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STAR RAISES PROTEST
AGAINST ZEE TV
The Star-Zee war is hotting up once
again. The Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star TV is contemplating
protesting against and, subsequently, taking legal
action against Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms
Ltd (ZTL) for starting a Marathi-language channel
under the Zee brand name.
Star is sharpening up its claws to
attack Chandra on another front: the merger of Zee
Multimedia Worldwide Ltd (ZMWL) with ZTL without Murdoch's
consent as ZMWL owns 50% equity in ATL. ZMWL is the
holding company for Zee's all non-Indian businesses.
According to a senior executive of
Star TV India, "The Zee brand name belongs to Hong
Kong-based Asia Today Ltd (ATL) and Mr. Chandra cannot
start another channel under the Zee brand without
consulting us which he has not done." And if one looks
at Zee Telefilms' 1998-99 annual report this appears
to be true. It states that Zee Telefilms is only a
licensed user of the following trademarks: "Zee Network,
Zee TV, Zee Music, Zee Education, ZICA, Zee News and
Zee Cinema."
ATL is a 50:50 joint venture between
companies of Chandra and Murdoch and, as per the shareholders'
agreement, had leased the transponders for Zee family
of channels (except Music Asia) on Asiasat-2. Zee,
at present, has plans to beam its channels from Asaisat-3.
The satellite is also being used by Star TV for the
Star channels.
In a bid to guard itself from litigation
on the Zee brandname front, the management last week
announced that it would be launching its regional
language channels under the Alpha sobriquet. Alpha
will function as an umbrella brand for the Marathi,
Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada
language channels that the Zee Network has up its
sleeves. Alpha represents a new beginning for us,
the company says.
The Star executive on Saturday pointed
out that Zee has no business to cry wolf (Chandra
has taken Star to a London court alleging breach of
shareholders' agreement on Hindi programming on Star
Plus) when they also do not honour the shareholders'
agreement.
Moreover, Star is also seeking legal
counsel whether ZTL or Essel Group (another Chandra
company) can dub the existing Hindi programming being
aired on Zee channels for its newly-launched Zee Marathi
channel.
In a bid to guard itself on the Zee
brandname front, the management last week announced
that it would be launching its regional language channels
under the Alpha sobriquet.
ZTL, in a written document submitted
to the Indian government seeking its permission for
the merger of ZMWL with ZTL had stated that Zee overseas
activities consists of ZMWL BVI and its investments
and interests are as follows:
* 100 per cent stake each in ATL, UK;
Asia TV (Africa) Ltd and Asia TV (USA) Ltd.
* 100 per cent stake in Zee TV International Ltd operating
from UAE and engaged in selling ad slots of ATL's
three satellite channels
* 50 per cent stake in Winterheath Company Ltd which
owns 100 per cent of Asia Today Ltd (ATL) broadcasting
three Hindi channels like Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee
India (Zee News) in Asia.
*100 per cent stake in Expand Fast Holding operating
a Hindi music channel, Music Asia, in the Asian region.
* 100 per cent stake in Software Supplies International
Ltd operating from UAE engaged in the business of
selling TV programmes to the Asian markets where there
are no signals of Zee Network channels.
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