MUMBAI: Close on the heels of making two major acquisitions, Discovery Communications has acquired 100 per cent of Switchover Media, an Italian media company that owns and operates four free-to-air television channels and one pay-TV television channel in Italy.

Combined with Discovery?s existing networks in the country, the acquisition of Switchover Media makes Discovery the third largest broadcaster in Italy in terms of collective audience share.

Discovery Communications has been on a shopping spree in Europe. The broadcaster had last year spent a little over $2.1 billion to acquire German media company ProSiebenSat.1 Group?s SBS Nordic operations and a minority stake in French media company TF1/Eurosport.

The acquisition not only made Discovery the biggest pay-TV operator outside US but also marked non-fiction major?s entry into scripted formats and sports.

?Italy is a leading market for Discovery and key to our growth here over the last two years has been the development of a successful free-to-air TV business strategy as this platform has grown," said Discovery Networks Western Europe President and MD Dee Forbes.

"The acquisition of Switchover Media adds further breadth and scale to that free-to-air strategy, as well as diversifying our portfolio to include scripted crime and children?s programming that have proven popular with audiences and advertisers."

Switchover Media Founder and Managing Partner Francesco Nespega said, ?I am confident that an international leader in the media segment, such as Discovery, with its contents and resources, will be able to further expand the potential of the channels we created and implemented.?

With the acquisition of Switchover, Discovery now has six free-to-air brands and six pay-TV brands in Italy. The combined business will beoverseen by Marinella Soldi, Managing Director Discovery Italy and General Manager Southern Europe, who is based in Milan. Francesco Nespega will cooperate with Discovery for the whole transition phase.

?Discovery and Switchover have both had such tremendous success in introducing new free-to-air channel offerings and growing audiences in Italy in a short period of time, that together we will be third in terms of audience share,? said Soldi.

Discovery?s free-to-air channels in Italy include Real Time, a female-targeted entertainment channel launched in 2010, and DMAX, which launched at the end of 2011. Discovery?s pay-TV brands in Italy include the global flagship Discovery Channel, as well as Animal Planet, Discovery Travel & Living, Discovery Science and Discovery World.

Switchover Media, established in 2009 by Nespega, operates two free-to-air channels targeted at adults, including Giallo, a scripted investigation and forensics entertainment channel targeted at women, and, Focus, a male-targeted factual entertainment channel. It also operates two free-to-air children?s channels, K2 and Frisbee, as well as GXT, a male-targeted pay-TV channel.

MUMBAI: UK media watchdog Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of ?40,000 on E! Entertainment UK.

This penalty follows Ofcom?s finding, published on 23 April 2012 in Broadcast Bulletin 204 relating to the broadcast of consecutive episodes of Girls of the Playboy Mansion at various times during the day on 27 December 2011.

The content of these episodes included material which was unsuitable for pre-watershed broadcast and the episodes were broadcast during the Christmas holiday period, when it was likely that children ? some unaccompanied by an adult - would have been watching. The broadcaster was found in breach of Rule 1.3:

According to Rule 1.3, children must also be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them.

Before the broadcast on 27 December 2011 of Girls of the Playboy Mansion, which was subject to this sanction, E! had also previously been found in breach for two programmes, which were also unsuitable for broadcast before the watershed because the nature of the content and because the most offensive language was broadcast (Broadcast Bulletin 195).

Ofcom decided that the Code breach of Rule 1.3 recorded in Broadcast Bulletin 204 was serious and repeated and, therefore, a financial penalty should be imposed.

MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch-owned media conglomerate News Corp has completed the acquisition of ESPN Star Sports, an equal joint venture company that it had formed 16 years back with Walt Disney?s ESPN to rule sports broadcasting in Asia.

The acquisition is made through a wholly owned subsidiary. With this, ESS becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp.

News Corp had in June announced that it will buyout ESPN?s 50 per cent stake in ESS to become the sole owner of the sports network.

"News Corporation and ESPN today announced that News Corporation, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, completed its acquisition of ESPN?s partnership interest in ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) pursuant to their agreement announced on 6 June 2012," the company said.

In India, the deal was earlier cleared by India?s anti-competition watch dog Competition Commission of India.

ESS has footprint across 24 countries in Asia through its 25 television networks and three broadband networks. It has offices in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, and employs more than 650 employees across the region.

The buyout marks the exit of ESPN from the Asian market. The global sports broadcaster, however, remains present in Asia through its digital media products which include ESPNcricinfo, ESPNFC, ESPNscrum and mobileESPN.

MUMBAI: With the aim of taking brand Star beyond television, News Corp-owned broadcast network Star India has associated with Shripal Morakhia-promoted sports-based entertainment centre Smaaash.

The centre, spread over 24,000 sq. ft. at Kamla Mills Compound, Lower Parel, is in line with Star?s promise of inspiring and entertaining audiences.

Star India?s association with Cricket began in June when it acquired the media rights for international and domestic cricket played in India till 2018 for Rs 38.51 billion.

With Smaaash, the broadcaster looks to extend its association with cricket fans from television sets to on-ground.

Star, whose acquisition of ESS? sports broadcast businesses is now virtually imminent, will provide international quality cricket experience to sport buffs through the centre. Smaaash promises to bring an international quality cricket experience, where the players can face off against top cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Brett Lee, Anil Kumble and many others in a simulated environment.

Smaaash Centre has eight cricket lanes, an F&B arena and other arcade games including a F1 simulator, FPS simulator etc. The Smaaash cricket lanes enable live cricket play using the Hawk-Eye & Bola technology.

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar is the brand ambassador of Smaaash and has been actively involved in this concept during the initial testing as well as in designing the overall experience.

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said the association was a way for Star to extend its brand on the ground. "This is an open ended partnership and we want to take it to the next level. This is the first time that we are doing something like this. As a media company we feel it is important for us to connect with consumers beyond television. Our aim is to increase the depth of the level at which we connect with consumers," Shankar said.

With family as its core TG, Smaaash uses sports simulation technology and it allows fans to play against famous players and also to step into their shoes. Tendulkar played a role in designing the simulator experience and was also involved in the initial testing. The aim was to make sure that the simulator stayed true to the game and that the technology augmented the user?s experience so that there is authentic action.

Nea India advisor A.P. Parigi said that the initiative was 12 - 14 months in the making. "This is our flagship property. We have received requests for franchises in other cities but we want to make sure that this fares well. This is the country?s first immersive consumer engagement activity. It is Augmented Reality. We want to deliver what we promise and our aim is to deliver a holistic experience. The vibes so far have been good and the interest has been strong. The initiative is scalable. If you look at the trends today being seen malls, entertainment if you deliver value then people will spend money even in a downturn."

The cricket simulator has a ball tracking system powered by Hawkeye technology that evaluates shots played and even calculates outcomes in real time including adjudicating wickets. For fans of F1 there is a racing simulator which is a full motion, professional machine that is employed by motorsport teams.

In soccer there is Robot Goalkeeper which is a man versus machine challenge. Users can see how they will fare in a penalty shootout. Another simulator blends football with pool. The game is Poolball where a large pool table meets a small football field.

MUMBAI: Infotainment broadcaster Discovery will launch a Hindi feed for Discovery Science on 1 October.

Discovery Science will now be available round the clock in Hindi and English on both analogue and DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon D2H and Airtel Digital TV.

Discovery South Asia senior VP, GM Rahul Johri said, "Since its launch, Discovery Science has successfully driven the mission to bring science back into the spotlight and showcase how indispensable it is in our daily lives. Discovery Science has gone beyond the imagination to explore the unknown and present the greatest discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs in a relatable and refreshing format. We have received an encouraging response from our viewers, affiliates and advertisers across India and the launch of the Hindi feed will deliver an enriching viewing experience especially in the Hindi-speaking markets."

Speaking on this Discovery India VP marketing Rajiv Bakshi said that the decision was the result of viewer demand. "There comes a stage in a channel?s lifecycle when more needs to be done. Discovery Science is present in over 20 million homes. Hindi is the pre dominant language. Languaging helps boost the time spent, it gets in new audiences and also helps with viewers who find that English as a language is a barrier."

Discovery Kids launched earlier this year in English, Hindi and Tamil. TLC and Animal Planet are in English and Hindi. The flagship channel Discovery is in English, Hindi, Telugu and Bangla. In addition, Discovery has a separate channel for the Tamil market.

Bakshi adds that there no plans to have Discovery Science in more languages. Also there are no plans to dub Discovery Turbo and Discovery HD for now. "There is a cost in doing language feeds. There has to be viewer pull and an immediate benefit."

On the programming front coinciding with the Hindi-language feed launch, Discovery Science has announced five series which will be aired over the next three months. ?Prophets of Science Fiction? will present the stories of the strange lives of the visionaries and reveal the secrets of their uncanny ability to see the future; ?Dark Matters? will expose some of history?s most bizarre experiments; ?Alien Encounters? will explore how alien life might communicate with Earth; ?How Tech Works? features the latest and future technologies of the world.

Meanwhile, ?Combat Tech? takes a look at the greatest military engineering accomplishments. Additionally, Discovery Science will feature a line-up ?Space Week? with programmes that focus on space, the universe and astrophysics from October 1 -7, every day at 8 pm.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has prepared a cabinet note to bring about financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati and ensure all operating expenses should be borne by the Broadcasting body?s internal revenues.

The Note will come up before Union Cabinet soon as inter-ministerial discussions on the same are in their final stages.

The note is based on recommendations of a Group of Ministers attached to Prasar Bharati, which suggested that Government Non-Plan support should be extended for meeting the total expenses on salary and salary-related expenses and augmentation and replacement of capital assets for the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

The GoM had also recommended that accumulated arrears of space segment and spectrum charges up to 31 March 2011 should be waived.

Section 22 of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 should be restored in its original form to exempt the pubcaster from paying any income tax.

All loans paid to the public service broadcaster should be converted into grants-in-aid, the GoM had said, adding that interests accrued on the loans should be waived.

Prasar Bharati?s revenue stood at Rs 10.38 billion for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2011. The commercial revenue by Doordarshan and All India Radio during this period was Rs 7.48 billion and Rs 2.45 billion respectively while Rs 444 million came from ?other resources?.

In 2010-11, Prasar Bharati?s revenue climbed to Rs 12.71 billion, from Rs 11.46 billion a year ago. Out of the net revenue, Rs 9.44 billion came from DD and Rs 2.76 billion from AIR as net commercial revenue. A total of Rs 505.8 million came from other resources.

Prasar Bharati?s operational costs during fiscal 2010-11 rose to Rs 27.45 billion, out of which Rs 14.69 billion was for Doordarshan. The increase in the operational cost has been attributed to the hike in the salary of employees following the 6th Pay Commission.