Starts 3rd October
ETC Networks approved the issue of fresh equity to Zee Telefilms on preferential basis at an extraordinary general meeting held on Tuesday.
The members of ETC Networks have approved issues of upto 22,20,812 equity shares of Rs. 10 each at a premium of Rs. 21.52 per share, aggregating Rs. 6,99,99,994/- to Zee Telefims Ltd. on preferential allotment basis. The Zee board has already approved the investment in equity of ETC. Instead of being a stand-alone broadcaster, ETC Networks will now be part of the strong Zee-Turner bouquet. It will also benefit from financial and business resources of Zee and access to overseas markets, the company claims.
ETC chairperson Mr. Jagjit Singh Kohli said that consolidation of channel interests and co-operation would allow his company to have tremendous opportunities to build on synergies. The Company from being a standalone broadcaster would be a part of a strong Zee Turner bouquet, as a result of which, there would be improved content offerings, that will drive viewership and subscriber fees, he said.
As an immediate benefit of this tie-up, ETC channels will have access to a large pool of resources of Zee in India and abroad. It will also include content, copyrights of films and songs, marketing and sales network internationally. ETC will be able to augment its revenue streams by content syndication and subscriptions from overseas markets especially for its most prestigious and valuable property ?Gurbani?, says the company.
Don‘t look, its changing.
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Discovery Channel is turning from a staid edutainment channel to a zippy clued in channel come 1 April. Not content with a slew of new programming initiatives directed at specific audiences and distinct advertisers, the channel aims to go south with a vengeance within the next four months. The success of the Hindi audio feed has inspired the channel to launch either a Tamil or a Telugu audio feed soon, says Discovery Communications India managing director Deepak Shourie.
The new look Discovery, touted as an Alternate Channel for viewers tired of soap and film, will have nine special time bands for women, kids, youth, family and even a special late night band for adults. The bands, classified as Sunrise, Woman‘s Hour, Amazing Animals, Discovery Kids, Action Zone, Family Time, Friday Showcase, Perfect Ten, Late Night Discovery and Discovery Weekends are not a new concept though. The channel had proposed to launch the bands in October 2001. Shourie says the channel delayed the relaunch to test initial responses; the events of 11 September provided the other lag. The new programmes will focus on adventure, arts, aviation, crime, romance, sexual behaviour, sports, travel and wars.
This initiative puts Discovery‘s earlier plan of launching two new channels, Discovery Health and Discovery Travel & Adventure on the back burner, as Shourie says all the elements have been incorporated in the new look Discovery itself. The channel meanwhile has already withdrawn content being aired on Vijay TV, and that on Doordarshan channels, Metro and Bharati will be stopped by the end of this month. The new look Discovery is already being promoted in a big way with hoardings splashed across the metros, ads put out in print and on the tube, all created by an in house team. DCI‘s other baby, Animal Planet, which has been trudging along at a negligible pace, is also due for a shot in the arm in the next two months, says Shourie.
Discovery currently has 70,000 hours of software in its library and is adding 3000 hours every year. Explaining the logic behind not stressing on Indian content, Shourie says it costs the channel $ 1.5 million per hour to produce content, an investment that should be worthy of being beamed worldwide. "I too would look forward to programmes filmed in India that could be telecast everywhere," he says.
The channel maintains that Discovery is today the sixth most widely distributed channel in the country and reaches over 21 million households. After programmes were realigned to audience viewing habits in 2001, prime time viewership went up by 21 per cent, kids‘ band viewership by 20 per cent and women‘s band viewership by 43 per cent, claims the channel.
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Hum Saath Aath Hain, the daily comedy on Star Plus, gets an addition to the cast in the form of Ketaki Dave.
Ketaki plays a spendthrift housewife, as against her miserly husband, who is as tight fisted as they come. Ketaki a.k.a Kokilaben is a complete Hindi film buff - she sleeps, eats, breathes films and imagines that she is part of a film, and is convinced that she would have made it as an actress, if she had not got married.
