Zee Telefilms‘ best bet against new entrants in the Hindi news arena, Zee News, is working towards adopting major restructuring strategies to improve the channel‘s programme quality.

Satish Menon, who recently took the reins of Zee News, confirmed that a major revamp was under way. "We are working toward getting good people and improving the existing functioning of the channel and it is a continous process. We‘ll be working towards improving the content from all aspects," Menon says.

Zee has allied with American company Novocom to completely overhaul the graphics and design to make it more attractive. Menon was, however, tightlipped about the additional investment involved in sprucing up the channel. "I wouldn‘t want to talk in terms of investments. It is too early to talk about these," he said.

Zee is at present facing a stiff test from Aaj Tak, the 24-hour news channel launched on 31 December 2000 by media group India Today. Earlier, being the only major Hindi news channel, Zee News had a vice like grip on the TRP charts.

As per some recent news reports, a month after Aaj Tak‘s launch, the channel‘s viewer growth shot up nearly five times. The reports were based on a survey conducted by AC Nielsen. At the same time, the viewership of Zee and Star remained unchanged, the reports said.

With all the major players in the television industry about to turn fully pay channels, the viewership stakes can only get higher. Everyone will have to fight that much harder just to stand still.

The news is out and it continues be good for Sony Entertainment Television as its gameshow "Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke" (JCPK) completed three weeks on air.

A day after the JCPK sets witnessed mayhem after filmstar host Govinda gave away the first Rs 10 million in winnings, Sony put out television viewer ratings (TVRs) which indicate that the show continues to hold its own, especially in the north.

In key centres, TAM data released gave JCPK a weighted average TVR of 11 points for five episodes and a channel share of 46.5 per cent.

The highest was in Kanpur with 18.1 and 57.9 respectively. In New Delhi it was 13.1 and 48.3 while in Mumbai it was 11.3 and 44.8.

The show itself had its big winner in Narendra Kumar Varma, a 38-year old engineer from New Delhi, who won Rs 10 million. Varma also took home a Santro, a computer and airconditioner. He could have gone to the next stage at Rs 20 million but wasn‘t sure of himself and decided to settle for Rs 10 million.

While it took nearly six months for rival Star‘s Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Bollywood badshah Amitabh Bachchan to find its first Rs 10 million winner (crorepati) in Harshwardhan Nawathe, JCPK has done it within a month. However unlike KBC, where the winning limit is Rs 10 million, in the case of JCPK, there are no such limits. Theoretically, at least. The catch is that prize money after the Rs 10 million mark comes in the form of insurance.

Kunal Dasgupta, CEO, commented: "The winning score we have achieved so far on Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke only reaffirms the confidence we had in our entertainment blockbuster. The weekend slot now belongs exclusively to us and we are ecstatic about the response!"

Asianet will act as a facilitator for Toonz Animation, India‘s first digital ink and paint studio, in its efforts to track down creative 8-14 year olds, the Malayalam channel‘s COO Mohan Nair said on Tuesday. Asianet will co-sponsor the Toonz project of a month-long animation workshop for children at Toonz studio in Thiruvananthapuram in the southern Indian state of Kerala, in May 2001.

"The idea is to gift animation-literacy to creative children," the Financial Express quoted Bill Dennis, CEO, Toonz Animation India Private Ltd, as saying at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

"In return, the young blood will pump in fresh animation content which will help Toonz in its race for the world‘s $35 billion animation market," Dennis said.

The month-long workshop, scheduled to be held at Toonz from May 1, 2001 to May 31, 2001, will teach children how to make animation films, identify and nurture the creative talents in children, promote animation as a vocation and create novel ideas and concepts. This include selection by competition, conducting the workshop, actual making of the film and promotion and distribution of the film.

"Asianet will be regularly carrying promotions inviting patrons of the channel to get kids to participate," Nair said. The completed films will be seen by an international audience through animation festivals in major centres around the world. As cosponsor, Asianet Communications will air the one-hour special throughout the year. Each individual film made in the workshop will include the children‘s original promo and the live footage of the making of the film. Dennis said that efforts will be made to broadcast the final product at the International Children‘s Day of Broadcasting in December. "The broadcast will be premiered exclusively on Asianet," Nair said.

"We‘re also looking at it as a way to increase options as far as career options go for youngsters in Kerala. There‘s a lot of talent out there but very few avenues," Nair said.

Pentamedia Graphics, IBM, SGI, Creek & River and COMPAQ are organising the biggest and the only annual symposium in the country for the entertainment industry on 8th and 9th March at Le Royal Meridien in Chennai, India.

This was announced on Thursday at a press conference held in south Mumbai. Conceived last year, the Entertainment Graphics Organization (EGO) is an annual forum for the global entertainment graphics fraternity to interact and review existing technology & trends.

"The computer animation industry has been steadily growing over the past few years," K Srinivasan, Director COO, PentaMedia Graphics, said. "From revenues of $ 850,000 in the 80s, the computer animation portion of the entertainment industry is expected to touch $ 40 billion by 2003. With this kind of growth prospects, EGO 2001 aims to provide participants a wealth of information on the latest happenings in the entertainment graphics arena. They would be able to learn and discover ground breaking technologies and put to use these technologies for their own endeavor," Srinivasan said.

"EGO 2001 is an excellent opportunity for Indian content creation organisations to interact with some of the world‘s best. It also offers them a platform to identify newer opportunities that they can address not only for the domestic market in India but the international market as well," Dr Prasad V Medury, Managing Director, SGI India, said.

The inaugural conference of the Entertainment Graphics Organization, EGO 2000, held last year, attracted almost 400 guests from the global motion picture, television, special effects and animation field. The delegates - from the USA, Canada, Europe, England, Japan and other Pacific Rim countries - included software developers, high-end computer animation producers who traveled to Kelabakkam to understand the latest status of the computer animation industry. Key presenters included Scott Ross, CEO, Digital Domain, Robi Roncarelli, Pixel Animation Directory, Kim Davidson, CEO, Side Effects Software, and Andrew Russell, BBC, among other eminent industry leaders.

EGO 2001 will have Robi Roncarelli and Scott Ross making presentations on the status of the global computer animation industry. Besides them, the symposium will have representatives from Side Effects Software, Aptech, Cable & Satellite Broadcasters, Razorfish, Inc., Disney, Rainbow, The William Morris Agency, 20th Century Fox Animation, Platinum studios, Hyperion Studio, BD Fox & Friends, Reliance Entertainment, Motion Picture of America, ESPN/STAR sports (India) and Television Asia.