Two half-hour slots on DD National is what Nimbus Communications has been offered in lieu of the programming it used to provide for the moribund DD News. It will hardly make up for the six and half hour programming that Nimbus had been enjoying on the national broadcaster‘s 24-hour news channel.

Although the news and current affairs programmes to air from 26 January might attract better viewership than the ones on sickly DD News, due to be given a quiet burial on Republic Day, the timing could not have been worse.

Insiders point out that hardly anyone would watch a news programme between 10:30 am and 11 am. The other slot in the afternoon is also a time when most viewers are hooked onto soaps and is unlikely to bring in audiences.

Though Nimbus has laid off 40 of its 70 odd technical and editorial staff working on the news capsules, it has reportedly said that those leaving could be re-inducted when fresh assignments come in. That, sources say, is unlikely with DD planning to create two hours of software in house. The rest (approximately four hours) is commissioned out to independent producers on a quota basis. With names like Rajat Sharma and Romesh Sharma and UTV also in the fray, Nimbus is unlikely to land any more assignments from DD in the short term. As the company‘s focus is more on entertainment and airtime marketing, however, Nimbus is unlikely to lobby for more news programmes with the pubcaster and hence not many of the outgoing staff are likely to be called back.

Most of the 40 asked to leave reportedly did not have much of an advance notice before Friday, when the production house handed them the pink slips. Some of these had joined the team as recently as two months ago, sources say.

The Subhash Chandra-owned Essel Group issued a press release this evening announcing that its promoters and the promoters of Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) are poised to clear the full dues of Rs 2,200 million that were owed by them to the latter.Last week, the release says, the promoters, led by Chandra, placed nine million shares with a foreign institutional investor (FII) which will help them finally clear all their dues to ZTL once the transaction is settled.

Hitherto, Rs 1,480 million of the amount had been returned by Chandra et al to ZTL, which means the current tranche is likely to have raised Rs 720 million and will free them of any liabilities. Rs 720 million for nine million shares works out to a price of Rs 80 per share for the FII, which is believed to be keen on entertainment and media stocks. This, at a time, when the share is trading above the Rs 100 level.

The press release quotes Essel Group corporate finance president A.C. Saha saying that "we are going to return the entire remaining dues to ZTL during the course of this week. Placement of these shares reestablishes that the promoters of the Essel Group will always stand by their commitment."

The announcement clarifies speculation on the promoters‘ sale that was running rife in the stockmarket on 4 January and posted on indiantelevision.com on 5 January‘s Breaking News. (Read: Block shares sale clears promoters‘ dues to Zee Telefilms?)

Last night at 9 pm it was EPSN Software which took the decision to switch off the transmission of both ESPN and Star Sports to one of the largest Indian MSOs InCableNet. The reason it claimed: the failure of InCable to sign a fresh service contract for the period commencing on 1 January 2002 after the monthly subscription rates for the channel were raised from Rs 16 to Rs 24. The earlier annual service contract with InCable expired on 31 December, 2001.

InCableNet immediately responded by flashing a message on the frequencies on which two channels were being transmitted that ESPN-Star had taken the decision to turn off its IRDs, despite a court order and advance payments being made to the broadcaster, adding that it would move the court on Monday.

The riposte from ESPN Software came today. It issued a press release which said that "subscribers of InCable Network in Mumbai are being misled into believing false and baseless statements screened by its management the cable network.

The press release has ESPN Software vice-president - affiliate sales Sricharan Iyengar, saying that ?the InCable Network management is making completely baseless statements and is attempting to mislead their own viewers. There is no existing court order that prevents ESPN Software India from discontinuing the ESPN and STAR Sports services to InCable following the expiry of the service contract on December 31, 2001. Despite repeated efforts from our side for the past four weeks, InCable Network has not signed the new service contract for ESPN & STAR Sports. As there is no contract between ESPN Software and InCable Network for the period commencing January 1, 2002, the question of an advance payment as falsely alleged by InCable does not and cannot arise,?

He adds: ?In our view, it is InCable which is holding its viewers to ransom and are actually serving self-interests in the guise of protecting public interest. InCable Network claims to service over 15.5 lakh (1.55 million) subscriber homes in Mumbai. However it directly pays us for only 1.5 lakh (150,000) homes which is less than 10 percent of the homes claimed to be serviced by the Network. ?