Dubai: Aimed at the 2.5 million strong Malayalee community in the Gulf, Dubai-based Middle East Television (MET) will launch the first Indian 24-hour free-to-air digital channel from Dubai in November.

The channel will have a mix of news and entertainment programmes as well as regular slots for Hindi and other South Indian languages, MET managing director John Thomas said on August 20.

MET will reach the Indian diasporas worldwide with a footprint that will cover a large part of the globe including the Middle east, Indian subcontinent, Australia and Africa.

The channel, with an initial investment of $ 20 million, is expected to provide stiff competition to other Malayalam channels like Surya and Asianet, "Compared to the other channels the viewership for MET will be more because of the multi language programme platform and the larger footprint," he said.

To be launched on November 1, the 'Kerala day', the channel will have offices in all the Gulf countries and later in major Indian cities.

MET will telecast through Panamsat 10 (PAS10) satellite, an important link for broadcast network delivering quality video, data and internet services the world over.

MET - a sister concern of Alan Media, a Dubai-based IT company - is the second such media venture after the Jeddah-based Malayalam newspaper, 'Malayalam News'.

PTI