• Zee expects subscription revenues to cushion ad sales fall; puts search for foreign partner for Siti Cable on hold

    Submitted by ITV Production on Sep 27, 2001

    Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra today warned investors that the overall negative market scenario prevailing was going to impact on financials as companies cut back on advertising. It was also clarified later that efforts to bring on board an international player as strategic partner for its cable arm Siti Cable had been put on the cold burner for the present.

    Zee‘s Nineteenth Annual General Meeting, which took place at the Nehru Auditorium in Worli in Central Mumbai today, started at 12 o‘clock sharp with a short speech by Chandra. ‘There will be a dip in total revenues as well as net profit of the company as industry is going through a rough patch," Chandra said. He later explained while answering shareholders‘ questions that though overall growth would be there, the earlier rates of growth which had stood at 45 per cent and 60 per cent far the last few years would not happen.

    On the positive side he said there would be an increase in revenues of around 20 to 25 per cent from subscription during this financial year. The Zee bouquet having gone pay on 10 June this year had proved a success with higher than anticipated revenue collections.

    Chandra referred to the AT Kearney report which suggests that operations within the group be streamlined by merging the many companies under the Zee umbrella into fewer entities. Chandra said that the present 22 companies which make up the group would be reduced to 12 under three broad operations of access, content and education.

    Cable arm Siti Cable and Patco (company set up to handle marketing for DTO) come under access for which there will be investment worth Rs 1300 million while RS 200 million had been set aside for content in this financial year, Chandra said.

    As far as the education business was concerned the growth prospects were not that positive, he said.

    Seeking to reassure investors over Zee‘s links to cornered bull operator Ketan Parekh and the subsequent fallout, he said that there was no investigation on against the company. Out of a total of Rs 2,200 million that was transferred from Zee Telefilms to investment companies of Chandra‘s Essel group meant to help bail out Parekh, Rs 1300 million had already been paid and the remaining amount would be paid within a short period, he said. Chandra further clarified that henceforth, as a matter of company policy no Zee group company would have any financial transactions with Zee telefilms. In his speech, he also mentioned the tax liability of the company as a foreign broadcasting channel.

    "Also, the investment in Buddha Films which is Rs 102 Crores (Rs 1020 million) would be returned to Zee as part of divestment within this financial year along with interest of 15 per cent," he said.

    Clarifying on some other investment issues raised by the shareholders, Chandra said that there was no investment in Agee Gold (there as an agreement between Zee and Agee Gold Refineries that Agee will use the Zee brand name for selling their products for which they will pay 20 per cent of their net profit as royalty). ‘There is also advertising tie-up under which they have to advertise on the network," Chandra said.

    Replying to a question as to how far discussions to bring on board an international media player as a strategic partner had proceeded, Chandra said the search had been put on hold for the time being.

    However, RK Singh, corporate affairs CEO, Zee Telefilms, subsequently clarified that what Chandra meant to say was that the search for a strategic partner for group cable arm Siti Cable had been shelved.

    Chandra was reluctant to disclose the profits made on the recent mega hit Gadar. "Films are not new for us. Before Gadar happened, in the last seven years there were something like 12 films that we made which were low budget but all were cash positive," he said. Talking about the future plans on the film front, he said this financial year Zee would doing one more film. The investment would be close to Rs 10 to 20 million and if further finances are required, the film will finance itself through the sale of various rights in advance as well as with the advertising partnerships.

    To one investor who raised the issue of the sharp increase in salary expenses, he explained that earlier there were only four channel while that number now stood at 13, which needs strong backend to support which adds to the cost. "But if you see the overall operating costs of the company you will see it is well under control," he said.

    On the programming front he expressed optimism. "We have 32 per cent of overall eyeballs despite the fall in ratings. Our next rival has 20 per cent which is far behind," Chandra said. The media and entertainment industry will grow at the rate of 30 per cent this year, he said.

    PRAISES SHOWERED ON CHANDRA

    If one didn‘t know better it could have seemed that all was well in the Zee camp. At least that was what could be made out purely going by the kind of feedback that investors offered at the AGM.

    The main concern among the shareholders present appeared to be to get some free screening of Zee‘s mega hit film Gadar, a request that was partially accepted by the board. Most of the shareholders who spoke at the AGM started their speech with praises for Chandra and his caliber in having managed such fantastic results despite the bad market conditions.

    Some went so far as to say they wished Chandra would soon be on top of the heap as far as Indian billionaires were concerned.

  • Vijay TV launching aggressive programme drive from 1 October

    Submitted by ITV Production on Sep 27, 2001

    With latest addition to the family Vijay TV firmly in tow, Star India today gave notice it was ready for a long haul battle with undisputed leader Sun TV and distant second Jaya TV for the ultimate prize - the eyes and minds of the Tamil viewer.

    Starting 1 October, Vijay TV will have a slew of fresh new programmes, starting with mega soaps like Marumagal, Kathai Kathaiam Kaaranamam, Kavyanjali, Agnisatchi, Kudumbam oru Kovil to weekly comedy shows like Crazy times, Galatta countdown, along with mega movies during the week.

    Announcing this at a press briefing in Chennai, Ajay Vidyasagar, GM, said: "Our programming philosophy has been to get strong story lines to be enacted by the best Tamil actors and actresses. The focus has been to raise the bar on packaging, promotions and the quality of presentation that has been the hallmark of the Star network. With Vijay we believe that TV viewing families in Tamil Nadu will have the privilege of choice".

    Kicking off the programming blitz is a daily soap Marumagal, with top cine star Khushbu making her debut on Tamil TV. She is cast as Nandhini an intelligent young woman who gets married into the family of a rich businessman. The story revolves around her demanding mother-in-law, played by Manjula, the popular film star of yesteryear, and how she solves tangles and wins the love and affection of everyone. This is also for the first time that Khushbu will star with Manjula and both are excited about the show.

    Kathai Kathaiam Kaaranamam, is a collection of stories written by literary stalwarts like Vaasathi, Sivasankari and Balakumaran. This series is directed by Revathy, with the lead roles enacted by top rated actors and actresses. In the first story Shobana cast as Malathi in Vaasanthi?s hugely popular Nampikaikalum Anumanumgalum, plays the lead role.

    Galatta is a music countdown show with comedians Senthil and Manivannan hosting.

    Slotted for the weekend is Crazy Times scripted by Crazy Mohan one of Tamil cinema?s leading humourists.

    According to Vijay TV officials, the new programming line-up has been crafted after an elaborate exercise done across consumer segments in Tamil Nadu.

    Suresh Iyer, programming head for Vijay says: "We have gone into local production by partnering with some of the best quality production houses. There is a lot of involvement from our end. We have set up a creative services cell that thoroughly evaluates all shows and based on merit these will play on the channel. We have a strong commitment to provide quality content and bringing stars to the homes of consumers (instead of the consumer going in search of them)"

    Sameer Nair, head of programming, Star, said: "This is only the first step towards what we believe is a long term plan in harnessing the creative talents in South India. And like we have learnt with Star Plus, we are in a marathon and not a hundred meter race"

  • The TRP story getting murkier

    Submitted by ITV Production on Sep 27, 2001

    It now appears that efforts are on to discredit the ratings system further.

    Industry sources say that recently two individuals claiming to be the representatives of Star India contacted a few households that are a part of the TAM Media peoplemeter sample in Lower Parel in central Mumbai.

    The sources say that the two offered money to the households to watch Star shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. The incident took place last week, the sources say. According to them, two of the households which were approached accepted the money. Indian Television has learnt that Rs 500 was what was offered.

    The same team reportedly went to TAM peoplemeter homes in the western Mumbai suburbs of Dahisar and Bandra.

    Apparently TAM officials are aware of the sample being contacted and have questioned them. Though no official was available for comment, TAM is reportedly investigating the incident.

    Star India also refused comments on the issue.

    The news is expected to either break on a television channel, a website or be presented to industry in the next two days.

    The credibility of the TRP system issue has again come under the spotlight with business daily "Economic Times" reporting today that Zee Telefilms broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal has written a letter to ORG-MARG CEO Titoo Ahluwalia saying the publication of TAM/Intam ratings must be suspended immediately as Zee has reasons to believe the data by TAM/Intam is "seriously influenced".

  • The TRP story getting murkier

    It now appears that efforts are on to discredit the ratings system further.

  • Scientific-Atlanta introduces scalable CMTS solution with Pacific Broadband

    Submitted by ITV Production on Sep 27, 2001

    For cable operators focused on increasing new services and capacity within their existing networks, Scientific-Atlanta and Pacific Broadband Communications (PBC) have announced the launch of two solutions for getting the most out of existing bandwidth.

    Based on ultra-dense ASIC and CMTS technology developed by Pacific Broadband Communications, the new Prisma? G10 Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTS) and Prisma IP? CMTS Line Card will form the basis for scalable data deployment that allows a DOCSIS 1.0 cable network to harness bandwidth previously unavailable, while providing an easy migration path to DOCSIS 1.1 and DOCSIS 2.0, a company release says.

    The relationship will combine PBC‘s high performance CMTS technology with the worldwide service structure and cable industry experience of Scientific-Atlanta. Specifically, the parties have agreed that Scientific-Atlanta has exclusive marketing and distribution rights for North America and non-exclusive worldwide distribution rights for the Prisma G10 CMTS and Pacific Broadband Communications has rights to market, sell and support the CMTS to cable operators outside North America.

    Prisma G10 CMTS - Addressing the needs of network operators with an installed base of cable modems where traffic and penetration growth is beginning to exceed CMTS capacity, the stand-alone Prisma G10 CMTS solves the problems of upstream bandwidth and router performance limitations within existing high-speed data networks. By leveraging PBC‘s carrier class C MTS, Scientific-Atlanta‘s Prisma G10 provides operators with an ultra-dense solution of 32 downstream channels and 128 upstream channels, enabling cable operators to support more cable modem traffic with less bandwidth, according to the release.

    Prisma IP CMTS Line Card - The Prisma IP CMTS Line Card is based on a CO-development effort, announced earlier this year, between the two companies and will be integrated with Scientific-Atlanta‘s Prisma IP optical transport platform. For network operators establishing converged networks, the new CMTS is a metro optical transport solution that integrates a CMTS line card to eliminate additional routers and optical transport equipment normally required for a DOCSIS 1.1 or 2.0 deployment - effectively increasing subscriber penetration of data services without expensive reconfiguration of hubs and nodes.

    These Prisma CMTS solutions leverage PBC‘s custom-built chips to deliver superior RF performance, allowing existing networks to use 16 QAM transmission within 3.2 MHz segments, effectively doubling or quadrupling the upstream data throughput. This is combined with the ability to allocate multiple channels per port for the industry‘s highest per port throughput. The increase in throughput supports more cable modems per port, thus significantly lowering the cost of the CMTS on a per cable modem basis.

    The Prisma CMTS solutions further employ enhanced packet processing technology to eliminate data routing bottlenecks. While the Prisma G10 CMTS will be available by the end of 2001, the Prisma IP CMTS will be commercially available next year.

  • Vijay TV launching aggressive programme drive from 1 October

    With latest addition to the family Vijay TV firmly in tow, Star India today gave notice it was ready for a long haul

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