CNBC-TV18 extends weekend programming with the new band

The channel will present five new documentaries for weekends in the month of September. The shows Dangerously Rich: Billionaire Super Security; Secret Lives: Mega Homes; CNBC Meets Richard Branson; Luxury Edge; and India On 4 Wheels will be telecast for the first time.

English business news channel CNBC-TV18 has announced that it will extend its weekend line up with five new shows in India. The documentaries will be spread across the weekends in September under the newly established programming band, International Inc.

These documentaries will be based on lifestyle, travel, food, money and business from around the world. A channel source claims that though the documentaries are not completely business-centric, they have a link to the business and the issues related to it.

Poles apart from the hardcore business journalistic stories, International Inc includes rather lighter documentaries like Dangerously Rich: Billionaire Super Security; Secret Lives: Mega Homes; CNBC Meets Richard Branson; Luxury Edge; and India On 4 Wheels.

In an official communiqué, Suranjana Ghosh, head, marketing, CNBC-TV1, states, "It is our constant endeavour to innovate our offerings with new genres of programming. This new weekend time band consists of global programming on our channel. International Inc, with its outstanding content, will enlighten and absorb TV viewers."

Dangerously Rich: Billionaire Super Security will be the first to be telecast among the series. It will show behind the scenes action with the men and women who protect the super-rich. It includes security personnel from Warren Buffett's bodyguard to a high-tech panic room in a Hollywood mansion and on-board a mega yacht in Miami.

After that, Secret Lives: Mega Homes will appear with an eight billion dollar woman, Dolly, who is approached by the richest people when they want to sell their homes. The show reveals the new trends in super wealth, secret strategies for selling mega-homes and what the world's super wealthy are buying, selling and how much it's all worth.

CNBC Meets Richard Branson is a personal interview, where Branson talks about his childhood and how he built the Virgin brand. Next to feature will be Luxury Edge, which speaks about the market for luxury goods, which has come back in the past couple of years, despite volatility elsewhere in the market.

Lastly, the one shot on the streets of India, India On 4 Wheels will have two intrepid journalists, Justin Rowlatt and Anita Rani, set off on a chaotic and gruelling road trip around India to discover how the country's booming economy is affecting its people.

The channel has also launched a couple of shows since the beginning of the year. These include Talking Taxes, The Olympian Effort and What Women Really Want.

For the record, the channel is operated by Network18 through an agreement with CNBC that gives non-exclusive rights to distribute, re-transmit and exhibit, whether directly or through third party distributors, CNBC content within India.