The BBC, BBC Worldwide and Discovery Communications have announced that an agreement on "the deal of the decade" has been reached. This is a ten-year extension to the global partnership which originally commenced in July 1997 and was signed in March 1998. The partnership was to conclude at the end of the year.

An official release informs that the new agreement extends the deal to 2012. The BBC/DCI relationship claims to be unique in terms of scale and longevity within world broadcasting.

When the original agreement was signed the parties anticipated only a five year renewal. The alliance between the broadcasters had been formed to develop television channels and factual programming for the global marketplace, the release states.

The joint venture has three main elements: the co-production of high quality factual programming; the development of jointly-owned television channels around the world, and developing and distributing BBC America. It claims distribution in more than 26 million homes.

The BBC Sales Company licenses, co-produces and distributes factual programming in the United States and Canada on behalf of the BBC and DCI the release states. The BBC/DCI joint venture further monetises these award-winning programmes, through publishing and merchandising, creating multi-million dollar properties that allow for greater investment in high quality programming.

Speaking on this DG BBC Greg Dyke said: "When this partnership was formed, the BBC aimed to be part of the greatest creative force in factual broadcasting globally. Our alliance with DCI means that outstanding programmes such as The Blue Planet and Walking With Dinosaurs have been shared and enjoyed by individuals, families and communities in countries right around the world. This is a powerful service we will continue to build over the next ten years."

Chief executive, BBC Worldwide, Rupert Gavin said: "The partnership with Discovery is a clear indication of how a global partnership such as this builds value and allows for significant re-investment in programming, to the benefit of the UK licence payer."

President and COO DCI Judith A. McHale said: "Strategic partnerships like the BBC/DCI joint venture are a central element of Discovery‘s growth strategy in the years to come. The complementary expertise of the two organisations allows for cost sharing, creative balance and increased distribution, which gives Discovery a significant competitive advantage in the domestic and international marketplace."

In an effort to increase entertainment tax collections from cable operators, the Maharashtra government has announced that it will collect duty on cable television through public auction from 2002-03.

State finance minister Jayant Patil, while presenting the state‘s budget yesterday said: "Given the constraint of manpower, entertainment duty payable on all cable connections cannot be collected. Therefore, with a view to reduce expenditure on recovery and to increase revenue, I propose to collect entertainment duty on cable television by public auction from the financial year 2002-03. The Bombay Entertainments Duty Act, 1923 will be amended suitably."

This is yet another attempt by the state government to bring tax collection in line with the actual number of cable connections. Maharashtra is estimated to have crossed 6 million cable TV homes but government records reveal only 2.5-2.6 million connections.

The govenment will auction the right for collecting taxes to private parties for recognised territories, it has been reported. The chosen party will collect tax from the local cable operator. However, as bidding cannot be done without adequate research the government is hoping that the private party‘s effort would make tax collections truer to the actual number of cable connections.

Cable operators see this as another move that could adversely impact the cable television industry in the state and complain that it appears to support broadcasters.

Meanwhile, in a related move, Patil further announced in his budget that he would be revising rates of entertainment duty leviable on discotheques and would include sponsorship amount of fashion shows and other events in the tax base. For this proposal also, the Bombay Entertainment Duty Act will require amendment.

Professionals complaining about a shortage of institutes to impart training in the field of film and television finally have something to look forward to. Digital Academy, which claims to be India?s premier television and film-making institute, will open on 5 April with a career fair.

The institute is the brainchild of Kartikeya Talreja who will be the managing director. Talreja says that the idea came about due to a lack of trained professionals in the entertainment industry. The venture has received the backing of his father Basant Talreja.

An official release informs that Digital Academy positions itself as somewhere between the extremes of a university and a career institute. The objective is to provide short intensive curriculum offering basic to specialised courses covering all aspects of film-making. These will benefit the novice as well as the serious film-maker. Offerings will also be related to pre-production, production and post-production in filmmaking the release states.

Elaborating on the strategy, Talreja made the following remarks: ?The Digital Academy is located at Andheri East between Seepz and Tunga Paradise Hotel, MIDC. It is housed in the Gemini Studio complex where we have our production facility - a building of four floors with expansion capabilities of three more floors."

"Digital Academy will offer extensive hands-on, practical oriented training. And our students will get to make a demo feature film as part of their course, encouraging them to start off as independent film-makers by the end of their course.

"Other sections of the campus houses a mini theatre with the finest equipment for projection and to reproduce sound at its best in acoustic surroundings, a faculty room, a well furbished library, a digital editing suite, digital sound editing and recording suite.

"Special subject class rooms including over a 1000 sq ft dedicated to the acting and direction classes with web cast facility, each of the class rooms are being cabled for networking and to recieve the broadband signal whenever they arrive and a cafetaria.

"The building houses all the facilities, props, shooting equipments, make up rooms, special effects and editing suites, DV cameras and other equipment required to make a complete film without stepping out of the building.

"The institute will be ready for operations on 5 April 2002. At the moment we are giving the finishing touches to all designs. We would like to put this on record that 70 per of Digital Academy?s faculty are full time employers while 30 per cent of the faculty members will be on our Guest Board.

"Besides this Digital Academy will also have visiting artist and technicians who will be giving lectures and conducting seminars. At any given time a minimum of eight full time faculty will be on the premises. The total staff strength will be around 30."

Talreja said the Digital Academy?s efforts will be supported by industry professionals and celebrities, including ex-FTII graduates, as faculty members. Digital Academy?s large investment will house bleeding age technology machinery to assist the students to make a feature film on a shoe-string budget.

Elaborating on course content, Talreja says the academy would be offering two main courses besides specialised elective courses. The academy is offering The Film Appreciation Course & The Foundation Course and various specialised courses. The Home Film Essentials Course is targeted at housewives who are curious about the world of film. The Little Actors Course can be taken up by little children during vacation time.

Regarding the response Kartikeya says: "We expect to enroll and train 1200 students in the first year of operations with plans to expand through a carefully chosen franchisees. Once franchisees are in place we expect to train another 1200 students."

One of the prominent guest faculty who would be giving lectures at Digital Academy is Prayag Raj, a writer who has long been associated with Merchant Ivory Films, as well as having scripted Bollywood blockbuster films like Coolie and Amar Akbar Anthony, Talreja says.

The various courses offered by Digital Academy are intensive period courses. The courses will run for about three months, five days a week non-stop for six hours a day in two batches. The Foundation as well as the various specialisation courses will run for three months each, according to Talreja.

The career fair is being held on 5,6, and 7 April. For details call 022-6901427 or send an email to response@digitalacademy.info.