MTV India has introduced a new post in its management. That of Vice-President. This has been a result of MTV India‘s continuing success as the number one youth music channel in the country. And there are rewards in it for those who have made it so. Cyrus Oshidar, Natasha Malhotra, Sanjay Puthli and Sanjev Hiremath have been promoted to the position of Vice-President. This is the first time anyone has occupied the post of Vice President in MTV India. Cyrus Oshidar, Vice President, Creative, MTV India is known as the creative guru at MTV and is behind all the wacky, zany and entertaining MTV promos, tune in spots and VJ profiles on view on the channel. Right from the MTV Liftman to the new Gaseous Clay promo, Cyrus has done it all and along with his team has won several awards for MTV India including the A&M Youth Marketer of the year.

Natasha Malhotra, Vice President, Executive Producer, MTV India is a part of the strong, bold and vibrant team that makes MTV the No.1 music channel. Natasha is the one behind all the programming and vignettes on MTV besides handling the recruitment of VJs.

Sanjay Puthli, Vice President, Advertising Sales handles all the sales aspects for MTV India and has led to MTV‘s sales increasing by 100% in 1999 and starting of well in 2000 too. Sanjay and his team have ensured that more than 250 brands, both conventional youth brands and non-conventional youth marketers have used MTV as a successful medium to connect with the youth.

Sanjev Hiremath, Vice President, Network Development, Licensing & Merchandising is the man responsible for MTV being connected in over 13.4 million cable and satellite homes in India and other neighbouring countries. He is also the man behind MTV‘s latest business venture - Licensing and Merchandising including the new launch of the clothes and accessories line - MTV Style.

Both Alex Kuruvilla, Managing Director, MTV India & Senior Vice President, MTV Network Asia and Frank Brown, President, MTV Networks Asia have acknowledged the contributions of the four key members and expressed pleasure at their promotions.

Banglore-based Technology Media Group (TMG) has launched a 24-hour information technology oriented television channel. The channel targeted at the burgeoning IT community aims to provide real-time information on the dynamic IT market in the country.
Presently the channel is on air in the analog, free-to-air mode and is uplinked from India. According to company officials, the channel will go digital at the appropriate time. The channel has been on air since its trial run started in April this year and already has a viewership base of three million homes. It expects to increase its reach to six million home by the end of next year.

As far as the programming of the channel is concerned, the Chairman of the TMG Group, Mr Subhanjan Sarkar, says that they already have 1500 hours of archival back up, and a daily production of five hours should enable it to provide the impetus.

The programming will consist of educational programmes, updates on venture funding process, news bulletins related to e-comm and dotcom happenings. For technology and content, the group has tied up with Mindtree Consulting, Santa Cruz Operation and Ma Foi Consultants.

TMG Group has also tied up with RCTC (an IFCI subsidiary), Canbank Venture Capital Funds Ltd and Gujarat Venture Finance for financial support.

After taking a block on the Star Plus channel for airing its programme and after starting a seven hour daily Hindi feed on its own channel, the National Geographic Channel will now be looking other ways to increase its reach in the country.