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Geo TV or GEO Television is popular a Urdu-language Pakistani television network that was established in May 2002 and officially began transmission in October 2002*. Its broadcast facilities are based at Dubai Media City in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its uplink teleport station is Samacom, the monopoly uplink provider in the UAE. Mir Khalil ur Rehman was the founder of the Jang Group of newspapers and his younger son Mir Shakil ur Rehman is the present owner. Imran Aslam is the current head of GEO.
Its programming includes interactive infotainment programs, children's programs, top of the hour news broadcasts all day every day, and current events programs. GEO TV has been rated by Gallup and quoted by Business Week as being the satellite TV channel watched the most in Pakistan*.*
Origin of the GEO name
GEO's name may come from the fact that it utilizes a geosynchronous orbit satellite for its transmissions. However, in the Urdu language of Pakistan, the word "Geo" also means "Live On".
Popular programs
GEO news shows include Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath hosted by Kamran Khan and Capital Talk which is anchored by Hamid Mir.
Follow up with Fahd hosted by Fahd Husain is another Geo show in English. Hans Blix, Shimon Peres, and Angelina Jolie are three personalities, among others, who were interviewed this year by Fahd on the program.
Many entertainment programs are also shown on GEO. Most prominent amongst these are half-hour soap opera shows which are called drama in Pakistan.
GEO took advantage of the large pool of journalists working in the print media at the time of its formation. Branching out from mainstream print media to electronic media meant that there was already a ready pool of correspondents all over the country.
Criticism
Critics of GEO believe that many of these correspondents seem to lack media ethics. Examples of this criticism came largely after the December 2005 earthquakes in Pakistan when the GEO news showed overly-dramatic footage of damage caused by the earthquake. Family members of the earthquake victims believed that such footage showed a lack of respect for those people who perished in that disaster.
Awards
- A GEO documentary recently won the Monte Carlo Film Awards.
- A documentary by GEO covering water scarcity in the Indus river delta won "The Special Prize of H.S.H. Prince Rainier III" at the Monte Carlo TV Festival*.
- GEO was awarded a special award in 2005 at the Nouticaslo TV festival*.
Corporate logos and slogans
The following is the mission statement by GEO TV:
"GEO will be the voice of freedom from the Asian subcontinent. It will highlight the issues of concern and the cultural richness of its people through information, discussion and entertainment. GEO will propagate transparency of responsibility that will ensure its position as the most credible and meaningful source of information, through quality programming based on issues." *
See also
External links
"Geo TV"