NEW DELHI: Telecom and V-sat company Essel Shyam Communications Ltd. is bullish on garnering increased business from providing teleport-related services to broadcasting companies in India.

Having just finished doing the work on a teleport for Rajat Sharma's proposed news channel, India TV, Essel Shyam Communications says at least half a dozen business proposals are in the pipeline, which would come through over the next few months. This also includes work for Zoom, an entertainment channel being proposed by the Times of India group.

Teleports are the gateways that connect satellite circuits with terrestrial fiber optics and microwave circuits. Brigading the gap between land and sky, they allow broadcasters, cable-casters, and public and private network operators to outsource a non-core function that is critical to their businesses.

Pointing out India TV was the last project completed, Essel Shyam Communications director MN Visa told indiantelvision.com that the company has already done teleport-related work for five companies till now, including providing news gathering equipment to a pubcaster Doordarshan.

"As days pass and more channels try to make their presence felt in India, we are confident of generating more business, especially from news channels," he added.

Apart from doing work for Maa TV, Jeevan TV (two South Indian channels), Essel Shyam is working on a project for another proposed religious channel and has the mandate for all the three channels being proposed by Times TV.

The teleport services offered by the company includes facilities like satellite news gathering (flyway, drive away & mobile) and play-out services.

The Indian government took a decision in July 2000 to permit the Indian private companies to set up uplinking hub/teleports for licensing /hiring out to other broadcasters. This decision was taken by the policy-makers to attempt making India a hub for uplinking on the lines of Hong Kong and Singapore.

Essel Shyam provides both full-time and occasional/ special-event broadcasting through an integrated fiber and satellite network.

A joint venture between the Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel group and Shyam group of companies , two major corporate identities in media and telecom, Essel Shyam Communications aims to have synergy in the Indian market where the telecom, broadcast and technology segments are once again seeing a boom.

The joint venture was established in 1996,while the operations began in December 1997. NDTV, during the days it was providing content to Star News, is the first client of the company.