Star World to telecast 50th Annual Grammy Awards live

Star World will air the 50th Annual Grammy Awards live on Monday 11 February from LA.
Grammy’s 2008 nominations include hip-hop whiz kid Kanye West with eight nominations and British soul sensation Amy Winehouse with six. Also in the running are alternative rockers Foo Fighters, rapper Jay-Z and dance-pop singer Justin Timberlake, who received five nominations each.

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Other popular contenders are R&B songstress Rihanna and American Idol singer Chris Daughtry.

Star World will also present My Night at the Grammys, an episode that relives the best Grammy moments from the past, on Friday 8 February. The two-hour special will feature some of the unique pairings from the Grammys, including performances by the Gorillaz and Madonna, Eminem and Elton John, and Jay-Z, Linkin Park and Paul McCartney.

Grammy winners Melissa Etheridge, Faith Hill and Alicia Keys will count down the Top 25 favourite Grammy moments, as voted on by viewers, with the stories behind the moments, as told by the artists themselves.

The telecast will also include a montage of acceptance speeches over the years as well as reminisces from past winners such as Christina, Beyoncé, Mary J Blige, Bono, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin and Usher.

Widely recognised as music’s most coveted prize, the Annual Grammy Awards honours music industry’s great artists.

Money, money, money is the IPL name game

Ashish Khurana – Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
Big Boys play at night’ was the slogan in vogue when cricket first began to become an evening spectacle under the glare of spotlights, when Kerry Packer first thought of a cricket league. That was of course a long time ago.

As India continues to sustain its slot as the financial epicenter of cricket, the Boys in the game just got bigger – the biggest names you’d think of have thrown their hat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) ring, and so, just this once, the stars on the ground may have to face serious competition in the attention stakes from those who run the teams. From the corporate world’s czars to the badshah of Bollywood, the team bidding process has quite justified the ‘premier’ that the P in IPL stands for. Come April, and we will fully understand just what has attracted an expenditure of Rs 3,984 crore for the media rights and Rs 2,852 crore for franchise bidding.

But even now, the picture is interesting. For now comes the most exciting off field drama of the format, when the franchises bid for the players who will play for them. Each team will have to bid for at least 16 players, at a minimum salary of Rs 20 lakh.

Interestingly, though, India’s Star players Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni are not available for bidding, and will have to play for their local teams. Of these, the T20 champions’ skipper, Dhoni, is still a wild card though, since Jharkhand has no team for this league; we will know only later which team he is asked to play for. To the presence of these stars, add a host of foreign players who will be up for grabs with each team allowed to have four foreign players.

The IPL, a potential $2 billion modern business in sport, will propel the national game of cricket into taking a quantum leap from the era of the begging bowl to a world of riches beyond imagination.

It’s less than a decade since Doordarshan’s Rs 230-crore TV rights deal (for five years) for international cricket in the country was thought of as a path-breaking route to riches. Since then, the rights contracts are threatening to break the billion-dollar barrier.

Add IPL revenues and it becomes easy to see why India is the undisputed economic powerhouse of the cricket world.

Cricket, the Indian dream machine, is going further this time. A powerful mix of Bollywood stars, glitterati, liquor and media barons and a virtual who’s who of Indian industry is lined up to anoint this leap into the truly professional era of the game. At the end of the day, the biggest beneficiaries will be the players, the best performing international stars and domestic Indian cricketers, who have never seen the game give them more than two square meals a day.

In one stroke, Indian cricket will wipe away years of neglect of the players just below Test and ODI level. The burgeoning revenues of both the international game in India and IPL will ensure money for infrastructure, which at the moment is terribly outdated in our sport arenas. The national cricketer will get a glamorous televised stage on which his performances may fetch him the recognition that has been given to him, thus far, only reluctantly by a selection rather than talent scout system.

The franchisee route by which superstars of the entertainment world, like Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, will also own teams will take cricket in the country to the level of pro sport in the US. The US is where the modern visionary of the game, Lalit Modi, BCCI Vice-president, drew his inspiration. With the help of sports management companies, Modi, who comes from a family of industrialists, made the linkage between business, entertainment industry and sport possible.

The charisma of Indian cricket simply took it further. Which other sport in the country has the capacity to attract the most glamorous from Bollywood, the crème de la crème of businessmen, like Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya, and infrastructure and media barons? Compared to this, the Indian Cricket League, a forerunner, is a much cheaper business property but one which showed the way in many ways, especially in the treatment of players and in serving their need for security.

The Bollywood mix of naughty girls, rock stars and comedians takes a day at the cricket to a different level of public entertainment. The victory of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s band of Indians in the world Twenty20 championship in 2007 changed the scenario forever. The new audience for the game, consisting of women and children, represents the formation of new ties, while the accent is on fun of the fair which now comes to the cricket.

What of the cricket itself? Twenty20 is a winner so far as the public is concerned. Critics may knock the slam-bang version as inconsequential but there is no denying there is a whole new generation of players who believe their future lies in this extreme form of the all-action game that leaves no time to think and the ones to blink first get left behind.

What of the scheduling in an age when all the talk among the pros is the amount of cricket that is being played? The clash of interests between state and club is what may cause a few furrows to be creased as programmers fight to find dates that will be most suitable for the IPL amidst a very crowded international schedule.

On the technical front, T20 cricket will add enormous pace to run gathering with the emphasis on big hitting that Yuvraj Singh (and Herschelle Gibbs before him in an ODI) already took to a new level with his six sixes in an over. More athletic fielders will try to aid their poor brethren, the bowlers, who are threatened with a fate worse than that reserved now for the slaves of the game.

In adding a third tier to the Test ODI format of the international game, T20 will most likely wipe the last vestige of public attention from national cricket. Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy will become mere talent-raising platforms since only players who get on to T20 will really make a good living off the game as a minimum wage of $50,000 per player per season is being thought of.

The franchisees, who were picked as much for their financial bids as for their strong presence in the respective cities, believe they have a fair deal, with business projections predicting the ownership of teams will break even between the second and fifth years.

The revenue-sharing agreement is fair although the bottom line will have to accommodate a considerable premium on the publicity spin off that the owners will get.

The prime driver of the whole business is television. Indian TV advertising revenues, projected to cross $6,000 million in 2008, are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 22 per cent.

With TV ownership spreading into 112 million homes, according to a PWC study, the Indian market represents one of the biggest in the world. Also, India is the third largest pay TV market with 68 million homes paying a monthly subscription to receive specialty channels and that market is expected to grow with the demand for cricket viewing.

Concluding, it’s a whole new ball game in an old ball park that is completely unrecognisable from the amateur sport played on the greensward for a bit of honour and national pride. Pro sport will make excessive demands on players who will have to play to match climbing pay scales while young fans will be too thrilled to be able to watch more of their favourite sport. The world has changed and the newfangled T20 cricket is a recognition of that change.

Percept Managing director Shailendra Singh has his own take. “I look at it as a real estate investment. It seems a saleable commodity going by the enthusiasm of BCCI. And with the ICC backing it up so seriously, this new format will be a hit for the already cricket crazy audience of our country.” But with huge expenses like hiring of the stadia, expenses for security and organisation of seven matches at home, training, salaries to coaches and support staff, and their own promotions, this ain’t for the faint hearted.

“I must add that the investors should have the appetite to lose Rs 60-70 crore each year for at least three to four years initially. But the extraordinary thing is the 10-year tenure, and with a billion fans, it should turn out to be an extremely profitable venture,” Singh adds. What players is he looking for in his Jaipur team? “I will like to have Ricky Ponting as my skipper for his sheer shrewd and tactical abilities, however much we may dislike him at the moment. I will love to have a blend of Aussie and Sri Lankan players.”

For some other investors, love for the sport is the inspiration, they say. “I wanted my favourite Yuvraj Singh to play for me and I am glad he will be playing for my team. Frankly I will like to see all the good players playing in IPL, whether in my team or for the opponents,” says Dabur scion Mohit Burman who is part of the group that acquired the Mohali/Chandigarh team.

Preity has said that “I am from the North and I always wanted the Chandigarh team. We already have an exciting player in Yuvraj. What more do we want?” Her wish-list also includes Dhoni and Sreesanth. And Shah Rukh Khan has said that he “adores Sourav Ganguly” and wants him to lead the Kolkata team.

IPL revenues
TV rights of $1.026 billion for 10 years from Sony-World Sports Group (WSG).

Team franchises: $726 million for 10 years.

Teams: 8, to grow to 12 soon.

Matches in inaugural season (from April 18, 2008): 59 comprising 7 home and 7 away matches for each of 8 teams, 2 semifinals and a final (to be played in Mumbai).

Prize money: 16% of TV revenues, with winner taking purse of $4 million (about Rs 16 crores)

Venues: 8 cities

Franchisees: 8 who will get 64% of TV revenues to begin with, share becoming less as teams are added and tapering down over the 10 years of the contract.

Players: Up to 130 players, including 32 from a foreign pool of 84 IPL contracted cricketers, are likely to get sums ranging from $1 million to a minimum anticipated wage of $50,000 per season.

ODI comparison: In a typical ODI in India, BCCI gets close to $8.5 million from TV. Title, ground and apparel sponsors pay $1 million, ground sponsorship $1.7 million, bringing a total revenue of $11 million per match day.

IPL figures will be far less per match day. BCCI is worth nearly Rs 10 billion from current total assets of Rs 9.6 billion of which investments are Rs 7.5 billion. Last fiscal profits were Rs 232 crores.

National first class cricketer: Earns match fees of Rs 35,000 per day and shares prize money for domestic tournaments of Rs 4.2 crores.

International cricketer: Earns match fees of Rs 2.60 lakhs per ODI and Rs 3.5 lakhs per Test, besides an annual retainer ranging from Rs 60 lakhs to Rs 25 lakhs, depending on his rating in four categories.

IPL fees: Ranges from $400,000 to a projected minimum of $50,000 per player per season.

NGC Asia expands Nat Geo Junior block to other countries

National Geographic Channel (NGC) Asia has expanded its Nat Geo Junior block to other Asian countries. This block is already present in India.The one-hour block is now also airing on the Hong Kong and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional sattllite feed. Nat Geo Junior was created to inspire young viewers to explore the world beyond the classroom through its educational and highly engaging documentary programmes.

NGC Asia senior VP (programming and broadcasting) David Gunson says, “National Geographic Channel has always been the trusted partner in exploration, education and conservation. Nat Geo Junior is the perfect companion for teachers, parents and students to explore beyond the classrooms. From the little known facts of how things work to the everyday science and the secrets of the wild, Nat Geo Junior documentary programmes are informative, engaging and offers fresh insight into our world.”

In Asia, Nat Geo Junior is expected to reach over six million households for viewers aged 7 – 16 years.

“We are excited with the launch of Nat Geo Junior in Asia. While National Geographic Channel is about pushing the boundary of the way we understand our modern world, Nat Geo Junior provides a positive, fresh, relevant and trusted learning environment for our young viewers,” adds Gunson.

The current programming lineup includes I Didn’t Know That, Mad Labs as well as the premiering series Wild Detectives.

English movie channels bank on digitalisation for growth

English movie channels have seen an almost flat ad revenue growth in 2007. The challenge has also been to innovate programming slots even as viewers have spent less time on these channels. The bright spot, though, is the signs of maturity that the genre is showing. New players like Anil Ambani’s Reliance and NDTV Imagine are also eyeing this space.Star Movies is the clear leader in the segment with a share of 47 per cent, according to Tam data (C&S 15+) for 2007. HBO follows with a share of 30 per cent. After that come Pix and ZEE Studio with shares of 13 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

More interesting, though, is the time spent on English movie channels. Data shows that time spent has fallen with HBO showing the worst dip. Its share has gone down from 4.68 to 3.05 minutes each week. Star share has also dropped from 5.9 minutes each week to 4.91 minutes.

Players attribute the fall partly on the distribution scenario as more channels have jostled for space on clogged cable networks. This has meant higher carriage or placement fees. Then, of course, there is competition from other genres.

In terms of the top Films of the year HBO’s King Kong with a rating of 0.75 topped the list. Star Movies’ The Myth had a rating of 0.47. HBO’s Hindi dubbed King Kong took the third spot.

Facing an intensely competitive environment, it is crucial for players to understand their audiences better. The aim in some cases is to boost the non-primetime area and look at areas like presentation. Differentiation through innovation is also important.

Keeping all this in mind, Star Movies undertook various initiatives. It revamped the late night movies to cater to the male audience. It also focussed on the Sunday afternoon slot. Films that air are chosen so that the audience enjoys a relaxed weekend. Star VP marketing and communications Prem Kamath adds that the channel also re-looked the evening slots.

“The aim has been to bring in more family movies. In addition to that we also constantly feature film festivals like our X Men Trilogy during the year end, thw Star Wars marathon, 15 nights of Bond to name a few.”

Kamath attributes the channel’s leadership to the focus on striving for variety without compromising on quality of offerings. So you have a serious film like Crash and blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean 2, X Men 3.

And what of HBO? The channel’s tagline for the year was Big! New! Most! HBO South Asia country head Shruti Bajpai expresses satisfaction in terms of how the plans were achieved. For this channel too it is a combination of raters like Mission Impossible 3, The Da Vinci Code, Batman Begins and King Kong and critically acclaimed, path breaking movies like Brokeback Mountain and Syriana.

A lot of focus went into seeing that different viewer segments were tuning in at different slots. So Midday Matinee every weekday at noon was introduced. Wicked Hour which is every weeknight after the 9 pm movie was also launched. “In addition, HBO also caters to the youth with Whazzup every weeknight at 7 pm, a special family treat for the whole family in Family Sunday, an action packed entertainment package for the guys in “It’s a Guy Thing”.

HBO also revamped its on air look. The aim was to make the channel brighter and racier. Bajpai goes on to explain that there are new features like an On-air EPG of sorts, which offers the viewers a sneak peek of the upcoming titles in the next few days and a Countdown clock indicating the time left to watch the next film. Bajpai attributes the dip for the genre in part to the fact that more channels are entering other genres.

“According to me there are only two real players in this genre (Star Movies and HBO) and there will always be a toss up of who is number one and who’s not. This is all a part of the game and we welcome it as it helps us stay on our toes. Ultimately the viewer benefits the most as he/she gets to see the best from the best,” she concludes.

Still with more players coming in, there are signs that the genre is starting to mature. The feeling in the industry is that English movie viewing for non-blockbuster content is now starting to grow. A case in point is Pix. It launched in April 2006. The channel’s business head Sunder Aaron says that the aim last year has been to get films that push its tagline of telling good stories. For the channel it does not matter when a film is made. The aim was also to differentiate itself through local content. Therefore in association with noted Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj it started an initiative called Gateway. This gives an aspiring filmmaker the chance to make a movie with Amritraj.

The shows go on air next month. Aaron notes that the response has been better than the channel expected. “We have had one thousand entries to the competition, and you would be impressed by the quality and variety. We had a similar response to the Pix Short Film Festival We have got a couple of other initiatives and programmes in development, so we are eager to continue with our strategy at this point, particularly because the Pix viewers are responding well.”

The channel has more local ideas on the table which it will roll out later this year, he adds.

Zee Studio did two major innovations last year. One has been subtitling which even some rivals concede was a good move. That is because it builds more comfort with viewers. The other has been to show foreign films. This has been an area that has been ignored for a while by the English film channels. Zee Studio did, among other things, a festival with Palador. Films like the Mike Leigh classic Secrets and Lies as well as Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai aired.

Ad Revenue stagnates in 2007:

Data available with Indiantelevision.com shows that ad revenue plateaued for this genre last year. Star Movies made around Rs 770 million compared with Rs 740 million in 2006 and Rs 671 million in 2005.

HBO followed a similar revenue trend. The channel is estimated to have made around Rs 560 million last year. This was a slight increase over the Rs 557 million made in 2006.

Like Star Movies, 2006 was a better year for HBO on the ad revenue growth front as it only made Rs 436 million in 2005.

For Zee Studio ad revenue was Rs 238 million in 2007.

Pix, on the other hand, made around Rs 60 million in 2007.

Mediaedge:cia’s Manas Mishra notes that besides Star Movies and HBO, the other two players are starting to find their own level. Since Pix caters to an evolved movie viewer aged 25+ it makes sense for certain brands to consider it. He also opines that Zee Studio has managed to get viewers from outside the core English movie viewing demographic on account of the subtitling. As a result, it can become more diverse in its offerings with foreign language fare.

Digitisation to boost subscription earnings:

The key for these players is the spread of digitisation this year. With Bharti and Reliance launching direct-to-home (DTH) platforms this year, English movie channels are expected to get a boost in terms of subscription revenue. A channel like HBO, after all, is purely subscription driven abroad. The hope is that the dependence on ad revenue which is anyway small will decline.

New players eye the space:

Digitisation means place for new channels One of them will come from Reliance. UTV and NDTV Imagine are also entering. The focus for the last two is world cinema. NDTV will be doing a World cinema initiative called NDTV Lumiere. This will span not just the launch of a channel but also release films into theatres, home video as well as provide space for on-ground activation. The aim is to bring in a culture of world cinema.

Just how important subscription revenue will be can be gauged from the fact that NDTV Imagine CEO Sameer Nair says that the focus of NDTV Lumiere is entirely digital and it is not a question of counting TRPs to appease media buying agencies.

Aaron seconds this view. With the economy growing so rapidly, and the number of cable and digital television (DTH, IPTV, digital cable etc.) households increasing as well, the pie will undoubtedly continue to grow, he says.

By how much is the question. Positioning will also be key for new entrants. It is not just a case of buying titles and putting them on air; understanding, addressing and attracting English viewership is also important.

There is also the issue of digital cable penetration. If it spreads across the country, then many channels can come in. In case that doesn’t happen, then carriage fees will stay a big obstacle.

Pricing issues on addressable platforms also have to be sorted out. Bajpai says that even DTH is still in an “everything for everybody” format and “one pricing system for all channels” kind of model. “Once these things change, the benefit will start becoming more apparent. Broadcasting business, after all, needs to be viable,” she adds.

Rs 50 million prize money in Star Plus’ game show with Shah Rukh as host?

After a successful stint with Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Star Plus is bringing back Shah Rukh Khan to anchor a reality game show. To be produced by Reliance ADAG’s Synergy Adlabs, the mega show is based on an international game format called Are You Smarter Than a 5th grader?

Sources close to the development say that Khan is likely to give away Rs 50 million as prize money for the winner.

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Although the name of the show is yet to be finalised, sources report that it will be a direct Hindi translation of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, or Bade Hue To Kya Hua?

Refusing to divulge any details on the prize money, Star Plus EVP and GM Keertan Adyanthaya said, “Star Plus is launching a new show with Shah Rukh Khan as host. We will announce details of format and prizes shortly.”

When contacted, Synergy Adlabs CMD Siddhartha Basu was also not willing to talk about the prize money. “It is premature to tell about it now. We can only share that Synergy Adlabs is producing the show, the name of which is yet to be finalised.”

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? is a television game show format based on asking grade-school level questions to adults. Devised in the United States, the show format has since been replicated in several foreign countries.

Themed as a school quiz, each game is played by a single contestant who earns money incrementally based on a payout ladder by answering simple  questions.

Upon leaving the game either by quitting, or answering incorrectly, the contestant must profess to the camera, “I am not smarter than a fifth grader.”

National television networks see future in regional market space

New Delhi: Even as the high-profile launches of general entertainment channels from large media houses dominate the headlines, the battle for the regional broadcasting space, hitherto dominated by regional players, is hotting up.

Many national networks, including Network18 Media and Investments Ltd, UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd, INX Media Pvt. Ltd, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd and Star India Pvt. Ltd will launch at least a dozen regional channels this year across markets such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal, among others. Besides, regional players such as Chennai-based Sun TV Ltd, Hyderabad-based Ushodaya Enterprises Ltd that runs the ETV Network and Associated Broadcasting Co. Pvt. Ltd, which runs a broadcast network under the TV9 brand name, also plan to launch new local channels in several states.

New play: Indrani Mukerjea, CEO of INX Media. Companies want to keep viewers within a broadcast family, offer an entire services bouquet. (Photo: Kedar Bhat/ Mint)

“There is too much fragmentation in the national viewership and there is intense competition for advertising revenue. In comparison with national broadcast market, the regional markets are hugely underserved in terms of total number of channels and variety of content. There is huge untapped advertising potential as well which will unleash when competition hots up. So it’s a sensible strategy to go regional,” says Shashi Sinha, chief executive officer (CEO), Lodestar Universal.

Star India, through its joint venture with TV content and film producer Balaji Telefilms Ltd, will launch a Telugu general entertainment channel this year. “Others are in the planning stage and it is too early to talk about them,” said Yash Khanna, spokesperson for the network. The two partners said last year they will launch a network of regional entertainment channels.

INX Media has planned nine regional channels—three each in general entertainment, music and news. “Local content is an attractive proposition for viewers. We wanted to have a bouquet with good regional penetration,” says Indrani Mukerjea, CEO, INX Media. At least two music channels are likely to be on air this year.

Global Broadcast News Ltd (GBN), a majority-owned subsidiary of Network 18, will launch three regional news channels this year, with at least seven to nine more in the works. “Regional is the future. There is a lot of advertisement revenue to be tapped from regional markets, be it in real estate or retail,” said Sameer Manchanda, joint managing director, GBN.

Zee Entertainment, which currently runs 12 regional channels, plans to add one more in Telugu this year. UTV will also take the regional route once it consolidates the viewership of its recently launched channels Bindass and Bindass Movies, Zarina Mehta, CEO, GenX Entertainment Ltd, the UTV subsidiary that houses Bindass, said in a recent interview with Mint.

Regional channels enjoy about 30-35% of viewership share according to different industry estimates. Estimates of advertising revenue that accrue to them vary from 25-30% of the total advertising spends on television.

According to TAM Adex, a division of Mumbai-based audience measurement firm TAM Media Research, Rs6,600-6,700 crore was spent on television advertising in 2006 and according to several leading media buyers, it is likely to have gone up to around Rs8,000 crore in 2007.

Many observers, however, say it is unlikely to be easy sailing as the bulk of the regional advertising revenue is concentrated in the southern market. “There is not much money to be made outside south. Newcomers will have to build the market first before they can think of making any money out of it (non-south markets),” says Punitha Arumugam, CEO, Madison Media Group.

Experts also point out incumbents such as Sun Network and Eenadu Network are well entrenched and breaking their stranglehold on the markets will be challenging for new players. Besides, the existing players themselves are in an expansion mode. “In our existing market, we will launch two children’s channels—one each in Kannada and Telugu,” says Hansraj Saxena, vice president, programming, Sun Network.

The company runs 19 channels in four southern languages. TV9, according to an executive who didn’t want to be named, will be launching three channels in Orissa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, besides a channel in English.

The aspirants, however, see strategic sense in going regional. “It’s all about keeping viewers within your broadcast family. Whether the viewer wants sport, news, entertainment or content in her mother tongue, she should get all she wants within your umbrella and shouldn’t feel the need to look out,” says Ashish Kaul, executive vice-president, Essel Group, the parent of the Zee network of channels.

“This strategy will bear results in the longer run,” he says.

Al Jazeera Children’s Channel joins Arab Broadcast Union

DOHA • Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, the first Pan Arabic edutainment channel, has signed the membership agreement to the Arab States Broadcast Union (ASBU). This remarkable milestone came as a resolution of the Union 27th Ordinary Session of the General Assembly held in Tunis on January 11, 2008.

The membership signing ceremony took place during the visit of the Union’s delegation to JCC’s headquarter in Doha, between Salah El Dine Maaoui, ASBU Director General and Mahmoud Bouneb, Executive General Manager of JCC.

“Al Jazeera Children’s Channel’s membership to the Union is an added value to Arab children media. I believe that JCC has proven to be a considerable edutainment tool for children. We are certain that JCC will play a very active role at ASBU,” said Maaoui. Bouneb said: “We are pleased to join the ASBU. We hope the participation of the young and active Al Jazeera Children’s Channel brings forward and develops the children Arab media industry. Our main objective is to work hand in hand with ASBU in order to regulate the free to air stream of inappropriate content breaching our cultural boundaries and values, and reaching the minds of our families and children,” Bouneb added.

SCV-Hathway fight enters crucial phase

The much-gossiped spat between the Maran brothers and the family of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi seems to be reaching a contentious corner in the place where it matters the most — the control of the strategically-vital channel distribution and TV entertainment. The Sun group, which spread its wings thanks to political patronage and heavy-handed support on the streets, is now forced to face the same music as its lifeline is sought to be cuff.

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In what seems to be a multi-pronged strategy by the forces that want to blunt the Sun Group’s edge has slowly started to edge out SCV — the Sun Group’s all-powerful and all-important distribution arm —— in the market with the other sole MSO, the Hathway. In places like Perambur and in the outskirts of the city, Hathway, without any preamble or announcement, has taken over the rights of distributions in the place of SCV. A top level DMK leader, with huge support base in the area, is said to have facilitated this controversial switch-over. This change should be seen in the context of the Kalaignar TV being started to rival Sun TV and also the government announcing a cable distribution company, Arasu Cable Corporation. Hathway had hitherto struggled to compete against the SCV and had only a piffling presence in the city —— hardly 10 percent of the market. But now, with an image that it is being backed by forces that are politically very powerful, it has now managed to make more meaningful dent in the market. Sources say that the Hathway authorities have managed to meet cable operators individually and convince them to switch connections overnight. More than 60 operators in and around Perambur, Villivakam and Adyar have been shifted from SCV to Hathway. Talking to News Today, Lakshmanan, deputy general manager, Hathway, denied getting any support from the ruling regime. ‘We know that there is a problem running between them (Sun and the ruling party). Until recently, everyone knew the kind of support that the Sun TV Group enjoyed. It was difficult for us to compete with them then. But now with the support line cutoff, the battle line is clearly drawn on a level-playing field and we are ready to take them on’. In an aggressive strategy, which the SCV is finding hard to match, Hathway is distributing Set Top Boxes (STBs) free of cost. Further, it also provides 25 per cent revenue on each pay channel to the operator. This has become an instant hit among the operators and the consumers. ‘As a result, in the past one month, we have grown by 100 per cent in Chennai city’, he said. The offer by Hathway Cable TV Network to function as a Multi-System Operator (MSO) in Chennai through Tamilnadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (ACTVC) is also an attempt only to regain our lost ground and no political should be attached to it, he said.

HC – Watch Oscar presentation live on Star TV

Star Television India Private Limited has got the high court nod to telecast the Oscar Awards Presentation Ceremony live on their channels on February 24 along with all the clippings of the nominated films although it does not have the certificate from Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice J.P. Devdhar permitted the telecast of the Oscar ceremony live on Star network on a petition filed by its Senior Vice-president Sameer Rao.

Star filed a notice of motion seeking permanent permission to telecast the Oscars live with the nominated movie clippings although it does not have the appropriate certification from the CBFC. The channel contended that they had moved the application apprehending adverse effect of the live telecast where the nominated films’ clippings will also be shown.

On November 21, 2005, the high court had restrained satellite television channels from beaming movies or programmes without obtaining certification from the censor board.

The order was passed on a public interest petition by social activist and St Xavier’s College lecturer Pratibha Naithani. The channel contended that they had the exclusive rights to telecast the show. Since the show was live, it was not in their control to monitor the clippings telecast.

Besides, all the films nominated for the Oscars have not been released in India, and hence there was no way that they would have acquired a CBFC certification. According to the petition, Star holds exclusive rights since 1999 to beam Oscars live.

In 2007, there were 1.02 million television viewers who watched the Oscars live and 2.49 million viewers watched the repeat telecast the same night, this shows the popularity of the show, states the application.

Arasu cable TV work put off by three months

The Tamil Nadu government submitted to the Madras high court that it had deferred by three months the activity of a cable television network for Chennai as Multi System Operator (MSO) for which it has sought permission from the Centre.

When the matter came up for hearing on Monday before the first bench comprising Chief Justice A. P. Shah and Justice F. M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, government pleader M. Raja Kalifulla informed the court, “as far as Chennai is concerned we have decided to defer the matter for three months. Already, the government has approached the Centre seeking permission to operate as an MSO and is awaiting a reply”.

Regarding the operation in muffosil areas, the government has decided not to go in for leasing but operate as a head end operator, he informed.

On August 11, 2007, the Tamil Nadu cabinet decided to launch an MSO and accordingly floated the Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd registered under the Companies Act. A government order was issued launching the corporation on August 13 last year.

According to the Central legislation, the MSO applies only to metropolitan cities like Chennai and in other areas it is referred to as cable operator. MSOs distribute broadcasters’ signals to local operators in metropolitan cities. And in other areas they are also referred to as cable operator.

An advocate, R. Suresh Kumar, had moved the court challenging the November 2007 tender notification of Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd inviting lease of the MSO for Chennai and outside.