There was a reshuffling of top bosses at the Star TV head office in Hong Kong. James Murdoch, youngest son of News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch, took over the reins of Star TV as chairman and CEO. Also Bruce Churchill was promoted as the president and chief operating officer of Star TV.

James Murdoch, who is 27, has been interim Co-Chairman of Star since February. He is also Executive Vice President of News Corporation, responsible for the company?s interests in global Internet and digital media ventures, and is a member of News Corporation?s Executive Committee.

Bruce Churchill was appointed president and chief operating officer of Star TV in May 2000. He had been the deputy chief executive officer of Star since April 1996. Mr Churchill will be responsible for operations across the entire company and will play a key role in determining and implementing Star TV?s development strategy.

Star TV announced the appointment of Mr Lalit Ahuja as CEO of it‘s new convergence and infotech business operations in India. He will report to Mr. Peter Mukerjea, CEO, News Television India.
This move is seen as a major development in Star‘s efforts to enter the convergence and infotech arena. According to James Murdoch, "Lalit‘s appointment underscores the critical importance we attach to the new media world, where talent and expertise will determine market leadership."

Lalit Ahuja was the President and Managing Director of LG Soft India (the global IT arm of LG Group).

Hotel Regent in Mumbai will see the hosting of a seminar on the fast changing media scenario in the country. The seminar dubbed Mediamorphosis will be organised by The Brief: magazine and web portal indya.com on 2 & 3 June.
Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Arun Jaitley will address the delegates at the seminar. The Seminar includes a list of prominent speakers from the media industry. Few of them are Peter Mukherjea, CEO- Star TV, Sunil Lulla, CEO- indya.com, Piyush Pandey, National Creative Director- O&M, Shekhar Gupta, CEO-Indian Express, Rajesh Pant, COO- SET, Suresh Bala, General Manager- Channel [V] and many others.

Close on the heels of winning the Ground Breaker award as the top National Programmer by US-based trade publication Multichannel News International, Zee Telefilms has one more award in its kitty. Zee TV has won the coveted EMMA Award in the United Kingdom.
While Zee won the Ground Breaker award as it had "emerged as India‘s media powerhouse with transponders on satellites whose footprints cover the globe, it won the EMMA awards for the best digital/cable channel in the United Kingdom.

The winner for the award is chosen based on viewers response through ‘phone in and internet‘. Zee TV is watched in more than 1,70,000 South Asian households in UK and Europe and is fast increasing its viewership through its innovative and interactive programming.

The event which marks the coming together of all the industry people for latest developments in the broadcasting world and also for networking with peers is here. Broadcast Asia will be held from 5 June to 8 June in Singapore.

The conference begins on 5 June with the opening session on Visualising MPEG Tutorial conducted by Dr Michale Isnardi of Sarnoff Research Corporation.

6 June will see parallel sessions on Digital experience and Multimedia in the year 2000 being held simultaneously. The session on Multimedia in the Year 2000 will be presented by British Kinematograph Sound and Television Society (BKSTS).

7 June will have two parallel sessions throughout the day. One session will see parallel session on Digital Delivery and Audio and Text. The second parallel session will deal with Television & Multimedia and Delivery Networks - Vehicles.

The final day, 8 June will continue with 2 parallel sessions in throughout the day. The first session will be on Production and TV-Internet-TV. The final session will deal with Studio Technology and Business Opportunities. This will be followed by a closing debate.

For more details about the show visit www.broadcast-asia.com.

In what is seen as a move to avoid any complications which may arise due to ‘restrictions on cross media holdings‘, Zee Telefilms announced that it was divesting its stake from Zee Publishing Ltd.
As a result Zee Publishing Ltd will no more be a part of Zee Telefilms Ltd but will be privately owned by Subhash Chandra and his family and also Deepak Shourie who is also a CEO in Zee Telefilms.

ZPL will retain its name as of now but can change it if it wants in the future. Also this restructuring move would mean that ZPL will be more focused in its plans can now raise its own funding as an separate entity. This move will also possibly keep the critics of Zee Telefilms, who have doubts about Zee‘s publishing venture, quiet.

The new company will continue to publish its Zee Premier and TV World magazines.