COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER SHUNTED OUT

In what is being seen as an attempt to soothe cellular and basic telephony companies, communications minister Jagmohan was moved out from his ministry and given the portfolio of urban affairs and development. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has retained the communications portfolio with himself.

Jagmohan had earned the wrath of private telecommunications service providers when he had insisted that they pay the pending Rs 30,0000 million in licence fees to the department of telecommunications. He had even encashed the bank guarantees of service providers who did not meet the payment deadlines he had negotiated with them. The companies had pleaded that they would not be able to pay as governmental agencies had put hurdles in their path, preventing them from building a viable business.

STAR TV TO GET INTO FILM PRODUCTION

News Television India Ltd (NTIL) is drawing up a plan to get into the production of Indian films. NTIL chairman R. Basu told local news daily, The Times of India that the cost of acquisition of telecast rights to Hindi films has reached astronomical proportions and it thus makes sense to produce films. He says that the company will roll out 20 films per year.

MEN TO PUSH KERMIT & HALLMARK AFTER WORLD CUP FINAL

Cable TV distributor Modi Entertainment Network (MEN) says it is going to give a full-fledged push to Kermit and Hallmark in India once the World Cup is over. "It doesn't make sense approaching cable operators for Hallmark and Kermit while the World Cup telecast is on on ESPN-Star Sports," says a senior MEN executive. "Nobody will watch it; cable operators also would not be interested."

The two channels are encrypted and their scheduled launch in February 1999 as basic pay TV services was delayed when Customs authorities refused to allow MEN to bring in the IRDs that it had imported. The Customs had played tough then because the IRDs had been imported under a wrong classification under the import export rules.

BENGALI CHANNEL TO GO ROUND THE CLOCK

Bengali channel ATN International is planning to increase its telecast time from seven hours daily to 24 hours by September 1999. The one-year old channel has been generating high viewerships in Bangladesh and in the eastern parts of India.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC APPOINTS STAR TV FOR AIR TIME SALES

National Geographic has inked a deal with News Television India Ltd under which the latter will market air time on the channel. Star TV is already a distribution affiliate of National Geographic in India.

CHANNEL V BIDS BYE TO VEEJAYS;
SUES ONE OF THEM

Channel V has bid goodbye to three of its veejays - Suchitra Pillai, Sophiya Haque and Vinay - from its Indian service. The management has been talent hunting new veejays with Indian accents to replace the foreign sounding ones it has shipped out. This apart, it has also issued a legal notice to another veejay Munish Makhija, host of the very popular the Udham Singh Show for copyright violation. The channel says it has the rights to the rustic character Udham Singh and that Makhija has to take the management's permission before playing the role of Udham Singh for any other television channel. Makhija, who is playing the same character for a show on Sony Entertainment, has alleged that Channel V cannot claim to have rights to Udham Singh as he represents a regular country bumpkin from the state of Harayana.

MTV LOOKS FOR NEW PR AGENCY

Music channel MTV India is scouting around for a new public relations agency to handle its communications. Its account has been with the Hill & Knowlton Indian affiliate IPAN for more than two years. But the management had recently called for PR firms to make pitches for the MTV communications account.