Paul FitzPatrick has taken over as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Crown Media Holdings, Inc. from 10 October.

Crown Media Holdings owns and operates pay television channels, prominent among them being the Hallmark Channel. FitzPatrick, who was chief operating officer of Crown Media United States, which operates Hallmark in the country, replaces Lana Corbi, who last month was named president and chief executive officer of Crown Media United States.

FitzPatrick will oversee the development and creation of new channels, business development, business affairs, human resources and network information systems world-wide on behalf of Crown Media Holdings. Based in New York, Mr. FitzPatrick will also retain the responsibility as head of distribution for the Hallmark Channel U.S., which he formally joined in 2000.

Australian born FitzPatrick was earlier COO of the Golf Channel, the first single sports genre cable network, where he was responsible for overseeing programming, production and network operations, distribution, marketing, advertising sales and information systems.

FitzPatrick has also been president and chief executive officer of NewsTalk Television, a company he founded in 1988 and launched in 1994. Certain assets of the channel were acquired by MSNBC in 1996.

Apart from a new chairman after a gap of nearly three years, there are some more new faces on the Prasar Bharati board.
Three new part-time members have been appointed - former vice-chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia, M A Zaki, journalist Vidya Niwas Mishra and retired bureaucrat S Kashi Pandiyan. Prof U R Rao, former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation, took over as chairman late last week.

Anil Baijal, additional secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting, continues to enjoy the support of minister Sushma Swaraj, evident from the six-month extension he has been granted. He continues to hold additional charge of the post of executive member, Prasar Bharati board. His extension order is applicable for six months from August 14, 2001, or until further orders, according to an official press release.

The decision has been taken. The once hugely popular Kaun Banega Crorepati is being phased slowly out of Star Plus, and family drama serials are taking pride of place on prime time once again.

From October 29, KBC will be aired only twice a week, while the channel will pull KBC Junior off the air from December. Star is now weaning audiences back to the family soap, with actor Aruna Irani‘s maiden production venture, Desh Mein Nikala Hoga Chand, an NRI saga, taking over the Monday 9-10 pm slot. Balaji Telefilms‘ Kasautii Zindagi Kay will start beaming from Monday to Thursday at 8.30 pm, from the end of October. Kundali, a popular serial that had to go off the air when Channel Nine Gold wound up, will be beamed on Star beginning October 25, 8 pm.

The Business Standard financial daily, quoting INTAM figures for KBC for the month of September, reports that while the cumulative programme viewership for the show is an impressive 2.01 million, its average programme viewership is only 828,000, compared with 1.8 million for the its top soap, Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.

Sources in Star say that there are two to three more programmes lined up come November, but officials are not yet willing to divulge details. Discussions are still on where to slot these new shows. The possibilities are in the afternoon band, the late night band (post-11 pm) or the early evening band (7:30 pm - 9:00 pm).