He has been a mover and shaker in the big bad world of global media. Yesterday, however, Paul Kagan, who founded and grew Kagan World Media into the powerhouse that it is in research, data and information dealing with the traditional and new media worlds, announced that he was selling it and its related companies, to US-based Primedia in a stock deal.
?Paul Kagan and his global organization are one of a kind in the media and communications sectors,? says Tom Rogers, Primedia?s chairman and CEO. ?No source of information is more quoted about subjects ranging from radio to TV broadcasting to cable TV to broadband technology to sports and motion picture finance, streaming media and wireless communications. Primedia will clearly benefit from the enormous expertise and talent of the Kagan team, who will provide a unique strategic planning resource for Primedia?s own growth and development.?

?As someone who has spent a lifetime valuing media properties and selecting high-potential media investments, I feel very confident in placing our assets in the hands of Primedia,? said Paul Kagan. ?The fact that we sold for stock rather than cash reflects my support for Primedia?s leadership and the positive effect that will have on the long-term potential of Primedia shares.?

Properties acquired include Kagan Euromedia magazine, based in London and Asia Cable & Satellite World magazine, based in Hong Kong. Kagan properties include 38 trendwatching newsletters, 95 data-centric forecasting reports and 20 high-level executive conferences. Other Kagan assets include www.kagan.com, a global media news and data website with Kagan-on-Demand?, a pay-per-view service using highspeed search software to archive over 42,000 pages of analysis and more than 6,000 data documents. The acquisition also includes Kagan Consulting, which provides strategic advisory and valuation services.

?Paul will continue to oversee a broad range of Kagan operations, contribute to publications and moderate sessions at industry conventions and Kagan conferences,? said Rogers. ?A major component of the agreement is that Paul will become vice chairman of Primedia Ventures, our venture capital investment arm,? continued Rogers. Paul?s enormous wealth of contacts and understanding of media technology and finance will provide substantial additional clout to our fund.?

?Both companies publish media magazines, newsletters and reports and have on-line businesses as well as exhibitions and conferences,? Rogers said. ?Primedia has a broad number of B2B media and entertainment properties and a growing online presence through its B2B portal, IndustryClick, that the Kagan content will expand. The traditional media properties in our Primedia B2B Group includes such publications as Cable World, Telephony, Broadcast Engineering, Wireless Review and SIMBA (the leading newsletter and conference business covering the electronic information industries), and such online offerings as MediaCentral.com and TelecomClick.com.

?The nature of the Kagan newsletters and databases, and the analytic approach they take is perfect for offering useful information for decision- makers online,? Rogers continued. ?Our B2B interactive efforts are aimed at providing a framework for decision-makers and the content Kagan provides is perfectly suited for this approach. This is the type of acquisition that the ?new Primedia? will look to make in that it adds a premier brand with talented individuals, new and traditional media applicability and opportunities for revenue growth.?

?The broadband cable and satellite industries have become global industries and having the European and Asian counterparts of our U.S.-based Cable World provides excellent international expansion opportunities for Primedia,? continued Rogers.

Primedia will retain Kagan offices in Carmel, California; Denver, London and Hong Kong. Although numerous operating synergies will be generated by the acquisition, there are no plans for staff cuts among Kagan?s 140 employees.

Primedia, with 1999 sales from continuing businesses of $1.7 billion, is a targeted media company with print, video and Internet businesses focused on consumer and business-to-business audiences. The Company publishes more than 220 magazines, and owns and operates approximately than 300 Web sites and other Internet properties

Zee TV has pulled off the curtain on its Sawaal Dus Crore Ka game show format. For starters, the show will air at 8:30 pm three days a week cum end this month.
A selection process will result in 21 of the millions of contestants who have sent in their entries being part of the first buzzer round. Three questions will be asked to select three contestants for the second round. Whoever answers the question right first moves into the second round.

In the second round, the three contestants will be pitted against each other and whoever gets two out of three questions right will move into the rounds that follow; the others will be eliminated.

He/she will be in the hot seat. Three questions will be hurled at him; if he gets two of these right he will progressively move onto the next round.

The buzzer round gives the winner Re 1. For each subsequent round, a zero is added to that figure. To win the magic figure of Rs 100 million he will have to go past nine rounds of questioning. Shoudl he/she fumble and go wrong in round eight, he will get only Rs 1 million as the prize money.

The questions are being devised by Derek O‘Brien of Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest fame. The host had not been announced at the time of writing.

Zee TV has, however, kept the viewer in mind too: viewers could win anywhere from Rs 15,000 to Rs 2,000 should they have a copy of TV World, the Zee TV programming guide with them. Each copy of TV World will have a six digit number printed on its cover. During each show one number will be generated by a computer and announced. Should a viewer have a TV World copy with all six digits matching he stands to win Rs 200,000; if he/she has five digits matching the prize is Rs 15,000; if four, it is Rs 4,000.

Classic Hindi movie channel Star Gold, which was launched last month, is gradually clawing its way back into Indian viewers homes, thanks to a push from the Star TV Network distribution team.

According to Star Gold head Raj Nayak, the channel was languishing for a fortnight but now has managed to get about 55 per cent penetration in Delhi and Mumbai, almost 100 per cent penetration in Kanpur and Lucknow, and 85 per cent in Ahmedabad.

"We have got a deal in place with Seven Star. We expect a resolution with InCable soon. Even RPG in Calcutta should get sorted out," he says. "I‘m looking at a penetration of about what Star World has for Star Gold in the next 15 days."

Three video on wheels (VOW) Vans are expected to go around in 70 towns in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar over the next week promoting Star Gold. "It‘s a channel headed in the right direction," he says. "We will occupy our rightful place in the cable and satellite television universe."

Channel Nine India is quite pleased as punch about the performance of its shows on the 7-9 pm block on DD2. The company has sent out release highlighting how DD shows were performing before its launch and post its launch.
The management claims to have signed some top notch advertising clients among which figure HLL, Nestle, Paras and Emami, "all of which have commited large amounts of ad-spends on our programs" says a spokesperson.

Hectic activity is on at the channel to kick off the new 9-10 pm block which is slated to launch in mid-October.
Click on the links below to form your opinion.

DD performance before launch

DD peformance after launch of Channel 9.

Star Gold was launched with a lot of song and dance last month in Mumbai. The classic Hindi movie channel has, however, not received the kind of push it needed from the senior management.
Net result: several cable operators have refused it carriage. The network has not managed to strike deals with large MSOs such as RPG Netcom, InCable, and Siticable. The only cable system to have come to some arrangement with it is Hathway Cable & Datacom, and that too because of the 26 per cent equity stake that Star TV has taken in it. Other affiliates of Hathway such as WinCable and Shri Bhawani Cabletel are also showing the channel on their networks.

The Star TV management is believed to be meeting to find an out of the jam the channel has got into. It will have to work some magic to get Star Gold into viewers‘ homes.

The new Indian information and broadcasting Sushma Swaraj seems hell-bent on earning that sobriquet. Reason: not even two days into the job and she is already talking of cleaning up Indian television. DTH, the amended cable TV act, the Prasar Bharati - all these were being looked at by her afresh and it would take her a couple of weeks to make up her mind about anything, the lady said.
But for the nonce, "TV is a family medium," she said to journalists yesterday. "And my priority will be to make it that. My ministry‘s job will be to ensure that it is carried out."

Extremely noble thoughts. But wasn‘t the government supposed to set up an independent regulatory authority along with a watchdog for this very purpose? Why is the minister and her ministry coming to the forefront on this issue? A government playing conscience keeper makes for a very eerie scenario. Who knows where when the fundamentalists in the BJP may forget where the morality lines and where they begin, and whether what works well for DD works well for private satellite channels too?

Swaraj on her part tends to posture a lot. During her earlier term she ranted and raved against the former Prasar Bharati chief M.S. Gill and eventually had him sacked by reverting the pubcaster to government control and reducing the age limit that the CEO could run it. At the same time she screamed against the obscenity on Indian television, saying she would have heads roll. But she did very little about it. Additionally, she drew up what would become a phased policy on uplinking, opening up uplinking to even foreign companies from Indian soil. She also allowed foreign ad agencies to own Indian ad agencies.

Swaraj seems to want to appear to be a cross old Aunt, but one who is jolly good at heart. Just a bit like Uncle George in Dennis the Menace comics. She will surely give some executives in foreign channels heart burn. In the long run however she should turn out all right. That‘s if she survives her full term.