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News Bites
Sahara
TV to target South India for more viewers
Sahara TV plans to design programmes to specifically target the vast southern
audience in order to get greater viewership in the region. The programmes
will strictly adhere to the Sahara India Pariwar philosophy eschewing
sex and violence, Managing Worker and Chairman Subrata Roy Sahara said.
While there will not be any specific Tamil programming initially, the
channel would definitely broadbase its activities in the future, he said.
The chairman was in Chennai to meet the cable operators and ensure a better
distribution network. Sahara TV is not being relayed in parts of Chennai
where cable operators have not upgraded equipment to accommodate the burgeoning
channels. The channel is planning investments to the tune of Rs 250 crore
to Rs 300 crore for the next couple of years. However, break-even is expected
from the third year. It had received good TRP ratings and the children’s
programmes had received a good response down south. The advertisement
tariffs range from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 during prime time. The channel
which was launched in March has 30 offices located all over India and
has a team of 600 experts monitoring the viewership. Sahara TV is uplinked
from Singapore and beamed via Asiasat 3S satellite into India and 65 other
countries in Asia, Australia, parts of Europe and Africa.
Nitya Vardarajan
Jaipur
Doordarshan Officials Arrested For Taking Bribe
The C.B.I. has arrested the Executive producer of Doordarshan Centre,
Jaipur Krishen Dev Kalpit and Asst. Director R.P. Meena for taking a Bribe
of Rs.15,000/- from a serial producer Rajendra Gupta. According to C.B.I.
S.P. Mr. Rajeev Sharma, the Director of Rati Ram is also alleged to have
some involvement in this case. It has been alleged that Director Doordarshan
had demanded Rs.60,000/- as bribe for granting further extension to the
serial Rang Tarang. A total of 27 Episodes of the serial had been telecast
and Gupta was keen on the telecast of 13 more. The deal was settled for
Rs.30,000/- to Rs. 40,000/- and Gupta gave Rs.17,000/- to Kalpit as part
payment on April 13, 2000. The next installment of Rs. 15,000/- was scheduled
on May 5th.. Gupta had complained to the C.B.I. and the CBI caught two
senior officials, Executive producer Krishen Dev Kalpit and Asst. Director
R.P. Meena while taking bribe of Rs.15,000/-.
Vijay Kher
Star
World to break even in 2001
After the "Hindi-isation" of Star Plus, it’s time for Star
World to go local. However, the local flavour in the international channel
will be used not to sway the masses in the country but to catch the eye-balls
and advertising dollars of Indian diaspora.
With the new marketing and programming thrust, the channel is expected
to break-even over the next twelve months, said senior officials of News
Television India which manages the Rupert Murdoch-promoted Star TV’s
India operations.
To start with, the local flavour will be in the form of a half-hour time
slot for the English news bulletin everyday. Following this move, NDTV-produced
Star News at Nine will make its debut in Star World. The programme was
earlier aired on Star Plus. This follows a move to make Star Plus an all-Hindi
channel and phasing out of English news and current affairs programme.
News Television India chief executive officer Peter Mukherjea confirmed
that all Star World to breakeven in 2001 the English news and current
affairs band in Star Plus will be moved to Star World. "This will
be targeted at the Indian diaspora spread across Asia and parts of Europe.
However, the international identity of StarWorld will remain intact,"
he said.
The footprints of Star World is spread over several countries in Asia
and Europe, extending from Israel in the West to Taiwan in the East. Star
World already carries news programmes from the Asian region targeted at
viewers in HongKong and Singapore.
Though essentially Indian in content, the news band may introduce some
regional flavour from the subcontinent at a later date, officials said.
To supplement the programming exercise, marketing effort to garner more
advertising revenue from the region is also likely to be stepped up in
course of the year. "We expect businesses looking at the Indian market
to tap this opportunity and come on-board Star Wo-rld," an official
added. Star plans to spend up to Rs 100 crore over the next one year in
brand-building exercise for its bouquet of channels.
Sudipto Dey
HBO
yet to show up in Calcutta
Home Box Office, the premier movie channel, is yet to show up on TV screens
in Calcutta although it was launched officially on March 22 and test runs
got under way from March 15. RPG Netcom and Siti Cables, the two multisystem
operators in Calcutta, have not been able to agree on a rate with the
cable operators.
Turner International India’s managing director, Anshuman Misra, said
discussions are being held with the operators who are grouped under the
two MSOs. "We are negotiating with all of them to satisfy viewers
shortly," Misra said.
According to high officials of RPG Netcom and Siti cables, two cable providers’,
negotiation with the broadcasters is still going on."We are waiting
for the viewers demand, which is yet to come", a Siti official said.
HBO, a showpiece of recent Hollywood movies, was supposed to be available
from March 15 with one movie a day, at 9.30 pm. HBO is Turner’s fourth
offering in India after Cable News Network (CNN) International, TNT and
Cartoon Network, which are already well established here. Misra said the
channel will be available at Rs 6 per viewer, and the receiver will be
sold to the operators at subsidised rates. However, the cable operators
under the MSOs want a free trial period to get the feedback of viewers.
According to a senior member of the Forum of Cable Operators, the MSOs
and broadcaster have not agreed to this request."Both the MSOs are
requesting us to take the channel, but we want a preview time to get the
feedback of subscribers," the FCO member said.
The FCO wants the MSOs to offer all channels at a maximum retail price
or MRP, with discounts for the operators, he said. The FCO official, however,
informed that, recently, Broadcasters and signal providers have tried
to create pressure on cable operators for beaming HBO, but, it could not
be realised due to FCO’s strong policy.
Chandan Banerjee