Channel WIN: India's First Islamic Satellite Television Channel
Channel WIN is a 24-hour Islamic satellite television channel from Mumbai, India, operated by the World Islamic Network (WIN). It describes itself as the first Islamic satellite TV channel from India, spreading what it calls the "Message of Humanity" in the light of the teachings of the Quran and the Ahlul Bayt. The channel is the television culmination of a Mumbai organisation that began by distributing free Islamic books from the Dongri neighbourhood and grew, over more than two decades, into a broadcaster reaching dozens of countries across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and Europe.
Its path was unusual in Indian broadcasting: a community religious organisation first ran a local channel, WIN TV, from 2006, and then, in November 2012, received uplinking and downlinking permission from the Government of India — the first time, the network notes with pride, that an Islamic channel in India received such a licence — and relaunched as the satellite service Channel WIN.
Overview
Channel WIN is an English, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali-language 24-hour Islamic channel owned and operated by the World Islamic Network, with copyright held by WIN TV Private Limited. Its programming consists of Quranic teaching, lectures by religious scholars, majlis programmes, talk shows, question-and-answer sessions, documentaries and programmes for women and families, all presented from a Shia Islamic perspective centred on the Ahlul Bayt — the family of the Prophet Muhammad.
The channel is based in Mumbai, where the World Islamic Network is located opposite the Khoja Masjid in Dongri, a historic centre of Mumbai's Khoja Shia community. Its official website is channelwin.tv, carrying its live stream and programme information under its motto, "Message of Humanity" — in Urdu, "Paygham-e-Insaniyat," the tagline that closes its programmes.
History: From Free Books to Satellite
The World Islamic Network began as a publishing and dawah organisation. Over its first twenty-two years, as the World Federation of KSIMC recorded in 2013, WIN grew from a small organisation distributing free Islamic books to a satellite channel reaching more than thirty-three countries. Its publication department produced around ninety different titles, distributed free of cost around the globe, and it printed and distributed the Quran itself without charge — literature work that built the community standing from which a television channel could be launched.
The television step came in stages. WIN TV began in June 2006 as a 24x7 channel for Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Lucknow and Aurangabad, covering around four million homes, and described by the network as the first Shia Islamic channel for those cities. The response to WIN TV motivated the bigger ambition: a 24-hour Shia Islamic satellite channel for the world. Satellite transmissions under the WIN TV name were tracked on Intelsat 20, and in November 2012 the Government of India granted WIN satellite rights — the uplink and downlink licence that transformed the local service into Channel WIN, India's first licensed Islamic satellite channel.
Ownership and the World Islamic Network
Channel WIN is owned and operated by the World Islamic Network, and its programmes carry the copyright of WIN TV Private Limited. WIN is more than a broadcaster: it is a religious and educational organisation whose departments include publishing, ladies' classes held twice a week for girls with speech and quiz competitions, majlis and lecture programmes, and free distribution of Islamic literature and the Quran. The channel is the media arm of that wider mission, and its presenters and lecturers are drawn from the scholarly circles the organisation works with.
The organisation's Dongri base places it in one of Mumbai's oldest Muslim neighbourhoods, and its early cable footprint — Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Lucknow and Aurangabad — maps closely onto the Khoja and wider Shia communities of western and northern India that formed its first audience. From that base, satellite distribution turned a community broadcaster into an international one.
Programming and Schedule
Channel WIN's schedule is built from the forms of Shia religious broadcasting. Lectures — majlis — by maulanas form the core: series such as "Usoole Deen" (Principles of Religion), Lecture 01 of which is delivered by Maulana Faiz Abbas Mashhadi, work systematically through doctrine. Talk and question-and-answer formats address everyday religious and social life; one documented series, "Allah Aur Uske Riyaya Ke Huqooq" (The Rights of Allah and of His Subjects), presented by Sister Zehra Rizvi and Sister Gulnar Fatema, treats the rights of God and of people in episodic discussion. Documentary programmes, such as one on religious conversion, extend the schedule beyond the lecture hall.
The organisation's offline programming feeds the channel: the majalis and lecture programmes WIN organises, in which scholars address Islamic values, social issues, Islamic law and customs, are the same forms that fill its broadcast hours. Programmes for women are a deliberate strand, reflecting WIN's ladies' classes and its educational work with girls. The channel broadcasts thousands of hours of such content, in the network's own accounting, and its YouTube channel publishes lectures, talk shows and documentaries continuously for on-demand viewing.
Language and Community Focus
Channel WIN broadcasts in several languages — Urdu first among them, with English, Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali also listed among its broadcast languages. The channel made its debut in Urdu, the traditional language of South Asian Islamic scholarship and preaching, and its lecture content remains anchored in Urdu. A Bengali extension, Channel WIN Bangla, has existed as a YouTube-only service since March 2020, carrying the network's message to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Its theological focus is explicit: the channel presents Islam in the light of the Quran and the Ahlul Bayt, the defining emphasis of Shia Islam, and WIN TV was described at its satellite launch as the first Shia Islamic satellite channel from India. That focus gives the channel a defined community — Shia Muslims in India and the diaspora — while its "Message of Humanity" branding frames its teaching as addressed to society at large.
Availability and Platforms
Satellite trackers have recorded Channel WIN on Intelsat 20 at 68.5 degrees east, its original satellite home, and on Insat 4B at 83 degrees east, where it started on transponder 3805 H 28500; channel guides have also listed it among India's free channels with a stream available. The network states that the channel is available in around thirty countries — across Asia including the Far East and the Middle East, Africa, Australia and Europe — and WIN's own account put its reach at more than thirty-three countries by 2013.
Digitally, the channel maintains channelwin.tv with live viewing, an active YouTube channel under the Channel WIN name publishing its lectures and series, and Facebook, Instagram and X accounts. A "Pay 2 WIN" donation application has been promoted to viewers, reflecting the donation-supported model of community religious broadcasting. For diaspora viewers — the channel's international audience — YouTube and the website stream are the primary means of access.
Audience and Market
Channel WIN's audience is the Urdu-speaking and Shia Muslim viewership of India and its global diaspora, in the countries of the Gulf, East Africa, and the West where Khoja and other South Asian Shia communities are established. WIN TV's launch footprint of around four million homes in its five original cities gave the satellite channel a ready base, and its multilingual offer — Urdu, Hindi, English, Gujarati and Bengali — widens that base across India's Muslim linguistic regions.
Within India's religious television market, Channel WIN occupies ground that mainstream broadcasters did not serve: licensed Islamic satellite channels from India were non-existent before its 2012 licence, and its schedule of Shia scholarship, majlis and family religious education remains distinctive against general Urdu channels and international imports.
Notable Programmes and People
The channel's documented presenters include Maulana Faiz Abbas Mashhadi, whose "Usoole Deen" lecture series teaches the principles of religion, and Sister Zehra Rizvi and Sister Gulnar Fatema, who co-present the rights-based talk series on the rights of Allah and His subjects. Its documentary strand has included a film on religious conversion credited in its descriptions to Hasan Asif. These names represent the channel's two characteristic voices: the trained scholar lecturing, and the community educator discussing.
Behind the programmes stands the World Islamic Network's wider body of work, which is part of the channel's identity: around ninety published titles distributed free worldwide, ladies' classes and competitions, and majlis programmes that bring scholars before community audiences in person as well as on screen.
Recent Developments
Channel WIN continues in regular production. Its YouTube channel publishes new lectures, talk shows and documentaries on a continuing basis, its Bengali YouTube service has run since 2020, and its social channels remain active under the official Channel WIN identity. The channel's satellite presence has been maintained and repositioned over the years — the move onto the 83 degrees east position alongside its Intelsat 20 presence being one documented step — as the network keeps the service available to both dish viewers and streamers.
From free books in Dongri to a licensed satellite channel seen across five continents, Channel WIN's development is the story of a community organisation mastering each new medium in turn. It remains, as it was in November 2012, India's first Islamic satellite television channel — and still the television voice of the World Islamic Network.
