If Bollywood's three forthcoming films starring Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan in Ghajini, Yuvvraaj, and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, respectively, become commercially hit then 2008 may prove to be a good year for the Hindi film industry, especially at the time of the economic slowdown.
The FWICE says its 35,000 members will resume work immediately if their pay is raised. Of course, there are several other related demands such as a timebound payment of the shift wage, restricting shifts to 8 hours rather than the current 10-12 hours among others, says a senior FWICE executive. Meanwhile, channels are showing re-runs of old episodes. This has resulted in a drop of upto 55 per cent in their prime time viewership ratings, affecting ad revenue.
At least 10 firms, including a few media houses and some of the leading private equity funds, are said to be in the race to acquire a majority stake in Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers, the Indian Premier League cricket team currently owned by the Deccan Chronicle group.
This means once a DTH consumer buys a set-top box, he will be able to access the service of any service provider with technical changes in the box. The ministry of information and broadcasting has asked the Bureau of Indian Standards to draft norms for advanced DTH set-top box technology, including related to interoperability of the boxes.
Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) is all set to begin a price war in the direct-to-home market by offering its connection about 43 per cent lower than any of the existing players. Big TV will offer its DTH service for Rs 1,490, while the lowest-priced connection is currently being offered by Dish TV at Rs 2,190, followed by Tata Sky at Rs 2,400.
The telecom department has sent a letter of intent to NM Rothschild.
All those who joined Prasar Bharati before October 5, 2007, will be treated as government employees on "deemed deputation". At present, the status of these employees is not clear as they are treated as on "deemed deputation" and don't get the benefits of a government job like regular promotions, government housing and bonuses.
Encouraged by the success of direct-to-home services in India, Pakistan Television Corporation Ltd, that country's national broadcaster, has invited national and international firms to help it set up its own DTH service with 100 channels. Once operational, this will be the first DTH service in Pakistan.
Trai has submitted 26 recommendations to the government and released 30 consultation papers so far this year, up from seven and 20, respectively, in 2007. Few of its recommendations are actually accepted by the govt.
WiMax is a telecommunications technology that provides broadband speed without the need for cables. "The subscriber equipment cost or the cost of the instrument that facilitates WiMax is still priced at about $ 175-200 (Rs 8,225-Rs 9,400). So ways and means have to be worked out to offer a feasible tariff," explained a senior BSNL executive.
The regulator has suggested that all spectrum will be auctioned as opposed to the current policy of bundling it with a 2G licence. A beginning has been made with the auctioning of spectrum for 3G services, which is due later this year. Trai has also suggested that licences for any telecom service should be auctioned as opposed to the current policy, where it is given on a first-come-first-served basis. The new policy is expected to be ready by the end of December this year.
HITS is a new cable-distribution platform that is similar to the direct-to-home service. It allows distribution of digital-quality cable channels via satellite to cable operators at one go. For consumers, it means access to quality cable channels via a set-top box at reduced monthly rates, while for the cable industry, it means faster and cost-effective digitalisation.
Estimates and bid amounts available in the public domain show that ESPN Star Sports is now sitting on nearly 1,400 days of international cricket matches over the next ten years for which it has paid nearly Rs 9,380 crore. In other words, the broadcaster will offer viewers roughly 140 days of cricket every year. And it has acquired each match-day at an average cost of Rs 7 crore, which the industry says is cost-effective.
According to sources, the proposal regarding 'grant of approval to the transfer of shares by the FM radio company for the purpose of demerging the radio business has been submitted to the Cabinet for its consideration. Over a dozen private FM radio operators, including Reliance ADAG's Big FM, will stand to benefit from this move, experts say.
Also plan to charge a premium on advertising.
In what would be a significant boost to the domestic entertainment industry, the United States has been roped in as the partner country for the 2009 Ficci Frames - the annual global convention on the entertainment and media industry that is partly sponsored by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It will be the tenth year of Ficci Frames next year.
These numbers have been submitted to the regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, by various stakeholders in the cable industry, including broadcasters and multi-system operators. These are based on the information collected from the tax departments of various state governments.
Big TV will be the fourth entrant in the 7-million private DTH subscribers market following Dish TV's launch in 2003, Tata Sky (2006) and Sun Direct (2007). Doordarshan's DD Direct Plus is the fifth player (also launched in 2003) but is a free-to-air service.
Believe it or not, it is viewers like you who influence these snap decisions taken by broadcasters and programme developers. This has been made possible by new software introduced by Mumbai-based overnight ratings agency Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap) called Dashboard.
3G mobile services, to be launched in India on August 22, is set to have serious competition. The reason is simple: if you are looking for high quality video streaming of movies and want to play multiplayer on-line games, it's not 3G services alone you need to look at.
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