Predominantly music channel etc is adding interactive elements to its long-running Bollywood Birthmarks, which features filmstars whose birthdays fall in a particular week.
Bollywood Birthmarks gives details about the star‘s place of birth, their high or low points in life, their likes and dislikes and interesting facets of their life. Besides wishing their favourite star via e-mail, by writing in at feedback@entertainmenttv.com?, viewers are invited to SMS birthday greetings to their stars, directors and musicians by typing in ETCBMN, keying in the message and then SMSing it on 303. A lucky few also stand a chance of winning a prize for the best and innovative greeting.

The five-minute capsule will be aired on etc four times a day after the Once More programme. The capsules will air at 1:55 am, 8:55 am, 12:55 pm and 5:55 pm.

For the first week of June, etc has lined up Sunil Dutt (6 June), for the second week Dimple Kapadia and Shilpa Shetty (8 June) will be featured, while the third week sees Mithun Chakravarty (16 June) and Amrish Puri (22 June). Karisma Kapoor (25 June) will feature in the fourth week of June.

According to ETC Networks CEO Pradeep Dixit, giving viewers a chance to do something as personal as wishing stars a happy birthday, will ensure better and loyal relationship between etc and viewers.

World Cup soccer telecaster Ten Sports announced late tonight (30 May) that its parent Taj Television and distribution partner HMA Udyog had struck a deal with the Sun Network-promoted and Tamil Nadu major Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) under which the channel would get distribution on the latter‘s cable TV network.
Yesterday, Taj Television CEO Chris McDonald had announced deals with RPG Netcom in Kolkata, Asianet in Kerala and Hathway in Bangalore and Chennai, taking Ten Sports penetration up to 18 million homes. Today‘s SCV tieup, means that the channel‘s penetration is likely to be closer to the 19-20 million homes range with other smaller deals with CATV networks all over India also being struck, a company spokesperson added.

McDonald also announced that the sportscaster had not been successful in forging agreements with the large MSOs in Mumbai - InCable and Hathway. "Most of Mumbai will sadly be deprived of the World Cup Soccer telecast," said McDonald.

Among the CATV networks in Mumbai which will relaying Ten Sports at the first kickoff of the FIFA tourney tomorrow figure Seven Star and Bhawani Hathway.

"We are asking for an effective rate of Re 1 per sub from the MSOs," disclosed McDonald.

Apparently, that‘s a tab that has proven too stiff for the MSOs to bear. Watch this space for developments.