International Hindi movie channel B4U launched a free-to-air entertainment channel - B4U Digital Entertainment Channel - in India on September 3.

The company, jointly owned by UK-based Kishore Lulla of Eros Entertainment, Laxmi Mittal of the Ispat Group and Indian film producer and distributor Bharat Shah, also plans to launch a Hindi movie channel, a music channel and a sports channel in the subcontinent.

B4U has already invested about $125m in its Indian launch and plans to invest a further $50m-$100m over the next year. More than 80% of this will go towards content creation, and the company has said it will produce 15-20 Hindi movies a year, budgeted at around $3m.

The sports channel will be run as a 50:50 joint venture with Middle East-based ART group and mostly broadcast cricket and football matches.

B4U has also entered into a joint venture with Hindi film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla to launch an entertainment portal, srksworld.com.