Channel Guide, which started beaming its test signals four months ago, was formally launched earlier this week at the Club in the northern Mumbai suburb of Andheri.
Channel Guide India managing director Rajesh Jain says that loads of research has gone into the channel before its launch.
‘We are spending more on state-of-art technology and distribution, but the programming cost is almost nil for us. All the data is provided by the advertising channels themselves. I feel this will help us to break even in fourteen months,‘ says a visibly relaxed and confident Jain.

The television channel is an innovation for the Indian market as it is hoping to serve as a promotional platform for the entire entertainment industry - namely, television, films, music and events.

‘It also provides programming info to viewers in a simple format. Any person will get to know maximum within six minutes what is going on on any of the channels,‘ he points out.

At present, Channel Guide is not charging advertisers and partners for placing their promos. Channel Guide COO Ravi Deshmukh says that advertisers will be provided prime and non-prime time slots with rates for the former being on a par with the prevailing commercial market rates.

Deshmukh reveals that that three channels have already confirmed their partnership status with Channel Guide.

From 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm, time slots will be sold to advertisers - be they channels or event creators or producers - for shows/events that each of them wants to promote. The rest of the time will be allocated to promos of various channels in a format designed by Channel Guide programming executives themselves.

Each screen can have a maximum of 16 small windows, showing what is going on 16 channels at any point of time along with a live programming schedule which will change every few minutes. The management is planning to reduce the number of channels visible to four at a time.

Programming blocks in Hindi and English have been set aside. "In the near future we are going to dedicate separate time slots for regional languages," says Deshmukh. "Marathi, Gujarathi, Bengali and Punjabi are the four languages on the cards."

One of the shows that Deshmukh is extremely kicked about is Meet the Telebrity featuring a popular TV personality. The first episode features Amar (Mihir) Upadhayay.

Channel Guide is beaming off Thaicom-3 as a free-to-air service. The channel is looking forward to getting an Indian uplinking from either Delhi or Hyderabad.

Technical Specifications:
Satellite : Thaicom - 3
Downlink Frequency : 3554 MHz
FEC : 2/3
Downlink Polarisation : Vertical
Symbol rate : 13333 Kg Symbol/sec
Free-To-Air

The Media Research Users Council (MRUC), in its response to the controversy surrounding the leakage in television panel lists in Mumbai on Monday and subsequently in Chennai yesterday, today offered to take up the role of a monitoring body and ensure that the research is credible and economical.

The resolution came after a rather heated meeting held immediately after the release of the IRS 2001 Platinum Report (a study of the media and product consumption habits of India‘s top 3.7 per cent sampling six metropolitan cities), has committed to offering suggestions on how to rectify the systemic collapse.

Among those who actively participated in the discussions were advertising and media doyen Roda Mehta, Rathnakar Rai, MD, Primetime-IP Media Services Ltd, Ashish Bhasin, president, Initiative Media and Andrey Purushottam, MD, Starcom.

There were some key key points that came through in the discussions:

1) Need for accurate data;

2)People meters are the best option;

3)There were definite doubts in the minds of users / industry;

4) There were concerns expressed as to the way the samples were organised - both in size terms and the bundling of panels in very close proximity.

Bhasin suggested that till a proper response was given by the research agencies (TAM and INTAM), the industry should suppress the data given by the two organisations. He also demanded the total revamp of all the panels, not just in Mumbai, but all over the country.

Purushottam urged that the merger process of the two agencies be accelerated while at the same time instituting clear controls on the functioning of the new entity with regards to data collation.

Mehta lamented the lack of investment being put into quality research by the industry saying: "A healthy industry needs good healthy research."

She saw MRUC‘s role (provided adequate funds were made available by the industry) as an overseer, designing the research methodologies and monitoring the fieldwork.

This whole exercise will be futile if funding was not made available, Mehta said.

It was also suggested that the MRUC and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation have a meeting to thrash out key issues required to be addressed so as to get things in order again.

A step that MRUC has agreed to take.

The latest TAM ratings are out. And the entire industry is agog about one revelation: not one of Zee TV‘s new shows figures on the Top 100 list. Old diehards such as Mehandi Tere Naam Ki (65), Amanat (74) and Koshish Ek Aasha (99) are Zee TV‘s candidates in The Top 100.There is some sniggering about this amongst rival broadcasters and producers, who are saying we told you. The question is: why the excitement about this development or non-development?

No one at indiantelevision.com expected Zee TV‘s new shows to spring up in the Top 10, let alone the Top 100, overnight. And we don‘t think anyone at Zee TV expected it either. There are enough professionals within that organisation that understand the television business and the fact that programmes grow on audiences and audiences on programmes. A Kaun Banega Crorepati happens probably once in a lifetime. And expecting a repeat is like expecting sextuplets every time you go for delivery in the maternity home.

Indiantelevision.com is of the view that Zee TV‘s new shows should be given at least another six weeks to stabilise and generate the ratings (if the ratings systems are allowed to continue). (The channel‘s management has said the new shows will run their 13-26 episodic run).

We expect at least four of the new shows - we cannot predict which because all that depends on the marketing and promotion push that Messrs Goyal and Sinha give - to pop up in The Top 50 in the time frame predicted.

The second school of thought questions the basics of some of Zee TV‘s programmes. Do most Indians want to watch cross-continental shows? Or is it a microcosm that wants such programming? Will these shows work well with Zee TV‘s audiences in Europe and the US? They well may but production values have to be stepped up for those audiences. Additionally, will Indians in interior Maharashtra or Varanasi indentify with them? There is a big question mark there.

And a couple of months down the line, the past year may seem just a memory.

ANIL WANVARI,
CEO, INDIANTELEVISION.COM