Star TV India is bringing in television industry veteran Altaf Ali Mohammed to look after its digital platform - DTH and broadband - in India. Mohammed was earlier looking after the network?s distribution operations in India, west Asia, and south Asia before the job was handed over to Arun Mohan, current cable TV distribution head in India. Star TV has recently taken a 26 per cent equity stake in one of the three largest cable TV MSOs in the country, Hathway Cable & Datacom. According to Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea, Mohan will continue in his present position increasing penetration for Star?s channel bouquet, while Mohammed will be responsible for Hathway and broadband properties. In DTH, Mohammed will be replacing Urmilla Gupta, who recently quit the company.

The Prasar Bharati board yesterday gave the corporation the go-ahead to explore a DTH service in partnership with non-broadcasters.The corporation is believed to be exploring alliances with government run outfits such as MTNL, VSNL, among others. Of course, it could also make an offer to private firms such as HFCL or Reliance, thought the latter says that DTH is a non-starter as government clearance for Ku-band DTH has come too late, and other technically attractive options are available currently.

It?s quite a quaint dance. One step forward, two step back. That?s the path the government has decided to take for Convergence draft. The group of ministers (GoM) which met on Wednesday decided to send it back to jurist Fali Nariman who headed the sub-group which wrote the draft in the first place.
Apparently, the GoM appears to be in broad agreement on the bill, but would like some minor changes to be made. It would like certain issues to be clarified and words used in the draft to be changed. The sub-group will apparently have to look closer at Issues such as the post of the spectrum manager, the bill?s name, who should have the right of way, the role of the regulator (content and carriage) etc and submit the redrafted draft to the GoM within a week.

The GoM is slated to meet once again on 21 December and send the redrafted draft to the Cabinet.

BBC World has emerged as the most-watched channel in a decision makers‘ survey conducted by market research firm ORG-Marg for the news and information channel. The research sample covered 1,030 executives designated as general managers and above in private companies, public sector organisations and financial firms.
51.7 per cent of those surveyed said that they had watched BBC World yesterday, 73 per cent said that they had tuned into it the past week and 79.3 per cent said that they switched it on in the past month. As compared to this Star News was watched by 71 per cent in the previous week, Star Plus by 65 per cent and CNN by 52 per cent. Discovery, Sony, Zee TV, DD1 were watched by less than 50 per cent of them in the previous week.

BBC World had commissioned a similar survey in 1997 and it has retained its audience since then among decision makers even in 2000. Star Plus has lost two points dropping from 67 per cent to 65 per cent, DD I from 62 per cent to 42 per cent, Zee TV from 58 per cent to 45 per cent.

Additionally, the survey revealed that nine out of every 10 CEOs said that they prefer BBC World to any other channel. Almost a similar number of CEOs said that they preferred Star News.

With convincing research like this, BBC World should have no problems finding sponsors and advertisers for its India specific programming. Or should it? Watch this space.

The let?s-make-a-mess-of-it sorry saga continues at Zee Telefilms. Its decision to unceremoniously and injudiciously sack Sawal Dus Crore Ka co-host Anupam Kher could see it getting embroiled in a legal tangle. The company has rattled the veteran anchor so much that he told a local daily that he was considering legal opinion as to how he should react to Zee TV?s decision to dump him and retain Manisha Koirala.

"As per our contract they were supposed to inform me 60 days in advance in writing," he said. "One expects matters to be handled in a professional manner."

He revealed that his contract was for a year and spanned 156 episodes and that he had turned down five to six films to be part of the show. He added that he had not been informed officially about his termination and that he was awaiting official intimation.

Zee Telefilms has responded to the charge that it has asked Sawal Dus Crore Ka co-anchor Anupam Kher to go as part of its revamp. According to a Zee TV spokesperson, the issue is that "if Kher has got other commitments, he could well go. And if he is going then we will look at alternatives."
Anyone will tell you that that is quite a roundabout way of asking a person to go. The decision has surprised many an industry professional as they expected the axe to fall on co-host Manisha Koirala?s head, rather than Kher?s.

Kher told local daily Indian Express that he had to leave five or six films for the show and he was being made the fall guy. He had also told indiantelevision.com sometime back that he had planned his film shooting schedules around SDCK.

However, Zee TV and Kher will part only if it is mutually agreed upon, the Zee TV spokesperson said. The spokesperson said no final decision had been taken about Kher?s replacement Ashutosh Rana.