The Securuties and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has finally given the much awaited green signal to media, entertainment and telecom companies who had been demanding since a long time the 10 per cent Initial Public Offering (IPO) norm which was earlier enjoyed only by Infotech companies.
The board meeting held by Sebi decided on allowing knowledge based companies in the media, entertainment and telecom sector to offer a minimum 10 per cent shares to the public through IPOs. Earlier to this, the norm was a minimum 25 per cent IPO.

One condition, however, is added which says that minimum 2 million shares should be issued and the size of the public offering should be atleast Rs 500 million. This norm is to ensure enough floating stock in the market. Also 75 per cent revenues and profit of such companies should come from one of media, entertainment or telecom businessess.

MTV India has announced a new Director Communications. The former Good Relations (India) employee Charlotte Lester has replaced Hemant Kenkre. Charlotte will report directly to the MTV India Managing Director Alex Kuruvilla.
Hemant Kenkre has left the channel to pursue his cricketing passion and has joined the cricketing portal www.cricketnext.com as CEO.

The Bangalore based Technology Media Group Ltd (TMG) has launched a 24 hour technology channel "TMG Enter". The free-to-air channel is uplinked from India and is beamed from Intelsat 703 on the analog mode. The channel has got its birth from an infotech programme "Infotrek" on DD Metro.
TMG aims at creating a world-class knowledge repository on technology to redefine the way it is delivered. It also aims to provide services in languages other than English and emerge as a leader in the South-East Asian market.

It also has launched a magazine "CIO" and an Infotech portal www.indiaitonline.com. The company is under the process of recruiting managerial and technical staff for the television channel, magazine and portal.

The channel, being the first of its kind, is expected to perform well in India due the IT boom and the quality programming it owns.

The regional channel war has heated up as more and more players are taking a leap into the wave. India‘s national broadcaster is not far behind. Doordarshan has seriously decided to tackle private players who are banking on quality and agressive marketing. It is adapting an agressive marketing strategy. DD already has ‘Sahyadri‘, its 24-hour Marathi channel and is set to launch a 24-hour Gujarati channel on
1 May. DD Kannada will be renamed as ‘DD Chandan‘. A bouquet of regional channels wil be unveiled for Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar in the coming months.

DD has also decided to take the convergence wave seriously. It is looking to partner with the Ron Victor promoted Homeland Networks which hosts the sites - www.tvofindia.com, www.radioofindia.com and www.pressofindia.com. It is also in talks with Pentafour Software which hosts a broadband portal NumTV.com.

The national broadcaster Doordarshan denied the press release sent out by the ex-Star TV owner Richard Li‘s Internet group Pacific CyberWorks. The release stated that Pacific CyberWorks will build, maintain and operate Doordarshan‘s Internet site dedicated to Indian cricket. Pacific Century CyberWork‘s statements about it bagging the Internet media rights for international cricket matches played in India through the year 2004 has been questioned by DD.
Doordarshan had earlier announced that it will give away Internet rights for international matches played in India to anyone paying an annual charge of Rs 2.5 million. But, no contracts have been signed on as yet and thus Pacific Century CyberWork‘s claims seem to be incorrect.

Senior DD officials were quoted in a local newspaper saying that if TransWorld International, who own the marketing rights for four years, have given away Internet multimedia rights to any one, it was without the knowledge of Doordarshan and that the company desiring to acquire them should obtain it first from the national broadcaster.