MUMBAI: TIMES NOW the most watched 24 hour English news channel emerges as the no.1 channel in 2008 according to the audience measurement data released by TAM (Television Audience Measurement). TIMES NOW?s news-centric strategy combined with its superior content has contributed towards establishing TIMES NOW as the undisputed leader in English News Channel space in India.

Amongst CS Male 25+ SEC AB, 1Million plus markets TIMES NOW was at No.1 position for 29 weeks out of 52 in 2008 against 18 for NDTV and CNN-IBN for 9 weeks. In terms of channel viewer ship share TIMES NOW garnered an average channel share of 28% in comparison to NDTV 26% & CNN-IBN 22% for the entire year.

Amongst all adults (CS15+, 1 Million + markets) TIMES NOW was at No.1 position for 32 weeks out of 52 with NDTV at 28 and CNNIBN at 4.

2008 has seen events that have redefined television journalism as we know it ? Key events like the Union Budget, the IPL finals, Jaipur blast, the Trust vote of the UPA Government, US elections, Mumbai Terror Attacks and the recently concluded State Elections. TIMES NOW has consistently scored over competition and garnered the highest share in each of these key events.

Speaking about the year Mr. Chintamani Rao, CEO TIMES NOW says, "The battle of the news marketplace is fought every day of the week, every hour of the day. TIMES NOW has made it its mission to be ?Always with the news? ? whether it?s the big events or it?s the daily news; triumph or tragedy. These numbers tell us that what we do is meaningful to the viewers for whom we work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

It?s been only 3 years since launch and TIMES NOW has scripted a growth story in TV news unparalleled in terms of traction in viewership, leading over competition and becoming the most watched and preferred English news channel. News relevant to an urban audience in areas of politics, economics, sports, entertainment in India and across the world has resulted in TIMES NOW becoming a daily habit of viewers across the country to catch their news needs. The focus on news, responsible and unbiased reporting and an unparalleled passion for news journalism gives TIMES NOW the clear edge over competition thus dethroning NDTV to emerge as the undisputed leader in English news space.

The New Year will see the channel remain committed to asking tough, incisive and often uncomfortable questions to give the viewer the sharpest perspective on news.

MUMBAI: The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) ushers in the New Year with Anubhuti, a spectacular two-week multi-arts extravaganza that culminates in the grand ‘Crossing Boundaries‘ Weekend Festival.

The aim is to cover a gamut of artistic explorations and in the process, uncover and celebrate the moment integral to all creative practice - the moment of sharpened perception, of piercing revelation, of startling alchemy, of anubhuti?

Anubhuti: The Power of Perception
January 6th to 18th, 2009

The season opens on January 6th with dancer Ramli Ibrahim‘s Odissi Stirred, a spellbinding production that brings together the work of three leading choreographers (Sharmila Biswas, Madhavi Mudgal and Guna Ramli) to offer a glimpse of the dynamism and versatility of the Odissi dance style. But that‘s only the beginning. There‘s much more in store for lovers of dance. On January 7th the redoubtable doyen of Kathak, Birju Maharaj, can be heard in conversation with the well-known poet and aesthete, Ashok Vajpeyi. Pratap Pawar, Maharaj‘s very first disciple and a senior Kathak exponent in his own right, pays homage to his great master in a dance recital on January 9th.

Three days later, on January 12th at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, leading Bharata Natyam dancer Leela Samson presents the Mumbai premiere of Charishnu, an adventurous work that distils the grandeur and diversity of India‘s dance and percussive traditions, featuring the work of some of India‘s most celebrated choreographers. Western classical dance is not overlooked in this cultural bonanza either, as the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre plays host to the Navoi Bolshoi Ballet from Uzbekistan, featuring two ballet performances plus a concert of symphonic music over three nights, January 6th, 7th & 8th.

In the field of music, the season includes a mix of East and West, academic studies and performances. The annual Indian Musicological Society (IMS) Seminar, featuring prominent musicologists from India and the West, explores the theme of ‘Research Strategies in Musicology‘ on January 9th. The Sangeet Research Academy (SRA) conducts a conference on ‘Reconsidering Fundamental Issues in Art Music‘ on January 10th & 11th, while the prizewinners of the All India Radio Competition (2008) present their music at Umang, a special concert to celebrate and felicitate young talent in Hindustani and Karnatic music on January 10th.

In addition to dance and music, Anubhuti features its share of cinema. The NCPA collaborates with the Enlighten Film Society to present a mini festival of distinguished

Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski‘s final film project, his magnum opus trilogy entitled Three Colours: Blue, Red and White. The festival will be introduced by noted filmmaker, Ketan Mehta, on January 13th (Blue), 14th (Red) & 15th (White).

‘Crossing Boundaries‘ Weekend Festival 2009
January 16th to 18th, 2009

As the season draws to its close, it culminates in a fierce and exuberant finale. ‘Crossing Boundaries‘ is the title of the NCPA‘s Weekend Festival 2009 - an intense three-day cultural explosion that gathers the finest in Indian classical music, dance, theatre and film and packs it into a single long weekend, using all the theatres at the Centre.

The Festival is inspired by the fact that the world of the arts is, by definition, a borderless one. While some artists engage in audacious collaborations across genres and traditions, others reach out across geographical and cultural frontiers.

The weekend includes a music concert on January 16th by Shankar Mahadevan, one of India‘s most versatile contemporary vocalists; two performances of Handel‘s famous oratorio, The Messiah, by Mumbai‘s well-known Paranjoti Academy Chorus (led by Coomi Wadia) on January 17th & 18th in Jamshed Bhabha Theatre; a feature documentary by award-winning Australian filmmaker, Kathryn Millard, about a town in Gujarat that is home to the world‘s largest population of Charlie Chaplin impersonators; a Hindustani theatre presentation on January 17th called Lakeerein, authored by India‘s leading poet, Gulzar; an illustrated lecture on the theme of seasons in Indian painting and poetry by eminent scholar, Dr B N Goswamy on January 18th; and Soundscapes, a flamboyant ‘fusion‘ of percussion

and music, directed by living legend Zakir Hussain (featuring him along with Ranjit Barot, Niladri Kumar and Rakesh Chaurasia), on January 17th.

Finally, Anubhuti reaches the culmination of its festivities on January 18th with Fastest Feet in Rhythm. This high-voltage collaboration between leading Kathak exponent, Chitresh Das, and virtuoso Tap dancer, Jason Samuels Smith promises to be a firecracker finale of speed, energy and joy that blasts across cultural and stylistic divides with impunity and panache.

The NCPA invites you to come and share the experience - the experience of insight, of discovery, of epiphany that only the finest art can kindle. Come and share Anubhuti: The Power of Perception.

MUMBAI: The Heroes fever just gripped media buying agencies! On Premiering the third season of its hit series, Heroes, India‘s leading English Entertainment Channel - Star World visited some of the leading media buying agencies in the city including Zenith Optimedia, Group M, Mindshare, Maxus and Madison and activated the Star World ‘Hero of the Agency‘ contest.

An opportunity to pre-register for the game was also created by means of an Interactive e-mailer sent through their respective HR. The Heroes interactive game was then played in the agency premises. The highest scorers were given away NINTENDOs from Star World!

Earlier an online version of the Game was also introduced by means of web banners on various sites and an e-mailer sent to the agencies which encouraged inter-agency interactive gaming competition. Star World has received and is till receiving numerous entries online from the same!

The employees at these media buying agencies were no doubt thrilled to have some fun while at work. Star World received overwhelming feedback from the employees across agencies saying that there couldn‘t have been a better way to de-stress and be the Star World ‘Hero of the Agency‘!

MUMBAI: The Chennai Open, India?s only ATP Tour event and the premier tennis tournament of South Asia, will be available live and exclusive on Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in the Sub-continent.

The week-long tournament has attracted a star-studded field that boasts of two players who are, or have been, in Top 10, and eight players who were in the Top 50 in the year 2008. As many as 15 players are inside top-100, thus making it one of the most impressive fields in the 14-year history of the Chennai Open.

Live telecast starts Monday, January 5, and the final is scheduled for Sunday, January 11. Telecast of the first three days of the tournament will start at 6:00 pm IST, while Day 4 and 5 action will start at 7:30 pm IST. The semi-finals and the finals on January 10 and 11 will start at 8:30 pm IST.

Leading the field is ?The Machine?, World No 5, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who ended the year on a high note by reaching the finals of the Tennis Masters in Shanghai. He is joined by the current World No 13 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, who won the 2008 Beijing Olympics Gold Medal in Doubles with Roger Federer.

Completing the star-brigade in singles draw are World No 23, Marin Cilic of Croatia, who reached the semi-finals in both singles and doubles at Chennai Open 2008; World No 26, Ivo Karlovic, also of Croatia, and World No 33 Rainer Schuettler of Germany, who reached the 2008 Wimbledon semi-finals.

Two former Chennai Open champions - crowd favorite and two-time Chennai Open champion (2004-2005), former World No Carlos Moya of Spain will be returning for his favourite tournament, along with former World No 3 and 2006 Chennai Open champion Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

The Indian contingent is a perfect combination of youth and experience. India?s top two ranked players, Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj, will feature in the singles draw. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes have entered the doubles event with their respective partners. Also featuring is the young rising Indian tennis star, Yuki Bhambri and Harsh Mankad, a Davis Cup regular for India.

MUMBAI: Defending Scottish Premier League champions Celtic will hope to continue their good form into the New Year, while their biggest rivals Rangers will look to come out of the season-ending loss to Celtic when the two biggest Scottish football teams start 2009 live and exclusive on Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in the Sub-continent.

Celtic are leading the table once again, having secured 50 points from their 20 matches, while Rangers are seven behind at 43 from the same number of matches.

On Saturday, January 3, Celtic will be at home to Dundee United, while Rangers will be travelling to Inverness CT on Sunday, January 4. The Celtic-Dundee match on Ten Sports starts 7:00 pm IST, while the Inverness-Rangers tie starts 4:30 pm IST.

Dundee United are currently placed third in the table with 34 points, while Inverness are fighting relegation with just 17 points from 20 matches which places them 11th in the 12-team Scottish Premier League.

Rangers will be depending on their dangerous scoring duo of Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller, who have scored 23 (Boyd 16 and Miller 7) of the 45 Rangers goals this season. But they will also be hoping that Dundee can cause a massive upset against Celtic. A win for them, and Dundee, will close the gap to just four points against Celtic.

Rangers believe they can still beat Celtic, even if that meant winning all their remaining matches and forward Lee McCulloch echoed that view when he said: ?I don?t think it?s impossible for us to claw it back. Celtic did it to us last season.

?We won?t stop fighting. We need everybody pulling together. We will be back on the training ground working hard for it and believing we can get the points back and hopefully win the title. We need big characters, but there are a lot of personalities in that dressing-room.?

But Celtic would surely not take it easy despite the big celebration at the end of the year when a Scott McDonald goal helped them beat arch rivals Rangers 1-0.

MUMBAI: Bring in the New Year with unlimited fun, masti, hungama as Channel [ V ] ?home delivers? an unforgettable New Year Bash; Channel [ V ] One Nite Stand.ready to groove to 36 hours of non-stop unadulterated music and super-hit videos between 1100hrs on 31st December, 2008 to 2300hrs on 1st January 2009. Channel [ V ] will turn up the heat further, presenting to you a special playlist by none other than DJ Suketu ? On the slot between 2200hrs (31st December) - 0100 hours (1st Jan) there will an exhilarating 3 hours of non-stop superhit music selected by him!

The party will groove to foot-tapping Bollywood numbers from Bachana Ae Haseeno to Singh is King? and the viewers will get it all! So this New Years hang out you?re your friends at the best place in the world ? your home and get foot tapping music Home Delivered; courtesy Channel [ V ]!

So tune in to all the action and dhamaal and bring in 2009 with Channel [ V ] One Nite Stand!