The only television serial on the life of Maharashtra‘s warrior king Shivaji - off the air for the last two weeks due to a dispute between the serial‘s producer director Vinay Apte and national broadcaster Doordarshan - is likely to be back soon.

Apte‘s complaint is that when Chatrapati Shivaji began airing on 3 June the rate applicable was Rs 840,000 per 30 minutes of broadcast time. Now that the telecast rate has come down to Rs 350,000 per 30 min the deal should be re-negotiated, he says. He has further sought that the show be made a one-hour show as, according to him, the half-hour slot is too limiting.

According to Apte: "DD has already agreed to give me an hourly time slot for which new rates of RS 7 lakhs (700,000) will be applicable. Around 300 seconds of free commercial time (FCT) will be given. But considering the production spend even that is not sufficient to cover costs, he says. What is to be seen is what time slot they can give. We will be re-telecasting the 11 episodes shown earlier in five one-hour episodes, once all the nitty-gritties are sorted out and the time slot is allocated by DD."

It‘s all about the power of television. The four blind mice of American TV - ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC - are not scrapping with each other for morsels of the US advertising pie; rather they are getting together for a good cause this Friday: raising money for victims of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon terrorist blowups. The four networks are to jointly produce and simulcast a two-hour show called ‘America: A Tribute to Heroes‘ from 9 pm to 11 pm (US Eastern Time; 6:30 am IST, Saturday).

With no ads, the programme will run simultaneously from New York and Los Angeles with the backing of Hollywood‘s most influential people like talent agent Ari Emanuel, music biz mover and shaker Jimmy Lovine and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. Production is in the able hands of Joel Gallin, who is behind such events such as the MTV Music Awards, though network executives are not claiming that they will come up with a gee-whiz event as it has been put together at a very short notice.

Several acts are supposed to turn up and do a gig. Among those who are expected to figure include: country music group Dixie Chicks, Bon Jovi, singers Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, comic man Jim Carrey (The Truman Show), Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible), America‘s Sweetheart Julia Roberts, Amy Brennenman, George Clooney, Sheryl Crow, Cameron Diaz, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Calista Flockhart, Dennis Franz, Kelsey Grammer, Tom Hanks, Faith Hill, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Conan O‘Brien, Tom Petty, Ray Romano, Paul Simon, Will Smith, Sela Ward, Robin Williams, Stevie Wonder and Neil Young. Other names are likely to mark their presence at the event.

Pix courtesy: fox.com

The aim: unite a nation and the whole world reeling from terrorist shock through the healing power of music and salute the selfless courage and soaring spirit of Americans, despite the recent tragedies.

The four networks have offered the program to WB Television Network and UPN Network as well as to cable channels. Even sports channel ESPN is doing its best to rearrange its program schedule to accommodate the show. Not wanting to lag behind the two largest radio broadcasters, Clear Channel Communications and CBS-owned Infinity Broadcasting Corp. are also trying to carry the program live on their stations.

In India, the show will likely air on CNBC and Star World, both of which have been carrying programming blocks of NBC and Fox News.

The news does not seem too good. Today‘s speculative leak that DD News is to be shut will come as a shocker to many. Especially to the high-profile producers who were commissioned to produce shows for DD News, ranging from Nalini Singh, Rajat Sharma and Anuradha Prasad‘s BAG Films (along with husband Rajiv Shukla) to Harish Thawani‘s Nimbus Communications which provides six hours of business news to the channel daily.
Especially considering that the channel came up as a step child on 15 August 1999, and drifted around for a year. An agreement was signed with Modi Entertainment wherein it offered a minimum bank guarantee of Rs 48.1 million for every quarter until September 2005 for distributing boxes and collecting subscriptions from cable ops for DD News and DD Sports, which were both digitally encrypted. The deal was signed to increase the two channels‘ visibility in Indian homes.

But apparently that has not happened (reportedly, the agreement fell through), neither have advertisers or sponsors come on board. The result reportedly: the Prasar Bharati board has started discussing whether DD News is a candidate for euthanasia as it is bleeding with no signs of the haemorrhaging stopping.

Sources indicate the discussions are very preliminary, and no decisions have been taken. DD News currently gobbles up RS 300 million a year, a large chunk of which is doled out to private producers.

Earlier this year, DD had asked these producers to promote their programmes on DD News to create awareness for the service. Apparently, the circular met with a lukewarm response with the channel failing to generate enough viewer awareness.

Reports are that the Prasar Bharati finds DD News too expensive to maintain and that it will gradually be phased out over the next six months. Replacing it will be a new channel offering a mix of kids, arts and literature related show.

The board has also reportedly proposed that DD National will have 30 per cent of its programming devoted to news as a compensation for DD News blanking out.

The announcement of a reported closure comes at a time when news and current affairs channels have taken centre stage following the terrorist attacks in New York. Viewers have been increasingly surfing into news channels to get an update on the latest developments, be it on CNN, BBC or Star News or DD News.