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HISTORY LOOKS FOR INDIA LAUNCH BY
EARLY NEXT YEAR
The History Channel will hit Indian idiot
boxes by early next year. The channel is expected to
make an announcement about its foray by end this year.
History's parent A&E Network's executive vice-president
Whitney Goit told an online service that History's core
content will come from its archives with the product
being dubbed into local languages, with some interstitial
material and possibly local hosts added in order to
increase appeal. In India the channel could likely ally
with either Zee Telefilms' DTO bouquet or with the Star
TV bouquet (it's more likely it will ally with Star).
History is also eyeing distribution deals in Pakistan,
Turkey and Israel.
SITICABLE-INCABLE: ALLIANCE ON THE
CARDS?
Siticable and the Hinduja-run Incablenet
are believed to be making eyes at each other or so the
market rumours go even as the InCable senior management
has denied them. But apparently, the talks are taking
place at Chandra and Srichand Hindujas level. The reason
the Hindujas may be even considering a possibility of
a sellout is because they have been singularly unsuccessful
in getting a valuation for their cable networking company.
InCable has been rife with rifts for the past couple
of years with the Hindujas paying cursory attention
to it. The result has been that the venture has not
lived up to its promise. Chandra is possibly interested
in acquiring InCable because it will immediately polevalut
Siticable into a super MSO with no one to rival it in
most of the metros and large cities. This will help
him get a better valuation for Siticable. His target
is to get it a valuation of $5 billion within the next
four-five years.
WORLD-TEL GETS FOREIGN INVESTMENT BOARD
GO-AHEAD
World-Tel which is bidding to set up
a fibre optic backbone in south and North India has
been permitted by the Foreign Investments Promotion
Board to set up a holding company that will fund its
Internet backbone to the tune of Rs 20,000 million.
STAR TV FORGES PARTNERSHIP WITH CABLE
& WIRELESS HONG KONG
Star TV is moving strongly into the Internet
and Interactive TV business in Asia. The network has
forged a relationship with Cable & Wireless HKT for
a new venture that will be 60% owned by C&W HKT with
40% being with Star. C&W HKT has pumped in more than
HK $6 billion into a service which offers a mix of video-on-demand
and broadband Internet access. But the interactive television
service has attracted no more 90,000 subscribers. The
two are hoping that together they will be able to take
the venture forward to various Asian markets and raise
funds from the capital market for further expansion.
MTV HOSTS DANCE MARATHON
MTV India is hosting the longest dance
party in the world, which is to go on for three days
right from 26,27 and 28 November. The bash is being
held in Gurgaon, close to Delhi. The MTV management
is attempting to get the event listed in the Guinness
Book of World Records.
BBDO TAKES MAJORITY IN INDIAN AGENCY
US ad agency BBDO Worldwide has taken
a majority stake of 50.1% in its Indian partnership
RK Swamy/BBDO. It earlier had a 20.1% equity holding
in the agency. BBDO has also taken a 49% equity stake
in Hansavision, an airtime selling and programme production
and syndication offshoot of RK Swamy. RK Swamy/BBDO
reported billings of Rs 2,250 million in the year ended
March 1999. .
MOVE FOR ASIA WIDE PEOPLE METER DATA
Indian
media planners could have another resource tool to look
forward to in the next year or so. A move is on, according
to CNBC Asia president Paul France, to set up an Asia
wide peoplemeter panel to study viewing habits of Asians
. This decision has been taken following some incongruencies
that have turned up in data which has been churned out
using survey and peoplemeter panels.
TELECOMS REGULATOR OFFERS RECOMMENDATIONS
ON SATPHONE SERVICES
The Telecoms Regulatory Authority of
India has suggested that entry fees for those wanting
to make a satellite telephony foray should be kept at
a minimum of Rs 10 million. It has additionally said
that the licence fee should be 5% of adjusted gross
revenues which should be paid to the government every
quarter. The TRAI has recommended that it should be
the dispute-settlement body and its powers should be
enhanced to play this role. Hitherto, it has been pushed
into a corner by the department of telecommunications,
which has refused to listen to its recommendations.
SPACE '99 OPENS
Space '99 - the second UN-ESCAP Ministerial
Conference on Space Applications for sustainable development
in Asia and the Pacific opened on 15 November in New
Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan. The conference ends on 20 November
and will attempt to draw a consensus as far as policies
and perspectives on space technology, development and
applications in the new millenium are concerned.
CVO CELEBRATES THIRD ANNIVERSARY
The Hinduja-run cable TV movie channel
celebrated its third anniversary last week. The channel
is available in 95 centres all over the country giving
it a claimed penetration of 19.25 million viewers.
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