Hathway Cable & Datacom has announced a new scheme to promote Internet through cable as a viable alternative to dial-up. The Silver Starter rate plan offers bandwidth of 64 kbps with a download limit of 300MB. The monthly charge is Rs 650 while the yearly charge is Rs 6500. This is a reduction from the earlier flat fee of Rs 1000 per subscriber. Free e-mail service of 5 mb will also be provided. The Silver Starter plan will exist along with the other schemes where monthly instalments start from Rs 1000 onwards.

The company has also started monthly billing for SMTP Services for domains other than Hathway. The monthly charge is Rs 600 plus the 5 per cent service tax. Earlier this month the company reduced the cable modem price to Rs 7,800 from Rs 9000.

All these initiatives are aimed at attracting Net users in the dial-up system who use around 20 hours a month. The cost of bandwidth has dropped by almost 20 per cent.

Reports indicate that Hathway will not expand the cable Internet service to new areas. Hyderabad will be the only new territory of expansion in the near future. Its service is currently available in Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Bangalore. In Mumbai the company operates from Colaba to Mahim. It also has a presence in the suburb of Chembur.

Come 14 July a fifth Malayalam channel (this is excluding India Vision, which has begun test signals) is set to officially make its bow in Kerala.

Jeevan TV, a wholly owned unit of Jeevan Telecasting Corporation Ltd promoted by the Catholic Church of Kerala, will be transmitting in a fully digitised format. The channel is being run from a studio and uplinking centre located in Kerala‘s business capital Kochi.

Reports quoting Jeevan TV managing director PC Cyriac say the channel will be a 24-hour one with emphasis on news and current affairs, information and education. Entertainment will be second priority.

For programming, the channel has readied two studios, one solely for news and the other of other programmes. Jeevan TV claims it has a bank of programming worth Rs 40 million ready with it ahead of the launch.

Funding for the channel, Rs 250 million in the first phase, has been raised from the public. The company has around 6,000 shareholders

A unique feature of the channel, according to business daily The Financial Express, is that it plans to have associations of its viewers called "Jeevan Clubs", where its shareholders too would actively participate. These will be in the form of grassroots level societies, which will provide feedback about the channel programmes.

Animation major Pentamedia Graphics Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 987.40 million for the financial year ended 31 March, 2002 as compared to Rs 1535.5 million in the previous financial year.

Total income has decreased from Rs 5701.6 million in FY-01 to Rs 4618.80 million in the year ended 31 March, 2002.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 105.1 million for the quarter ended 31 March, 2002 as compared to Rs 337.60 million in the corresponding period last fiscal. Total income has decreased from Rs 1452.70 million in the quarter ended 31 March, 2001 to Rs 641.30 million in the quarter ended 31 March, 2002.

BOARD OKAYS INCREASE IN AUTHORISED CAPITAL:
The Board of Directors of Pentamedia Graphics Ltd has approved the increase of Authorised Share Capital from Rs 750 million to Rs 1500 million and the company proposes a further issue of shares in the ensuing AGM. The board has deferred the decision of sub-division of equity shares.

If this piece of unconfirmed news emanating from Delhi proves true, the industry‘s wait for legislation on conditional access systems (CAS) may well be over sooner rather than later.
Reports indicate that the final draft of the CAS report, which had been sent back for reworking following strong protests from sections of the industry vis-a-vis its implications, was completed last night. The original draft was prepared by a the task force headed by Rakesh Mohan, joint secretary, I&B ministry. Reports say a two-man team who worked on the final draft looked at three key areas:

i) The programme of introduction of CAS.

ii) What changes in law are required to implement CAS?

iii) What sort of standards to apply and how to calibrate them into the Indian Bureau of Standards.

If there has been a decision to move forward on CAS, it will set in motion the beginning of the switchover from the catch-all bouquet of several channels as is the system now to one that makes it mandatory for consumers to pay only for the television channels they watch.