Sony Entertainment Television is on the move. It was on 4 August that the channel started beaming in Australia on the South Asia Television platform along with Zee TV and two other channels off the Optus B3 satellite.

Before the end of the month, Sony will also be available in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives, says Shantonu Aditya, senior V-P, franchise channels & distribution.

In Pakistan, Sony is being distributed by Leo Communications, in Bangladesh, through Nationwide Communications and in Maldives it is JSat Communications.

The channel is being beamed off the PAS 10 satellite as is the case in India.

Communications minister Ram Vilas Paswan finally did it. After a lot of hectic activity behind the scenes which saw the printing of copies of The Communication Convergence Bill, 2001 (CCB 2001) over the past two days, Paswan introduced the long-in-gestation bill in Parliament on the last day of the monsoon session.

Communications minister Ram Vilas Paswan finally did it. After a lot of hectic activity behind the scenes which saw the printing of copies of The Communication Convergence Bill, 2001 (CCB 2001) over the past two days, Paswan introduced the long-in-gestation bill in Parliament on the last day of the monsoon session.

To resolve any civil liability action suits amongst service providers, the Commission will appoint one of its officers as an Adjudicating Officer to investigate whether one of them has contravened any rules or orders which could have led to civil liability.

The Communications Commission of India will license:

2) Network Services: These include bandwidth services, fixed links and mobile links.

5) Value Added Network Application Services: Internet services and unified messaging services.

Observers say the wait could be as little as three months to as much as a year. Or even longer. Remember the Broadcasting Bill of 1997?

It‘s all about geography after all. When in Greece do as the Greeks would do. Most international satellite television and cable TV channels have been going in for dual audio feeds for their services.
With star rival Discovery going Hindi a long time ago can National Geographic stay far behind? Nyet. Come mid September, the channel is going to be available in a dual Hindi-English feed from 7:00 am to 1:00 am, all of 18 hours, in order to strengthen its connect with Indian and south Asian audiences. It was earlier airing just four hours of Hindi dubbed shows.

"Much emphasis will go toward making the programs in simple Hindi language which appeal the masses right from an office boy to a grandmother sitting in northern part of India," says National Geographic Channel associate vice-president programming Vijay Raman. "At the same time it will not put off English speaking individuals in a family as two to three generations can sit down and watch it together. The Hindi will be very simple," he stresses.

"NGC isn‘t a niche channel which it is often perceived to be," adds Raman. "It‘s got universal appeal and caters not only just to people of all age groups, it is liked by people across all the sections of society and the viewership and the television ratings that we have been getting indicate that it is like any other mainstream channel. We receive feedback not only from well-heeled in the SEC A category but also from individuals living in slums."

NGC claims a penetration of 18-20 million homes and is distributed in India by co-owner Star India.