B4U, the music channel, which is making a hard play at finding its place in the crowded channel bazaar in India, is slated to debut tomorrow, 6 May. The satellite: PAS-4. The service: digital and free to air.
The channel is starting with an eight hour original programming band, to be expanded to 12 hours in the not too distant future. Distribution is in the hands of Modi Entertainment Network,which is distributing the three other channels in the B4U bouquet, FTV, MCM and B4U Movies (to be launched in the next two months).

The Benjamin digital receivers which cable operators need to to receive the service are being given away on payment of a Rs 3,000 deposit with the monthly rental being Rs 250. Gupta says they can be bought outright on payment of Rs 13,000.

The B4U bouquet has backing from four heavyweights: Kishore Lulla (who is the chairman, and also runs movie rights owner Eros), Bharatbhai Shah (who is heavily into Bollywood productions and is also in the diamond trade), Gokul Binani (a metals businessman) and L.N. Mittal (a steel manufacturer and trader).

Indian information and broadcasting (I&B) minister Arun Jaitley said once again yesterday that the Broadcasting Bill is before the group of ministers telecom and IT convergence. The committee will decide its final shape, he said while speaking to the daily The Times of India. He said that the bill had been sent to the law ministry for before the draft was finalised. The department of telecom prepared the telecast and frequency allocation side of the bill, which was then amalgamated with the recommendations given by the the I&B ministry.
He could not give any target date when the Bill is likely to see the light of day. He added that there was undue importance should not be given to the administrative controls of the various government departments. He said that he preferred to let the overall structure fall in place, following which the system would be created.

Jaitley hinted that a comprehensive law on convergence is likely to become the de facto legal recourse for even the television industry.

After the IT stocks hit rock bottom it‘s the turn of media stocks to do the same. Even as Zee Telefilms stocks continue to fall, Cinevista has made its debut at the most fragile time when the sentiments of the new economy stock markets are at all time low.

Cinevista opened its shares to the public in February at a price of Rs 300 per share. The markets then were all gung-ho about the new economy stocks and Cinevista‘s stocks were over subscribed 200 times. Zee was at its all time high at Rs 1630 per share. But since then the price of Zee has come down by more than half.

In keeping with the trends Cinevista also closed the day at Rs 293.35. Its stock continued to swing between Rs 136 and Rs 329 throughout the day. This despite the fact that media stocks are not as fragile as the dotcom stocks.

This, analysts say is definitely not a healthy trend. The highly debatable valuation techniques adopted by the dotcom and media companies are now being exposed with Sebi officials taking the matter in their own hands.

These trends will hopefully deter many other media companies‘ who want to jump into the IPO wave. The most anticipated media stocks which could do some rethinking are Deeraj Kumar promoted Creative Eye Ltd and Pritish Nandy‘s Pritish Nandy Communication Ltd.

The R.Basu-Murdoch promoted Braodcast Worldwide has signed a memorandum of understanding with Win Television Pty under which the latter will carry the four Tara channels on its DTH platform. The DTH package is targeted at Indians in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and other neighbouring companies.
The service will be beamed off the Optus B3 satellite and will also include other Indian channels Another possible tenant on the service is the Star TV digital bouquet.

Waking up to the competitive environment in the most promising country after China, CNN has decided to launch a television service specific to south Asia beginning 1 July. Popular programmes are to be rescheduled for prime television viewing (beginning 20:00 hours daily), apart from offering locally produced shows specific to south Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh.

"This huge region has many CNN viewers who have wanted their own channel for some time. CNN‘s new channel for South Asia is the network‘s biggest strategic move for many years," CNN International President Chris Cramer.

Under the new programming line up, CNN will have regional news on the hour, CNN‘s ‘World News‘ every half-hour, plus special programming strands on technology and science and CNN‘s feature programming.
New shows, produced locally, will also be developed for the South Asia service.

"The launch of the South Asia channel is the next step in CNN International‘s ongoing regionalisation strategy and demonstrates our long-term commitment to the increasingly important South Asia region," said CNN International senior vice-president Rena Golden "CNN will continue to be vigilant in the region by bringing on board talent familiar with regional sensitivities and the socio-political environment."

Audiences will get more than their fill of CNN‘s popular anchor, Riz Khan, who will feature as a prominent presenter on the new channel. Additionally, business programmes will continue with ‘Biz Asia‘ airing in prime-time and more regular business updates to be introduced from CNNfn‘s correspondent in Mumbai.

But other issues will have to be tackled first: the pricing package for the digital service, and the response by other news services such as Star News, the BBC, Zee News, and the gaggle of other news channels that are expected to launch in the not too distant future. The BBC has a tremendous lead on it because it had started localising a long time back, the other services are run by locals.The Indian and south Asian trek for CNN has just begun.

On Monday 1 May, at a function held in Ahmedabad for celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Gujarat‘s Foundation Day, Doordarshan launched its long-awaited ‘round-the-clock‘ Gujarati satellite channel on DD-11.
Present on the occasion, were Information & Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, singer Anuradha Paudwal and others. The channel will beam programmes in Gujarati from 8 am to 3:30 am the next day through an Insat-2C transponder C-11, to be shown in 38 countries around the world.

The channel programming will include feature films, serials and sponsored programming besides classical and folk music and dances, informative and educational programs, stock market news, etc.

Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel voiced his thoughts about uplinking facilities being provided soon so that the channel could be received in other parts of the world including America. Because Gujarati channels were more popular than other regional channels, Alpha TV Gujarati had been launched recently by the Zee Network while Rathikant Basu-promoted Broadcast Worldwide was planning to launch Tara channel soon.