Star has finally taken a full-fledged leap into the dotcom pool. Confirming its confidence in the Internet space, Star India today hoicked its stake in the much-hyped portal indya.com to "almost 100 per cent."

A joint release from Star and indya.com states that the Rupert Murdoch-promoted firm has bought the entire shareholding of founder and Microland chairman Pradeep Kar, and other investors. Kar had established indya.com in April 2000.

The market was abuzz for long that Star would gobble up indya.com in toto but its management had consistently pooh-poohed that possibility. Star had earlier paid out $ 50 million for a 37 per cent stake in the portal but that was before the worldwide dotcom meltdown. No further details were available on how much Star paid to buy out Kar and associates, but official sources say current valuations are significantly lower. Some estimates put the figure at about $25 million.

Gary Walrath, executive vice-president, Star Group Ltd, has been appointed chairman of indya.com while CEO Sunil Lulla will continue to head the dotcom, assisted by Indya‘s management team, says the company release.

The website is planned to become the online destination for all of Star‘s India properties on its TV channels today and in future. Already, Star Plus, Star Movies, Star World and Channel [V] have been integrated into indya.com and will soon be joined by the group‘s other channels in the coming months.

The press release says benefits will also accrue to indya.com. "The alignment will give consumers and users an opportunity to interact more with Star on the internet and see more of indya.com on television," it states.

Recently the website launched interactive applications and multimedia content built around some of Star‘s popular programmes like Kaun Banega Crorepati, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kaahin Kissii Roz, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, Ji Mantriji (all on Star Plus), Friends, X-Files, Ally McBeal and Baywatch (on Star World).

ETC Networks Ltd, which owns music heavy Hindi channel etc and etc Channel Punjabi, has announced its Q-1 results for the year 2001-2002. The network has not shown any major changes in its performance compared to the corresponding quarter last year.

Balaji Telefilms Ltd has announced its financial results for the quarter ended ended 30 June 2001 which show impressive growth as well as a strong bottomline.

The income from operations is reported at Rs 236.58 million which is quite high compared to the financial Year 2000 figure of RS 488.82 million. Net profit has been registered at RS 49.3 million which is more than the FY2000 figure of RS 43.54 million.

Other income is low at RS 23,000 compared to the FY2000 figure of RS 7.9 million. When contacted, Ajay Patoria, company secretary, Balaji Telefilms said that it is because of the fact that the fund invested in mutual funds shows income only when the dividend is declared. So other income will see a rise in the coming quarters.

Production costs and telecasting fees have remained more or less at the same levels. The wage bill has gone up as the company is hiring more people in programming as well as production. Other expenditure has remained at the same level as last year. Financial costs have gone down considerably as Balaji Telefilms is moves towards becoming a debt free company.

The company has changed its accounting practice from last year in writing off 100 per cent cost of production of programmes in the same financial year when it is telecast. This will benefit the company in the long term to strengthen its bottomline.

"Our realisation was higher in this quarter which has given a boost to income," says Patoria. At the same time control on expenses, lower interest expenses have boosted the bottomeline.

The EPS (earning per share) for the quarter is at 4.79 which is more than the annualised EPS of 4.23, which shows that company has been successful in maximising shareholders value.

The share market has reacted positively to the result. The scrip touched an intraday high at Rs179.85 and closed on the higher side at RS 188 with more than 2.9 millions share being traded on the BSE.

For Balaji, the future looks bright with its programmes doing exceedingly well on C&S channels, both in the north and in the south. If content be the king, Balaji certainly seems to be producing most the successful stuff on display at present.

Sony Entertainment Television and the Rajan Raheja-owned Hathway Cable & Datacom are hopeful that their ongoing dispute over paid connectivity will be resolved in a day or two. Sony has switched off its bouquet of channels - SetMax, AXN, CNBC (paid services) and the currently free-to-air SET to Hathway - in Mumbai, Pune and Nasik in the western state of Maharashtra.

Industry sources say that Sony wants Hathway to increase the declared connectivity of the bouquet. When Sony has signed a deal with the Hinduja-promoted InCable for a 30,000 subscriber base there is no justification in Sony‘s demand that its base be hiked above that (way higher than that it would seem) is the Hathway argument. "Ask Hathway what is the declared connectivity of Star Sports," Sony‘s senior VP franchise channels & distribution Shantonu Aditya counters, when it was put to him that the increase sought was too high. He, however, clarified that discussions were on and would be resolved sooner rather than later.

Hathway‘s other complaint is that while Sony is set to go pay from 1 September, it has already demanded an increase in the rate of its bouquet to nearly Rs 26.

The Sony signal has been on and off the Hathway feed for the last month or so in the three Maharashtrian cities and the issue at stake seems to be more in the area of parry and thrust than an all out confrontation between the two parties.