ZEE TO LAUNCH TV WORLD

Subhash Chandra's ambition of making forays into the print medium is bearing more fruit. One of Chandra's newer investments, Zee Publishing, is all set to hit the stands with its first product: a television magazine, tentatively christened TV World.

Deepak Shourie, the operating partner in Zee Publishing, did not confirm or deny the developments on TV World, a television magazine which is slated to hit the stands soon.

With TV World, Zee Publishing is taking the first tentative steps into the world of print medium. Zee's earlier publications Zee Premier, a film magazine, and Cable Guide have been transferred to the new company.

Zee, however, is tightlipped about TV World format, periodicity and the editorial content. But sources indicate that it will be a regular TV magazine with listings and stories from the television world, including international happenings.

A few months back while announcing that he was roping in Shourie, Chandra had said, "For its planned entry into the print medium, Zee is pleased to announce the appointment of Deepak Shourie as the operating partner and publisher of a new company in which he has been given sweat equity and stock options."

At that time Chandra had added that they are looking at starting new and acquiring magazines, journals and newspapers.

Zee Telefilms Ltd's managing director, V. Jindal, at one time had negotiated with the management of the over 100 years old The Pioneer newspaper for a possible buyout. The newspaper's publisher-editor, Chandan Mitra, has not denied this development.

But sources said the deal could not come through as The Pioneer management was asking for too much money, about Rs 55 million, which, according to Zee, was not the real worth of the newspaper or its brand equity.

Meanwhile, Zee TV has announced in its latest balance sheet that it will start seeding the Indian market with decoders for its direct to operator project from October 1999. It says that some 25,000 boxes will be placed in the marketplace in the first three months.

Finally, three of its regional language (Bengali - 15 September, Punjabi - 21 September, and Gujarati - 28 September) channels are slated to be launched before September ends.

On the overseas front, the network has got into a row with Bollywood channel B4U claiming it has pinched its database of subscribers in England. Its management claims that B4U got hold of the database from ex-employees and has been using it to send mailers promoting its service.

The Zee Telefilms share seemed to be on the way up with it recording a high of Rs 3,473.35 on 14 September. Market watchers are betting it will touch Rs 5,000 by the time it launches its DTO venture in November.