Officials in Star Television and the Zee group affiliated MSO Siti Cable made conflicting statements on Thursday a day after a row over Star‘s channels being blacked out in New Delhi threatened to snowball.

Siti accused Star of trying to cash in on the unprecedented success of its hit gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati to increase subscription rates and force operators to pay for "unpopular" pay channels like Star Gold and Star World.

"They (Siti) switched us off but we are back on again in most of New Delhi as of yesterday," countered Yash Khanna, head of corporate communications in Star. "Obviously they are feeling some insecurity as Zee TV is expected to go pay soon," he said.

Siti claimed its actions were dictated by customer feedback which said no one was willing to pay for channels they do not view. They also asserted that Star‘s actions were illegal. A Siti Cable group company providing cable services in Noida (a New Delhi suburb) has instituted legal proceedings with the MRTP (Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices) Commission, a press release said.

"We are not forcing people to take all channels," explained Khanna. ``StarGold is priced at Rs 5.50 per home per month. But cable operators have a choice to take it or not to take it. Without StarGold, the Star bouquet is priced at Rs 19.25 per home per month, he said. "So where is the question of bringing the MRTPC commission into it."

The major bone of contention is however the issue of paid connectivity. A problem which is bound to keep resurfacing unless a satisfactory conditional access system is introduced.

It was only on Monday that the Star affiliated Hathway Cables had reached a compromise with Sony over the declared paid connectivity of its pay channels SetMax, AXN and CNBC. Sony had switched off the channels in the Mumbai region from 2 January over a similar dispute as the one being witnessed between Siti and Star.

Siti charges that Star has demanded subscription charges on an assumed increase in the subscriber base without any verification or justification.

"We are being paid for just five million subs when the cable TV population in India is over 35 million. The figures speak for themselves," says Khanna.

Come February and the question of whether the Zee empire can strike back after the disaster that was 2000 should become clear. Five new serials are ready for launch and there is a lot riding on them as chairman Subhash Chandra takes his channel back to the future with its core competence of making great programmes.

The five new serials are ‘Samander‘, ‘Aanchal Ke Chaon Mein‘, ‘Gardish‘, ‘Anokhee‘ and ‘Kaise Kahoon‘, as per the channel sources

Two of the serials would be aired at prime time. And others are likely to be slotted at noon

According to press reports, ‘Gardish‘, produced by Ravi Rai, will be telecast every Tuesday while ‘Aanchal‘ will be aired every Wednesday. These are the days when Zee‘s television rating points (TRPs) are the lowest.

The latest Intam data for the three-week period starting December 18, 2000, indicates that Zee‘s TRPs have seen a sharp fall in the 9:30 pm to 10 pm slot for Tuesday and Wednesday while, on Monday, Thursday and Friday, the ratings were comparatively better.

B4U Entertainment on Wednesday confirmed that it was exploring various avenues of entering direct-to-home (DTH) television but denied reports that the international partners had already been finalised.

"We are working towards it (DTH) but nothing has been decided as of now," B4U Entertainment CEO Ravi Gupta said. "We are only in the initial stages of talks with a possible parter," he added. He was referring to a press report that EuropeStar (a satellite company) and Mindport (provider of conditional access technology) were each to take 20 per cent stakes along with B4U for the project. The report also said talks were on to rope in a leading set top box manufacturer for the project as the fourth partner could provide finance if not technology.

Queried about the possibility of teaming up with Doordarshan for an alliance, Gupta said: "Everybody is talking to possible partners and DD is just one of them."

As part of CNN‘s restructuring exercise, Ian Macintosh and Tony Maddox have been appointed as senior vice-presidents for the Hong Kong and London regions respectively.

Macintosh will spearhead the integration of CNN‘s journalistic activities on all platforms in the Asia Pacific, developing a fully integrated regional newsgathering and production centre in Hong Kong, and providing network programming and on-line production for CNN‘s 34 television, radio and new media services worldwide. Additionally, Hong Kong will operate as the logistical and planning centre for the eight CNN bureaus located in Asia.

Maddox will be similarly responsible for driving through the restructuring in Europe, Middle East and Africa from CNN‘s regional hub in London.