Mumbai – Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL), part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and CBS Studios International, a division of CBS Corporation, announced their equally owned joint venture that brings together two of the world’s pre-eminent media and entertainment companies. Marking the announcement of the joint venture in Mumbai, India, were Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited and Armando Nuñez, president, CBS Studios International. The Joint Venture Company (the ‘JVCo’) will be a limited liability company incorporated in India. CBS and RBNL (through its subsidiary) will act as shareholders and each have a 50% equity interest in the JVCo. The joint venture will, at its start, see the creation of three new television channels allowing for programming rights in India, and across the Indian subcontinent. Leveraging both brand strengths, the JVCo is called BIG CBS Networks Pvt. Ltd. The channels will be English language entertainment channels customized for the Indian market, and will premier in the fourth quarter 2010, offering audiences immediate access to new and current CBS programs, including some of the most popular television programs in the world. The three new channels will be made available across a network of digital and analog distribution platforms. They will also be offered to audiences across the Indian subcontinent covering India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Pakistan. The themed channels will be targeted to India’s fast-growing, upwardly mobile population and branded BIG CBS Prime, a premium English language general entertainment channel; BIG CBS Spark, India’s first-ever English language youth channel; and BIG CBS Love, India’s first-ever English language entertainment channel for women.