The regional language channel segment has seen a stampede of entrants. After Tamil, the next most competitive language category has been Marathi wherein close to half a dozen channels are jostling for a share of the relatively small advertising pie.

The key therefore to survival and well-being is differentiation which offers value to viewers. Tara Marathi, promoted by Broadcast Worldwide has taken another step in that direction by hiring best selling pulp fiction writer Shobha De as creative director.

"As the creative director of Tara Shobha De‘ will be responsible for driving the channel and giving the channel a distinct identity and long term vision," a press release from the company says. "Shobha has extended herself beyond the confines of being slotted as a conventional Maharashtrian woman and achieved success in several areas without losing touch with her roots. Being a proud and aware Maharashtrian herself, Shobha represents the mindset of the contemporary Maharashtrian, which is what makes her ideal for this profile."

De joined the channel on 1 July 2000 and she will be working closely with Rathikant Basu and the Tara Marathi team headed by Nitin Vaidya. "Giving TARA a contemporary Maharasthrian identity will be my main challenge here," says De about her role at Tara. "Today‘s Maharashtrian is not what he or she used to be. They are breaking away from stereotypes and are not confined to the conventional areas of achievement anymore. They are achievers in every field be it technology, cricket, theatre, Bollywood or literature."

Zee Telefilms will be launching its sports channel on October 1. The channel is temporarily christened Zee Sports. Zee was counting on the bagging of the telecast rights of all the ICC organised cricket matches. But it lost out to Rupert Murdoch who walked home with the telecast rights.This was seen as a major blow for the launch of the Zee Sports channel. But the channel executives announced that they would go ahead with the launch of Zee Sports channel. The executives claimed that they have enough software for the channel to keep it going and to make it successful.
Zee has recently taken a 60% stake in the Goa-based soccer club Churchill Brothers. The channel is also looking out for similar tie-ups with other such sports bodies. Besides this, officials have confirmed that they will have cricket, soccer, tennis, athletics and other sports software for their new channel.On the recent controversy of the awarding of ICC cricket telecast rights, the channel is up in arms against the ICC for awarding the rights to its rival group backed by Rupert Murdoch. Zee executives have claimed that this decision smells of racism and that they would not sit back and except his decision and that they are consulting various legal experts to take appropriate action against the ICC. Zee had bid $666 million for the rights where as News Corp/WSG bid $550 million, which is $1 million lower than Zee‘s bid.

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting of Asia (CASBAA) is getting active - finally. And it is on the piracy front that it is showing its teeth. It has placed India amongst the Top 3 rogue list of countries where cable TV signal piracy is escalating. The other two: the Philippines and Thailand.

"The Association will undertake and support new initiatives to protect member company intellectual property rights wherever possible," said CASBAA Executive Director Simon Twiston Davies. "As part of our anti-piracy activities significant funding has been set aside to undertake prosecutions to the fullest extent permissible in several markets."

The CASBAA Legal Committee, is working closely with CASBAA CASBAA the Motion Picture Association of America on this issue.

Recently, it spearheaded the switching off of satellite signal decoders operated by illegal cable systems in the Philippines as part of a "fingerprinting" exercise. Among cable operators suffering from disabled and de-authorised channels were the Fil Products systems in Dumaguete and Butuan. Among the channels withdrawn from distribution to the pirate cable systems were AXN, Discovery Asia, Animal Planet, Hallmark and Nickelodeon.

"Fingerprinting" enables a channel supplier to identify a "rogue" domestic set-top box that has strayed outside of its licensed market and for the channel supplier to subsequently disconnect the set top.

"This is just the start of a long-term CASBAA campaign to bring home to pay-TV operators and others the damage that intellectual property theft can do to all parties concerned with the legal distribution of multichannel television and datacast services," adds Twiston Davies. "In some markets the problem is reaching crisis proportions, not only having a significant impact on the channel suppliers but also on legally licensed and operated cable systems, equipment suppliers and conditional access suppliers."

CNN is all set for the launch of its new South Asia channel on 3 July. The launch will see a new region-specific schedule, featuring a five hour prime-time block comprising of international and regional news bulletins presented by Anand Naidoo and the two new presenters Shihab Rattansi and Zain Verjee.

CNN International will also reschedule some of the network‘s most popular programmes for daily prime-time television viewing in South Asia including Biz Asia, CNNdotCOM, Style with Elsa Klensch, CNN Hotspots, the art club, World Beat, Business Unusual, Science & Technology and Earth Matters.

CNN International will introduce locally produced programmes on the South Asian channel by the fourth quarter of 2000. The programmes will be produced by local production companies and will be a part of the new channel‘s regional news bulletins and CNN‘s popular shows at prime-time.

The network will fully upgrade its current signal to the advanced digital mode, which, the network claims, will significantly improve the signal for local audiences. The CNNI South Asia signal will be available via the PanAmSat-4 satellite.

Star Plus, the flagship channel of the Star Network, completes a year of turning a 24-hour Hindi channel 3 July.

Yesterday, the team behind what has been an eventful year for the Rupert Murdoch-promoted channel were out in strength at the Taj Hotel in South Mumbai and made no bones about the fact that they intended to put even more "blue sky" between themselves and rivals Zee and Sony.

And the new strategy that Sameer Nair, executive vice-president, head of content & communication, Star India has chalked out for the immediate term is on two fronts. Star is sitting pretty on the 9:00pm to 11:00pm band Mondays to Thursdays (gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati airs 9-10pm Monday to Wednesday; followed by the superhit soaps from the Balaji stable Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki - both four days). But next month will see the launch of a slew of new shows on Fridays - what Star Plus has termed power-packed Friday nights. Nair calls it Friday entertainment for the family. And for Sunday mornings Star has lined up devotional inspiration. Till 10:00am that is. Which is when Junior KBC comes on air where it‘s back to pure greed as the driving force.

For the Friday slot, starting 27 July, Star Plus is launching a talent show, Kya Masti Kya Doon with film star Sonali Bendre as the anchor at 8:00 PM At 9:00 PM is Khulja Sim Sim, an Indian version of Lets Make a Deal. And at 10:00pm it will be Ssshhhh... Koi Hai..., a horror series. In Masti Kya Dhoom,comparisons to Sony‘s popular dance talent hunt show Boogie Woogie are inevitable but Star
officials are quick to point out that it is not only dance which will be showcased, but also music, mimicry, acting, etc. The differentiation in the viewer‘s mind will be important because a me-too dance talent show that Zee launched with former Channel [V] host Ruby Bhatia as the presenter sank without a trace almost before it went on air.

Masti is produced by Vandana Malik and the Television Eighteen team, better known as the content providers for CNBC India.

Khulja Sim Sim, up next at 9pm, is a licenced copy of Let‘s Make A Deal, a popular show which ran successfully in the USA from 1963 to 1990. It is currently on air in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Spain and Italy. The show is presented by popular TV actor Aman Verma of Kyunki Saas... fame.

Khulja is produced by Optimystix Productions and directed by Vipul Shah.

Sunday mornings, on the other hand, are devoted to devotional shows. From Aatma, discourses from Bhagwat Gita, at 7:00am, to Dharam Aur Hum, a devotional musical journey with Anup Jalota, to mythological Jap Tap Vratt at 9:00 am.

Next on the agenda for the Star team? To push back the evening prime time band from the current 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM slot.

Star is looking to launch a new show at 7:30 PM sometime in the middle of August, Nair says. The show is a situational comedy being produced by Shrey Guleri who also made the popular Tu Tu Mein Mein sitcom, according to Nair.

This is a first as far as channels go, Nair says, pointing to the fact that the 7-8pm slot doesn‘t normally have fresh content as it is considered a non prime time slot.

And that is how Nair hopes Star will retain its numero uno position - by constantly executing innovative concepts.