No more unauthorised reception of the FIFA world cup soccer. Armed with a restraining order issued by the Delhi High Court last night, applicable across the country, Ten Sports has clamped down on cable ops in Mumbai city who have been illegally transmitting the channel since yesterday

Led by a court-appointed commissioner, teams from the channel‘s distributors Modi Entertainment, have been scouting the western suburbs, including several areas in Bandra, Andheri East and Dahisar and have successfully shut down the decoders that have been poaching the signals from authorised MSOs who had signed up with Ten Sports.

MEN CEO, distribution, Rajan Kaaicker, said the five-page court order that had been obtained, had put paid to attempts to steal signals by affiliates of Hathway and InCableNet, which together cover 75 per cent of Mumbai city.

Kaaicker concluded by saying that the proof of the value that Ten Sports brought to the table could be seen from the fact that across the country all the major MSOs had signed on for the new channel. The only exceptions were IncableNet and Hathway in Mumbai and the Zee Group‘s SitiCable in Delhi, Kaaicker asserted.

"Thats a total of six months of India cricket on ESPN Star Sports," the spokesperson concluded.

An Indian version of Russian Roulette, the popular game of chance, and a weekend series from the Balaji stable on Sony are set to propel the channel forward in the stakes for viewership.
Sony, according to SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, is set to change the rules of weekend programming, so far associated with blockbuster movies across all channels. "Now we are working on a blockbuster series. It will be three one hour episodes across the weekend that will run for 39 episodes," he says. "With it, we expect to carve out the weekend prime time slot." It is no coincidence that Balaji CEO and MD Shobha Kapoor told an analysts‘ meet recently that it would be a high-cost production that would run for a total of 13 weeks.

Sony‘s plans for weekdays are equally ambitious. Dasgupta says that one show the channel is seriously looking at is a gameshow, Russian Roulette, a Columbia Tristar property. Russian Roulette, is a game of chance where every question could cause a contestant to literally "drop out" of the game and has been a hit in countries as wide apart as Russia and Spain.

In this knowledge test, four strangers challenge each other to answer a series of multiple choice questions. If a contestant answers incorrectly, he must pull the lever potentially triggering one or more ‘drop zones‘. When only one contestant is left standing, that person keeps all the money won and proceeds to the final round. In the US version, the final winner takes home an additional $100,000.

Staid Doordarshan may not have managed the soccer World Cup well, but for fans of Bryan Adams, Ozzy Osbourne and Eric Clapton, the Queen‘s Golden Jubilee Concert can be compensation enough.
The national broadcaster is to telecast live the ‘Queen‘s Golden Jubilee Concert: Party at the Palace‘ from the Buckingham Palace on Monday on DD Metro.

The concert which is to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, will be held in the picturesque surroundings of Buckhingham Palace Gardens. Some of the best names on the rock and pop scene who will perform on the occasion include Bryan Adams, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ricky Martin, Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, Ozzy Osbourne, Annie Lennox, Sir Cliff Richard and Tony Bennett.

The programme will be aired on 4 June from 00:30 am to 3:30 am.

Intelsat, the company offering telephony, corporate network, video and internet solutions, has announced the appointment of KPMG LLP as its independent auditor for the fiscal year ending 31 December.
The appointment of KPMG LLP to replace Arthur Andersen LLP as Intelsat Ltd.‘s auditor is subject to the approval of the company‘s shareholders at the meeting to be held on 4 June.