The London-based Tamil general entertainment channel, Deepam TV, has started on Eurobird 9A (9 degree East): 11727, Vertical, SR 27500 abd fec 3/4 - free-to-air. 

Deepam TV was started on 11th June 2000 as the 2nd Tamil TV-channel in Europe. It quickly became a popular channel among viewers due to good programmes from Sun TV and a good transmission quality. But after the launch of Sun TV channels and other Indian Tamil channels in Europe, Deepam TV tried with older programmes from Jaya TV, Raj TV, Vijay TV and Polimer TV. 

Today the channel is telecasting a mix of own-produced programmes from UK and India, serials already shown on Sun TV, movies, news etc. 
After the launch of Sun TV channels, Ayngaran TV, Jaya TV, Vijay TV etc., the competition has become big, and Deepam TV has lost many subscribers. Their subscription fee has also decreased, and their transmission to Australia & New Zealand has also been stopped. 

Now Deepam TV has been telecasting for free for a long period, and they have also announced that they have got new owners. Deepam TV was not interested in telling us who the new owners are, what kind of changes are expected etc., but rumours says that Deepam TV has been bought by a political fraction in Europe. 

But the channel has started test-transmission of an online radio-station called Deepam Radio, which is also expected to start on satellite soon. It is possible to listen to Deepam Radio on www.deepamtv.tv. 

Currently Deepam TV is both available on Eutelsat Hotbird (13 degree East) and Eurobird 9A (9 degree East), but it is expected that the channel will leave Eutelsat Hotbird satellite in the near future - leaving GTV (Global Tamil Vision) - also known as Thendral, as the only Tamil general entertainment channel on Eutelsat Hotbird (13 degree East). Eutelsat Hotbird is still the main satellite for Tamil radiochannels - even if a new Christian radiochannel, called Amen FM, has started on Eurobird 9A recently. 

- Media Asia