Ambika Soni, the new I&B minister, called for a full-presentation on Tuesday on both these issues from senior I&B officials, a day after she took charge of the ministry.
The company is likely to increase buy-back offer from Rs 351 to Rs 425-450. The open offer price is likely to be revised from the earlier Rs 351 to between Rs 425 and Rs 450, as the current share prices of Novartis India are above the present open offer price, the sources added.
Channels like STAR Plus, Zee TV, Colors, NDTV Imagine and 9X, among others, hope to generate Rs 250 crore of advertising revenue from these shows over the next three months. Together, the broadcasters will churn out over 170 hours of fresh TV content in the form of soaps, reality shows, comedy shows and other genres. The average cost per episode of these 25 new shows is pegged at Rs 2.5-3 lakh.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to see a 30 to 40 per cent jump in revenues from the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament over the first edition held in India last year. Profits, however, are expected to increase marginally.
A slew of pending policy initiatives and important directions for the cable, radio and broadcast sector awaits the new Information and Broadcasting minister, likely to be announced early next week.
The BSNL board had last year approved a plan under which the government would divest 10 per cent of its shares to the public. But opposition from the unions backed by the Left parties -- which supported the United Progressive Alliance in the last Parliament -- had stalled the process. That opposition has abated, now that the Left is no longer a factor in the current ruling alliance.
It's celebration time for Bharti Airtel, which last week became the third telecom brand in the world to cross the magic 100 million-subscriber mark in a single country. The gap between Airtel and its nearest competitor, Vodafone, is now about 26 million subscribers.
A near-decisive victory for the United Progessive Alliance (UPA) in the 15th Lok Sabha may have been unexpected for everyone, but not so the viewer turnout for television channels on May 16, the day the results were declared.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher shift flights to low-cost platforms; experts expect a fare war. "Every year, airlines come up with cheap fares in the summer season, but not like this year. I had never seen airlines offering 50 per cent cash-back offers. Now with Jet Konnect and Kingfisher Red, there are more flights to the routes where LCCs used to dominate," says Bhawna Agarwal, co-founder and head of air business, Yatra.com.
From June onwards, millions of Bollywood buffs may now have to watch the new Hindi films at the 8,000-plus single-screen theatres across the country and not in multiplexes. This is because the talks between Bollywood producers and multiplex owners have broken down over sharp differences in the terms and conditions of the proposed revenue sharing agreements.
The government has decided to raise the viability gap funding (VGF) for certain projects under the fifth phase of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP V), owing to poor response to the first few projects put up for bids in December last year.
After initial hiccups, viewership of the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL-2) has picked up pace with the cricket carnival having reached midway.
To expand its services in the five-player private direct-to-home market, Reliance Big TV Ltd, the promoter of Big TV DTH services of the Reliance ADA Group, plans to sell up to 49 per cent to foreign private equity companies and global DTH players.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
Contrary to perception that TV viewership of IPL's second season (IPL-2) has been less than the inaugural season in 2008 (IPL1), SET Max got at least 2 million more viewers for the first eight matches (seven were played, one was rained out) of IPL-2 this year, compared with last year.
The latest Media Partners Asia analysis on India says TV advertising will grow only 6.5 per cent in 2009, as against 15.6 per cent in 2008. However, MPA expects TV advertising to rebound to 8.7 per cent growth in 2010. Of the Rs 20,000 crore-plus advertising industry, television advertising alone accounts for 45-47 per cent. Overall, MPA predicts that advertising growth may drop to 5.4 per cent in 2009, after a 20 per cent-plus growth in 2006 and 2007.
The agreement with the new owners of Satyam Computer Services will incorporate restrictions to prevent mass retrenchment of employees, according to a top functionary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
You can make millions, if you are a celebrity and are willing to license your name to other people's business ventures.
Mumbai is a distant number two with 90 per cent, followed by Delhi at 83 per cent. The fourth metro, Kolkata, is way behind with 67 per cent. The four metros account for 16 per cent of the country's mobile subscriber base, but 25 per cent of the total revenue. That means their residents use their phones more and pay fatter bills than subscribers elsewhere in the country. This is the user profile that rings a bell for mobile phone marketers.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car company by sales, is working on an ambitious plan to launch electric cars and compressed natural gas variants for three or four models in the domestic market.
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