Former Asia ESPN-Star Sports chief Sandy Brown joins multimedia firm Virtual Spectator
Alexander Brown, who led ESPN and ESPN-Star Sports' efforts in Asia, has been named President and Chief Operating Off
Starts 3rd October
Sony Entertainment Television and the Rajan Raheja-owned Hathway Cable & Datacom have reached agreement on a dispute that had developed over unpaid dues as well the declared connectivity of its pay channel service of SetMax, AXN and CNBC.
The channels, which were off air since 2 January on the Hathway feed, began beaming again on Monday in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik - the areas under dispute. According to Sony, the dues outstanding were Rs 1.5 million for the period from June 2000.
Officials in Sony and Hathway were tightlipped as to nitty gritty of what had been agreed upon vis-a-vis the declared paid connectivity of the three channels. But it is believed that Sony had to scale back its demand of a threefold increase in the declared connectivity of paid subscribers from November 2000.
According to cable industry sources, Hathway earlier had a declared paid connectivity of around 10,000 for SetMax in Mumbai, 20,000 for CNBC, and 40,000 for AXN.
Alexander Brown, who led ESPN and ESPN-Star Sports‘ efforts in Asia, has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Virtual Spectator, a New Zealand-based company that uses proprietary software and three dimensional (3D) animation to create personal viewing experiences for television and Internet sports coverage.
Brown will manage the worldwide day-to-day business operations of Virtual Spectator as well as develop strategic initiatives for the company. He will be based at Virtual Spectator‘s new offices in New York, which are to become the company‘s global headquarters. Product research, development and production will continue to be based in New Zealand.
Brown recently was named one of the ten "power brokers" in Asian sports by "Sport Business".
The lack of standardisation of entertainment tax as applied in various parts of the country has been a sore point for a long time now. This looks set to change if information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj is to be believed.
"The government is keen to bring about a rationalisation of entertainment tax," Swaraj told the Economic Times on Friday.
If what she says comes true it will be welcomed with relief in the film industry especially which has been asking for precisely this for a number of years now. Entertainment tax ranges from around 14 per cent to more than 100 per depending on the state. In India, entertainment tax is a state subject which is why rates vary from state to state.
Swaraj said the issue would be high on the agenda of the state information ministers conference being held in the capital on Sunday. Swaraj said the Central government would try to bring about a consensus among states for putting in place a ceiling for entertainment tax.
While cinema has been at the centre of the debate about entertainment tax, the cable industry would be also very interested in the developments because they have also been raising similar arguments.
Cable operators have been up in arms in the western state of Maharashtra for a year now following the doubling of entertainment tax there to 30 per cent last year.
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