The rights to the telecast of cricket matches played in Sri Lanka are likely to be decided before 6 November. The Sri Lankan cricket board has shortlisted two bidders - TWI and a company backed by Nimbus Communications chief Harish Thawani. Meetings are being held this week in Colombo to decide who will finally pocket the rights.

According to Thawani, it won?t be a surprise if his bid proves successful. Sources indicate that he has proposed a joint venture with Sony Entertainment Television, in which Sony will hold a major stake. The new venture will be headed by a senior Sony Enterainment Television executive, and will make a concerted effort to pocket telecast rights for other sports events, apart from creating new ones.

Zee TV, which was one of the bidders that was eliminated, is not too perturbed by Thawani?s claims and its own elimination from the bidding. It believes its close relationship with TWI should work in its favour and the rights will come its way should TWI emerge victorious.
 

The group of ministers is once again meeting and discussing the opening up Ku-band DTH television even as this copy is being posted on indiantelevision.com on 2 November 2000. They had met earlier this week and decided that information and broadcasting (I&B) minister Sushma Swaraj should come up with a note which could be presented to the Union cabinet within a fortnight.

Apparently, Swaraj and her I&B team have already managed to get something in place, if one goes by a report on CNBC India. Its Delhi correspondent has reported that a note is doing the rounds, which says that the government is considering allowing as many DTH aspirants as are interested. The I&B ministry has done away with its earlier thinking that DTH should be centralised with state owned broadcaster DD owning the platform - alone or in partnership with a private company (either Indian or foreign).

Things will become clearer as the day progresses and Swaraj makes her announcement. Stay tuned in.
 

The Union Cabinet has cleared all the hurdles in the way of Ku-band direct to home television. The GoM had met earlier this week and this morning before finalising the modalities of opening up DTH. The Cabinet took this decision at a meeting which has just concluded at Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee‘s residence.
The lifting of the December 1996 ban has been a difficult political decision to make for several governments. I&B minister Sushma Swaraj with support from former I&B minister and current law minister, Arun Jaitley, however have managed to push it through.

Details of the clearance are awaited, but CNBC India has reported that the government has decided to open up DTH to as many players as possible.

Urdu Television Network which has been beaming a test signal for the past three months is making its debut on 1 November. UTN is promoted by Khalid Bhaimia, an eminent Pakistani banker, with interests in television production.
The channel has signed up with Zee Telefilms since 2 October on the distribution and marketing front. Zee will be distributing the channel in India and west Asia. In consideration of that carriage, Zee TV has agreed to extend its marketing and Management expertise particularly in the area of content and packaging to UTN on commercial terms. The benefit for Zee TV: it gets another niche channel catering to a well-heeled Urdu speaking audience, which helps make its digital bouquet look a lot more attractive.

‘We are looking at the future DTH and DTO scenario, where having a right bouquet of channel will help us to garner more revenue," says Monica Srivastava, who heads UTN‘s marketing along with Zee Sports. She adds that the channel is getting a good response from advertisers. ‘Already a few FMCGs, and soft drink manufacturers have agreed to advertise on the channel."

Deputy Chief Executive Satish Menon - who heads the channel - reveals that "as of now we only have agreement under which UTN will be content provider and we will be looking after distribution and marketing. There is no revenue sharing, We are working out the same." The 24 hour channel will initially be free-to-air and in be delivered in an analogue mode off AsiaSat 3S.

At startup UTN, has four hours of original programming: two hours each from India and Pakistan. "The content is going to be different. I assure viewers," says Almas Shah, programming controller. "The Urdu will not be heavy but normal which can be understood by the masses. We are looking at a huge audience not only from India and Pakistan but also west Asia UK, USA, Canada, Australia."

UTN has already gathered programming for three months. Zee is helping in content aggregation. Shah says UTN‘s positioning is as an entertainment channel. One movie will be shown per day with a huge chunk of the library coming from Pakistan.

Says Shah: "We have got a very good response for our trial run, even though it was a repeat telecast." She has no fears of the channel being labeled as a Muslim channel and any related controversy since content is being sourced from Pakistan. "There will be no mention of politics, current affairs or religion. UTN will have the final authority as far as the profile of the channel is concerned. So it is not at all a Muslim channel but a pure Urdu entertainment channel," she says.

But competition is creeping up in the form of at least another three Urdu channels: one from Eenadu, Lashkara and the long-in-gestation Falak TV. Now it is left to be seen whether Zee TV and UTN will take advantage of the first movers‘ advantage.