Sticking to a schedule laid out at the end of July, B4U Entertainment Channel becomes B4U Movies on 2 October 2001, it was announced today.

In a new avatar 13 months after B4U Entertainment was launched on 3 September 2000, CEO Ravi Gupta and his team will be hoping to leverage what is B4U‘s main strength - its library of movies (over 2,000 films) that it holds the rights to, both current hits and blockbusters and old classics.

And wasting no time, the plan is to encrypt B4U Movies by November, Debashis Dey, chief distribution officer, B4U Television Network Ltd, says. According to Dey: "The proposed date for going pay is sometime in January ‘02. We feel that two months will be a reasonably good period for viewers to sample the channel." However, sister channel B4U Music will remain free-to-air a la MTV.

"After going pay in January the average rate per subscriber per month is proposed at Rs. 6.50p. We also feel that our channel will be a refreshing change, as it is not clustered by a bouquet of unwanted content, which currently the operators are forced to subscribe to," says Dey.

As for the programme line-up, current titles include - Lajja, Devdas, Suno Sasurji, Pyaar Deewana Hota Hai, Baas Itna Sa Khwab Hai, Daraar, Silsila Hai Pyaar Ka, Mohabbat, Beti No 1, among others, apart from hit films like Taal, Josh, Jungle, etc and old classics.

B4U Movies will telecast three hits per week - a Friday premiere, a Saturday blockbuster and a Sunday classic. In addition a super-hit ‘Movie Of The Month‘ will be screened, says Dey.

"In between films we intend to showcase a host of Bollywood based shows, highlighting film shooting, the studios and the classic films attached with them, Bollywood masala, gossip, behind the scenes, raw cuts, countdowns, market, flops, hits, comedies, super stars, and many more unique programmes in innovative formats," Says Dey.

Among the shows that are planned are:
Lehren - A Bollywood video magazine. The long running and popular ‘Lehren‘, will provide updates on Bollywood and the stars.
Studio Beat - A weekly round up from the studios in Mumbai. Using archival footage and interviews with old timers, stories around the studios that made the industry what it is today.
Superhit Hungama - A weekly countdown show set in exotic locations. Money Talkies - An update of the industry that throws light on the losers and the winners.
Box Office - A weekly update on collections and performance, reviews and analyses from trade pundits.
Shot Cut - Full length films cut down to half an hour, keeping only key scenes intact.
Director‘s Cut - Interviews with directors.
Stardom - profiles the stars.
Riot - The show presents some of the most hilarious scenes in Hindi movies. Countdown Caf鼯b> - The Indipop countdown that brings to you the best 10 tracks of the week. Ghazals, Punjabi Pop, Remixes and more.
South Side Story - Film update and news from southern India.
The Preview - Previews of the movies to be telecast on B4U.
Rushes - Daily updates on recent events in Bollywood.

The B4U Network is promoted by steel magnate L M Mittal, Kishore Lulla and Gokul Binani, all based in the UK. Lulla is also the promoter of Eros International LTD, the largest overseas film distributor and the first to take Hindi movies to the UK and the US.

CNN International Networks president Chris Cramer is livid. The reason. "Respected news organisations such as CNN and Reuters have become a target of a war of hatred, misinformation and cynicism," he says.

Cramer is especially annoyed by the spate of emails which have been doing the rounds denouncing the footage of Palestinians in East Jerusalem celebrating the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre as archival material (it is alleged to date back to 1991) and aired on CNN to sway public opinion. Cramer says that the origin of the rumour was from a chat room in Spain and that Reuters Television has since confirmed that the footage was indeed shot on 11 September and was not older material.

Cramer additionally adds that "fictitious CNN websites have appeared in the past week together with other allegations, disseminated via e-mail in South Africa, that CNN had allegedly reported that the attacks had been planned in South Africa." He says that this is totally untrue.

And according to him, what makes things worse is the fact that "e-mail attacks on broadcasters by lobby groups and those with special interests have become the norm in recent years. This was a concerted attempt to distort the news not just lobby against certain aspects of it.

Cyber-terrorism like urban terrorism is now an everyday occurrence, and it is equally as difficult to defend against it. Bitter irony when you consider that some of the earliest embracing of the Internet was by the US military to contain civil unrest in the event of a catastrophic war.

The race to be numero uno among television channels is hotting up what with tumbling TRPs, declining ad revenues and bumbling repetitive programmes. Over the past couple of months Sony Entertainment Television has come under tremendous shelling from its arch rivals Star and Zee
Digest this. 62 of Star Plus‘ shows figure in The Top 100 Intam ratings chart for the week ended 2 September 2001 as against just 19 shows each for Zee TV and Sony Entertainment.

Now SET is going all out to regain lost ground and is aggressively positioning itself as the channel to be watched on a Friday night. Starting this week (28 September), it will introduce a continuous programming block lasting four-and-a-half hours. The action starts at 7:00 p.m. with its game show Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke hosted by Govinda. Though the show is nothing to rave about having dropped out of the Top 100, SET is making every possible attempt to revive poor ratings. This Friday it will give lovers of Indipop music a special treat called Music Masti Special. Singers who have made a name for themselves will sing their most popular songs in between winning prizes.

The entertaining vein continues with its long-running popular dance talent show Boogie Woogie which has been pushed forward from its 9:00 PM slot to 8:00 p.m. It comes up against Zee TV‘s soap Mujhe Dor Koi Khinche, showing at the same time.

However, the real competition is, as expected, on Star Plus. Star started dominating the Friday night slot when it introduced three new one-hour shows - Kya Masti Kya Dhuum, a talent show hosted by filmstar Sonali Bendre; Khullja Sim Sim, a gameshow hosted by popular TV actor Aman Varma; and the horror show, Ssshhhh?Koi Hai - running continuously for three hours from 8:00 PM onwards. All three figure in the Top 30.

Fresh young blood as represented by new weekly drama Dil Se Dosti

SET has a new show of its own which it hopes will make a difference - a weekly drama called Dil Se Dosti at 8:30 PM It follows the trials and tribulations of five collegians - three boys and two girls. Producer-directors Tony and Deeya Singh (Just Mohabbat) wander off the beaten track of abortion and extramarital relationships in the hope of striking a chord with the nation‘s youth. It remains to be seen how different it will be from Zee TV‘s programme Hip Hip Hooray-II which has a similar theme but is slotted at 7:30 PM What must be of some relief for SET is that Hip Hip Hooray-II has failed to catch on in its second run and is doing as badly as JCPK.

Kkusum is now Sony‘s top show and leads the charge

The 9:00 to 10:00 PM slot seems a safe bet with popular soaps Kkusum and Heena at 9 and 9:30 p.m. respectively. Kkusum has just become the highest rated show on Sony after it surged ahead of CID reaching 10 on the TRP charts while Heena continues to hold its own despite its long run on air. Almost coinciding as it were with its entry into the Top 10, Kkusum becomes a 5-days-a-week show up from its current 4-days-a-week run.

The line-up culminates with the action-packed thriller CID at 10:00 PM and at 10:30 PM Aahat, a supernatural thriller.

All-in-all a lineup that should make the opposition sit up and take note. Especially if the viewer sits back and watches it all.

This is a channel, which is crackling - crackling with electrifying programming. And if it does not regain its rightful place at the top of the viewership stakes, the blame will lie squarely at poor marketing and show packaging or at the door of the God of the television world - the viewer. No finger pointing at the viewership monitoring agencies should be resorted to as has been done earlier by the channel‘s new management. (A bad carpenter can blame his tools only so many times.)

Yes, the channel being talked about is Zee TV. A month into its new programming lineup, and it is looking good. Much better than what was expected. Hordes of viewers have not been swept away by it as yet; Star Plus is still the flavour of the year. But that does not mean it‘s going to stay that way for long. Zee TV in its current avatar looks set to give Star Plus programming head Sameer Nair and his team some headaches.

First let‘s get what‘s wrong with channel out of the way.

As mentioned earlier, the lack of finesse in interstitials for its shows. Zee TV‘s management has to invest in making it promos classy...like TV commercials. Better means better. No halfway measures will suffice. The sooner Zee TV chairman Subhash Chandra and broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal and his team work on this, the earlier will the positive results start showing up.

The second thing Zee TV needs to do is push each of its shows harder and treat each of them as a brand. Specific communication for at least a handful of the chosen ones, which appear to be potential winners, is what is called for. What is pitiable is that despite having highly rated professionals such as Sandeep Goyal and Partha Sinha, this is not being done. Instead, a frail girl ‘Khushi‘ is being used as a mascot for all shows doggedly.

A lot of hype was created around the interactive show Aap jo bhole haan to haan, aap Jo bhole na to na It has turned out to be just hype. Trite storylines, trite plots, shoddy production values with no connection between the story and the sets and the props, a corny anchor..how terrible can television programming get.

This is a show, which requires a lot of re-think. For starters, do Indian viewers really want interactivity? Do they want to actively take a moral position as do juries in US courts? Messrs Goyal and Zee TV marketing head Partha Sinha‘s claims about the zillions of phone calls they are getting for the show cut little ice; the duo is just resorting to a sales spiel to keep a dead horse running. Better still would be to bury AJBHTH,AJBNTN along with its host, the smooth talking ad agency man Suhel Seth.

Razzmatazz presents no quantum programming leap over the existing offerings Boogie Woogie, or Kya Musti Kya Dhum. The dancers are mediocre, the hosting kiddish, the camera seeks the judges and the sets more than the dancers. Clean up your act on this one, if you want to exploit the show‘s potential.

Now on to the good stuff that should keep Star Plus‘ programming executives awake. Shows such as Niilaam Ghar, Baazi Kiski, the Derek O‘Brien hosted Bournvita Quiz Contest, Close Up Antakshari, the Ravi Rai produced Aaj Bhi Ateet, Sarhadein, Kohi Apna Sa come out tops. (As far as Dollar Bahu, Chotti Maa..ek anokhan bandan go, poor starts to these two shows have put off many viewers. A lot of work will be needed to undo the damage.)

On a Sunday morning, the line up of Close-up Antakshri, Baazi Kiski, Bournvita Quiz Contest totally annihilated the competition. KBC Jr and Amitabh Bachchan are no match for the flavour and passion that Anu Kapoor whips up amongst the kids taking part in the national challenge song competition.

The talent seems to be there aplenty. Close Up Antakshri is all about the great vocal chords that participating kids have, and not the anchor as is the case with KBC Jr, where AB Baby takes centre stage, participants are relative passengers.

Baazi Kiski with Ashutosh Rana came across as a pleasant surprise. Was this the same channel that produced the disastrous Sawaal Dus Crore Ka? Preparation can go a long way in creating a good product. And the efforts show in Baazi Kiski. The sets are pleasant to look at. Rana, oozing charisma, speaking in shudh Hindi is clearly a cut above Kher and Koirala, and his efforts at goading men against women and vice-versa in this battle of the sexes show, make for compulsive viewing. The fact that participants end up with money, cars, TV sets, as their winnings on answering quizzes, make it even more riveting.

Derek O‘Brien, what can one say about the General knowledge evangelist. Bournvita Quiz Contest enthralled us on radio when we were kids. One could not miss the 1:45 or was it 2:00 PM Sunday appointment with Vividh Bharati and the host of the quiz then, Ameen Sayani.

One cannot afford to miss the television version either. The sets look snazzy, the promo is zippy, there‘s some hitech too in the form of a notebook computer that O‘Brien keeps referring to. The show has a fast pace, O‘Brien makes for a very affable and avuncular host. And the celebrity guests, well they play along with O‘Brien and the participating students. BQC scores the highest marks. And it‘s a show that can only go one way - up.

Niilaam Ghar...bid, bid boom. Chaos, confusion, sweat, teeming crowds, which are the characteristic of a World Wrestling Federation face off, are the signature of this show hosted by Shekhar Suman. Suman does a great job, a remarkable job in fact. Informality is key for Niilaam Ghar. While KBC is propah, suited and booted, with a clipped accent, Niilaam Ghar is about letting your hair down and being yourself, screeching and screaming to get Suman‘s attention as he stomps all over the place in his see-through T-shirts, worn to reveal his pectorals and biceps, popping questions which look easy as a daisy. Niilaam Ghar should be a winner in the heartland and with urban audiences too. The new series - Aaj Bhi Ateet, Sarhadein, Kohi Apna Sa - too are extremely promising and will build up audiences as time progresses.

This at a time when Kyuunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki seem to be tiring on Star Plus. KBC is continuing to hang in there despite a very perceptible limp. But thankfully for Star Plus new shows like Khulja Sim Sim, Shh.. Koi Hain, Kangan, Kalash, Kahin Kissi Roz are bubbling over. However, it cannot afford to ignore the looming threat from Zee TV.

ANIL WANVARI,
CEO, INDIANTELEVISION.COM