Ever thought of making an eminent cricketer dance with a click of a computer mouse or a phone call? Chucking them in and out of a one-day cricket match as and when one wished if he‘s messing up on the field.That‘s precisely what Sony Entertainment Television has promised to cricket buffs while announcing its entry into what CEO Kunal Dasgupta termed a new genre of television programming with cricket as its centrepiece.

Close on the heels of Zee Telefilms announcing its entry into reality television with POW, Sony is brewing its own unique version of reality television centred around cricket, whose driving force would be a great level of interactivity with the viewing public.

Something akin to the rolling substitutions in hockey, here the public would be able to decide who should be on and off the field during timeouts seems to be the general drift of what is being conceptualised.

Bidding to dispel media talk that Sony was planning a new version of masala cricket a la Kerry Packer in the early eighties, Dasgupta said the matches would be held only during the off season. There was no question of taking on any national cricket boards by putting together rebel teams, Dasgupta said. He, however evinced the hope that the endeavour will "generate unparalleled entertainment for the cricket loving public so that the cricket establishment will recognise Sony‘s innovation and contribution to the game.

The programme is to be aired over a 10-15 day period per season over three seasons in a year live on MAX. It is aiming for a nationwide audience and says it is hopeful people would participate in this made for television cricket game. According to Dasgupta, they were working with a group of associates to develop an innovative, transparent "made for television" cricket format using the latest available technology. Subject to their availability, Sony was planning to rope in the best national and international cricketers, Dasgupta said.

Dasgupta was unable to provide details of the format, who were the players who had signed on, or even when it would take off other than saying that it would be sometime in April or May.

A problem Sony will have to get around is the problem of uplinking. Sony has no uplinking facility in India but uplinks from Singapore. For the live feel of viewer interactivity this will have to be addressed. Anand Desai, senior vice-president corporate development, who is responsible for the show, admitted as much and said they were working on it. Desai, however, gave a categorical assurance that the programme would be real time live.

Referring to the interactive element of the game, Dasgupta said one of the top cricket portals would be hosting details on the match through which viewers could participate. Dasgupta admitted that Sony was entering uncharted territory with this effort but said it was worth a shot anyway.

The Seven of the top 10 programmes among the music based channels are blaring from the stables of etc, a company press release said on Thursday. According to INTAM reports for the period 19 February to 25 February in all India 4+ Cable & Satellite (C&S) homes, the shows of etc have superior channel share compared to other music based channels. Bhakti Sangeet - a compilation of religious songs - on etc tops the table with a channel share of 1.45. Bhakti Sangeet is telecast every day at 7.30 am.

Rounding up the top 5 are another four etc programs - Mix Masala, Bhakti Sudha, Bollywood Bazaar and Pop Unlimited, the release says. MTV‘s Cinemascope comes at No. 6. This is followed by Once More (etc), Geet Gata Chal (etc), Just request (B4U) and Baar Baar Dekho (MTV), it further adds.

In 15-minute day-part reach category etc‘s reach is 5.62, followed by MTV (4.7), B4U (3.21), Channel [V] (2.88) and ZEE Music (2.7), the release goes on to say.

Talking about etc‘s lead, Pradeep Dixit, CEO etc says: "The recent figures of INTAM prove the fact that whether it is film music, pop numbers or religious songs, it‘s pure unadulterated music that has more takers than mindless shows with VeeJays babbling about everything but the music. Bhakti Sudha and Mix Masala - the top grossers are music compilation of sensible and good music."

The Zee Telefilms stock has seen a lot of activity over the past two days. Positive for a change. Compared to the 15 million or so trade two days ago, 32.3 million shares were traded yesterday and 1.1 million today. Two days ago, there were more sellers than buyers which led to a collapse in the ZTL share price from Rs 136 to Rs 114 and then to Rs 105.50 yesterday. This started off a wave of panic in the investment community.

Since then, the ZTL scrip has been on a recovery path. The share climbed to close at Rs 138 by the time trading ended today. The reason: Solomon Smith Barney (SSB) has put a buy recommendation on the stock. It says the share will hit the Rs 273 mark by end this year.

SSB has forecast a 45 per cent compounded annual earnings growth for ZTL between financial year 2000 and financial year 2002. The rapid growth is expected after the conversion of its flagship channel Zee TV into a basic pay channel as it is expected to be encrypted some time in April this year.

According to an analyst with a leading securities firm: "The market has already discounted the Budget effect and the results that ZTL is expected to report in the last quarter, so at this level we recommend that investors buy into the stock. It is attractive even at a price of Rs 170-175 (it yields a price-earning ratio of 27-28). In the previous quarter of this year it had a net profit of Rs 470 million; in the last quarter of last year, the net profit was Rs 260 million. We expect the net profit for Q4 this year to be somewhere between these two extremes, even if if Zee TV‘s performance has deteriorated as compared to last year. This will take the price to upper side."

The SSB prediction is the opposite of a recommendation made on 3 March by Goldman Sachs which has downgraded this stock. In its report, it has has lowered the estimates for Zee‘s earnings per share for 2002 from Rs 6.84 to Rs 6.31 and in fiscal 2003 from Rs 9.98 to Rs 9.1. This warning actually led to the slide in the share price and it shed 15.99 per cent on that day.

The scrip has clipped off over 90 per cent of its value (from its all time high of Rs 1600 in Feb 2000 ) over the last 10 months after its share split while the Sensex has shed 33% of its value. Still it is considered as a market out-performer by some analysts.

Adding to the uneasiness about the share is the buzz that an overseas corporate body is offloading ZTL stock. Zee Telefilms has denied that it or its promoter chairman Subhash Chandra is behind any of the selling.

Century Direct Fund (CDF) of Mauritius LLC, which currently holds 18.42 per cent equity stakes in United Studios Ltd, will be increasing its stake by another one percent as TCFC Finance Ltd is selling out its stake in United Studios.United Studios Ltd is a company under the umbrella of Unilazer group. Other group companies include United Teleshopping, United TV (UTV), a TV software production organisation, and UTV Interactive which is a wholly-owned susbidiary of UTV.

TCFC Finance Ltd held 71,000 equity shares constituting 0.77 per cent of the current paid up capital of United Studios. The investmend had been made as co-investor along with CDF to which TCFC was an advisor.

As a result of a restructuring of the operations of TCFC Finance, it has ceased to be an advisor to CDF and has agreed to sell its investment in United Studios to Century Direct Fund.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approved United Studios proposal recently. The other foreign shareholder in United Studios is Mitsui group of Japan which holds 18,49,990 shares aggregating to 20 per cent of the total paid up equity capital of the company.

Total foreign equity in United Studios amount to 38.42 per cent amounting to 35,54,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each.

Earlier, the government had given permission for foreign direct investment in United Studios subject to:

*All future laws on broadcasting will be applicable to United Studios and it will not claim any privilege or protection by virtue of prior approval.
*The company will not undertake any broadcasting from Indian soil unless specially permitted to do so by the government.
* There will be no obligation on the part of Doordarshan to buy TV software from the joint venture company, United Studios.

Earlier this year, Intel Pacific and GE Capital Mauritius Equity Investment picked up 12.86 and 6.98 per cent, respectively in United Teleshopping & Marketing Co. Ltd. Subsequently, the foreign equity in United Teleshopping has increased from 45.45 to 57.14 per cent amounting to Rs 360 lakh. United Teleshopping is in the process of issuing fresh equity of 13,50,000 shares of Rs 10 each in the revised paid up capital of Rs 630.07 lakh which will be subscribed as follows:

* Draper India International Mauritius-- 17.86 per cent
* Walden-Nikko Mauritius Company, Mauritius-- 19.44 per cent
* Intel Pacific Incorporation, USA -- 12.86 per cent
* GE Capital Mauritius Equity Investment --6.98 per cent.

Last year, UTV promoters had decided to buyout Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp‘s 37 per cent equity stake in the Indian media house. Part of the additional funding for this News Corp shareholding buyback came from FII, Warburg Pincus.