BEIRUT, Lebanon - Orange TV will go on the air next month, ahead of schedule, even though sales of the station's shares are lagging behind forecasts. The station will start broadcasting evening news and some nonpolitical programming in January, while it should fill 24 hours of daily airtime by March, said Jean Azzi, director of news and political programming at Orange TV.

The station's financial plans counted on the sale of at least $10 million of shares by December 1, but so far sales from the first offering amount to about $8 million, according to Orange TV CEO Roy Hachem. Orange TV plans to raise $40 million by selling 4 million shares to the public in four equal stages.

Lebanon's latest political disruptions derailed the sale of the first $10-million tranche, and yet also provided an impetus to launch programming faster, Orange TV executives said.

"Political developments in this country put us under some necessity to do it," Aziz said.

Some 7,000 people have purchased Orange TV shares, and these shareholders have been pushing for the station to go on the air quickly, Hachem said.

"We have so many people calling us from Lebanon, from the Gulf region, from the United States even," he added.

"It's not even launched and we have the biggest number [of shareholders] in Lebanon," said Souraya Machnouk, co-founder of Orange TV and corporate counsel at Abou Jaoude and Associates, which is consulting on the offering. "The Lebanese shareholder status is not really booming at the moment, and still we have had a lot of people expressing interest in the shares, which is great."

Orange TV has opened sales of two more $10-million tranches, even though the first tranche is not fully subscribed. Of the two new offerings, one is for big investors, while the other offers bearer shares, intended for those who will purchase them by proxy from abroad, Hachem said. http://www.dailystar.com.lb

The fourth $10-million tranche will be offered first to Lebanese living abroad, and Orange TV officials will hit the road to drum up interest for the shares. The road show, however, has also been delayed by the domestic political turmoil.

"We don't want to visit the Lebanese diaspora when there are political problems in the country," Hachem said.

Orange TV's public offering is the first in Lebanon designed to raise operating capital for a company and is meant to engender a spirit of public ownership of the station, Machnouk said.

"The spirit of this project is a TV owned by people," Hachem said. "We don't want someone who invests $10 million. If somebody wants to invest money to have some influence in the TV - the answer will be no."

The subject of influence remains a sore spot at Orange TV. Executives admit the Lebanese will assume the station will do the bidding of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, whose party's signature color is orange. Orange TV is Aoun's idea, but its programming will be objective and nonpartisan, Hachem and Aziz insist.

"When Michel Aoun asked us to launch this TV, he didn't want another political TV," Hachem said. "[He] wanted us to launch another TV for all Lebanese. This is Michel Aoun's idea,[but] the TV is not managed by the party."

The station's French marketing team convinced Orange TV bosses to accept the name Orange TV because of the color.

Orange TV's programming structure will resemble the schedules at LBC and Future TV. The company expects to turn a profit through its production house, its media-buying arm, the expanding Arab ad market and interactive technology.