If the announcements are anything to go by, India is likely to have a new information and broadcasting minister. The dashing and young Arun Jaitley who was seen as being to aggressive in opening up the broadcasting sector will in all likelihood be given the boot. Indications are that he will replaced by Sushma Swaraj who was information & broadcasting minister (I&B) two years ago in the same government. She was inducted into the Indian Union Cabinet earlier this evening. In fact, Star News had already made an announcement at the time of writing that she would be given the I&B berth.

What does this mean for broadcasters, especially those owned by foreigners? Probably some slowing down in the mid-term of the liberalisation wave that was hitting them. The lady is a little more conservative than Jaitley, but during her time earlier she was instrumental in spelling out a phased policy for progressively opening up uplinking for broadcasters - be they foreign or Indian.

Jaitley, during his term, announced cable TV regulation amendments which banned liquor and tobacco advertising on television, allowed even 100 per cent foreign owned broadcasters to uplink from India subject to some restrictions, brought back Prasar Bharati under greater government control. He was expected to push through a convergence bill in the near future that would clarify several issues which have been confronting the cable and satellite television industry.

A first time movie deal has been announced between NewsCorp owned Star TV and Indian‘s major production house United Television Limited . The duo plan to co-produce 12 feature films as part of a co-production initiative. The movies - commercial, regional and international co-productions will be distributed by 20th Century Fox. While Star is expected to pick up the satellite rights, UTV will hold the "world theatrical " or movie hall rights. The move has been prompted by the estimated over 5 billion Indians abroad. UTV has distributed a range of Hindi films including Sarfarosh, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Terrorist, Vastav and an Indo-English movie Hyderabad Blues in the past few years.
Meanwhile, Star is believed to be in advanced stages to start work on its US$ 1 studio on the outskirts of Mumbai to produce films and TV product. Earlier this year, NewsCorp Chairman Rupert Murdoch had pledged to launch a studio in Mumbai.

Zee Telefilms has hired American Insurance Group subsidiary, and SSKI as merchant bankers to divest upto 20 percent stake in MSO Siticable. AIA Capital, investment banking arm of AIG will oversee the equity dilution. The funds will help fund Zee‘s Hybrid Fiber Co-axial network planned in 26 cities over the next two and a half years. . The project is estimated at Rs 25,000 million, and is being implemented by Zee Interactive Multimedia. Siticable‘s equity plans are expected to be finalised in the next three months. At the Annual General Meeting yesterday, Zee Telefilms Chairman Subhash Chandra said that revenues in the first six months of this fiscal year are expected to be more than Rs. 450 crores, a 30 percent increase over the corresponding period last year‘s Rs. 346 crores. But," profit growth may not be 30 percent due to new initiatives and extraordinary debts," Chandra cautioned.

Zee which has eight pay channels, will include Zee TV, Zee News and Zee Music as a part of the DTO bouquet by March 2001. In the southern TV language front, while Kannada language channel ‘Kaveri‘ has launched, Tamil and Telugu language channels will start operations in 2000-2001. Zee plans to launch a sports channel by the first quarter 2001, and will start a test run with 6-8 hours of programming by December 2000. The network will expand the scope of its education channel, Zee Education.

Zee is also re-negotiating with state-owned broadcaster DD for paring down the minimum guarantee of Rs 4,500 million it has given for marketing air time during DD‘s telecast of matches organised by the Indian cricket board for the next four years. Zee expects to bring down the minimum guarantee by Rs 700 million. AT Kearney, who are looking at restructuring and corporate governance, will submit their report in 6-8 weeks, Chandra said at the AGM.

Zee Telefilms has announced its revised ad rate card for the Zee TV channel. The rates are as follows:

Figs. In Rs. Per 10 seconds.
Applicable from October 01, 2000.