Now that the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002 has been passed by the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament), there is one final step it has to take before being signed into law - clear the Rajya Sabha (Upper House).
The amendments to the Cable TV Regulations Act, 1995, which will pave the way for addressability on Indian cable systems through conditional access, is likely to be cleared in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow. Current indications are that though the bill has not been listed in tomorrow‘s agenda, the government will force its discussion in the Upper House along with another bill. The effort is clearly to get the bill passed tomorrow itself or information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj‘s dogged efforts to push the bill through would get negated.

The amendments to the Act were passed in the Lok Sabha yesterday through a voice vote after a marathon discussion which lasted over three hours.

The bill was to have been discussed in the Rajya Sabha today but could not be taken up as the House was busy discussing other issues like a co-operative bank scam which has recently surfaced and most of the early afternoon was taken up by finance minister Yashwant Sinha replying to various queries on this issue.

However, government officials point out that even in the unlikely event that the bill is not discussed in the RS tomorrow, proponents of CAS need not lose heart.

"Since the Bill has been okayed by the Lok Sabha, the government can push through the legislative change through an ordinance after Parliament takes a break," a senior information and broadcasting official told indiantelevison.com.

Government officials also opine that effecting policy changes through ordinance has been resorted to in the past by various governments.

Incidentally, before the Cable TV Networks Regulation Act, 1995 was formally enacted into a law, the then government of the day had passed a late night ordinance to regulate cable networks.

ESPN has launched ESPN+ (pronounced "ESPN m᳢), its the second 24-hour sports network to serve Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The programming flexibility of ESPN+ will also allow it to provide enhanced coverage of Spanish League Football and UEFA Champions League Football. The arrival of ESPN+ also allows for the debut of several new live editions of SportsCenter, Latin America?s preeminent sports news and information programme. ESPN+ will offer live editions of SportsCenter Monday to Friday at 8:00 pm and three times per day on Saturday and Sunday (2:30 pm, 5:30 pm, and 8:00 pm).

In addition, the original midnight edition of SportsCenter will now be simulcast on both ESPN+ and ESPN Latin America.

The Sporty gent is back. This time, the former ESPN-Star Sports Asia chief Alexander P. "Sandy" Brown is hopping on to the business channel bandwagon. Brown, who is an old hand in Asia and in media with more then nine years experience and 15 years experience respectively in each of these two, has been named president & chief executive officer of CNBC Asia Pacific effective immediately. He will be based in Singapore, the CNBC Asia Pacific Board announced today.

Prior to this appointment, Brown, 39, was the president and chief operating officer of Virtual Spectator Inc, a New York-based 3-D animation technology company.

"I‘m looking forward to the opportunity to return to Asia to lead CNBC‘s efforts in the region," says Brown. "The CNBC brand connotes the best in global business news and the challenge to further develop it in Asia is an exciting one."

President of the International group of Dow Jones and Dow Jones‘ lead director on the CNBC Asia Pacific board Karen Elliott House says: "Sandy Brown will bring significant knowledge to CNBC Asia Pacific from his experience in the region and in the television industry. He has strong management capabilities and the ability to lead CNBC Asia Pacific to greater success, and we are delighted that he‘s joined us."

Bill Bolster, who supervises all of CNBC‘s international operations for NBC and is NBC‘s lead director of CNBC Asia Pacific says, "Sandy Brown has the experience to extend the scope of CNBC‘s financial programming and further enhance the world‘s best business brand. We are delighted to have him at CNBC."