the pricing of The One Alliance bouquet would remain unchanged for the time being.

Besides, as a prelude to the launch of its 24 hour television channels, NDTV has also upgraded its broadcasting and production facilities by investing into acquiring new software technologies for the purpose.