SONY DROPS IPO PLAN

Sony Entertainment Television (SET) has dropped its IPO plan after the securities watchdog indicated that it would not agree to its public issue proposal in toto. SET had proposed that its Indian and foreign investor, Sony Pictures Entertainment, would divest 5% equity each in SET, offloading a total of 10% equity to the public. Sebi said that SET was an entertainment company and would have divest a minimum of 25% equity and was not liable to get benefits associated with infotech companies.

JAIN TV GETS FUNDING

Jain TV has tied up external funds to the tune of Rs 340 million for its Rs 430 million earth station project. Mutual fund, the Unit Trust of India, is pumping in Rs 100 million while the Industrial Development Bank of India has issued it with a letter of intent for Rs 240 million. The company will issue preferential shares to the two institutions with an option to convert them into equity. Jain TV will be investing Rs 90 million of its own funds in the earth station project.

FIRST FREE ISP DEBUTS

The first free Internet Access Provider (IAP) has made its appearance in India. Net4India a Delhi-based ISP is giving away 1,000 Internet dial-up accounts free to individuals calling up the company's call centre. These users will be signed on as part of a soft-launch by Net4India, which is promoted by the UK-based Sawhney group. The IAP is looking at a coverage of 15 cities by December 2000.

DOT FLOATS FIBRE OPTIC SPLICING MACHINE TENDER

The Department of telecommunications (DoT) has floated a tender for 208 optical fibre splicing machines. Tenders will have to be submitted after completion by 17 November 1999 to the DoT. They can be got from 6 October from: The Section Officer (MMT), Room No 1222, Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi-1100 001. The tender document no is: MM/0F/091999/000181.

CNBC COMPLETE MANAGER CONTEST ENTERS SECOND EDITION

Over the next few months CNBC Asia will roll out the second edition of its CNBC Complete Manager Contest. The contest is being conducted in association with LG Electronics, Seagate Technologies and NIIT and will be conducted in 60 institutes in 13 cities. The Mumbai leg's preliminary tests were conducted recently.

V-SAT INDUSTRY FACES TRANSPONDER SHORTAGE

The V-Sat Industry is facing a tremendous shortage of transponder capacity and has been lobbying the government to allow companies to use Ku-band transponders on foreign owned satellites. But they were permitted to use only the extended C-band until the New Telecom Policy '99 further opened up the Ku-band segment to them. However, the department of telecom has refuted the claim that there is a shortage. It says that it will be able to meet the demand of V-Sat operators after the launch of Insat-3B by November this year. It has added that it needs an additional C-band transponder this year and has recommended that it be taken on lease from Thaicom-3. DoT has also recommended that the lease for six Thaicom-3 C-band transponders be extended till mid-2001 beyond the expiry date of March 2000.

NDTV SIGNS PACT FOR MOBILE NEWS

Production house and Star News content provider NDTV has tied up with Mumbai-based mobile telephony provider Max Touch to offer the latest news to its subscribers. Max Touch subscribers will not be charged any subscription fees but will have to pay for the air time they consume while retrieving information and news updates.

ISRO EXPECTS INSAT 3B LAUNCH END THIS YEAR

ISRO chairman K. Kasturirangan has announced that Insat-3B is to be launched by end this year or early next year by Arianespace from Kuoru, French Guiana. The satellite is being shipped to French territory by November, Kasturirangan said. The Insat 3 series, which will be put into space within the next two-three years, will bring with them an additional 65 transponders.

ROGUE SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL UPSETS FILM RIGHTS OWNERS

Bollywood film rights owners are livid over satellite channel TVM, which is broadcasting from Maldives, for airing a few Hindi blockbusters illegally. The rights owners, including Time Audio and Venus are building up a legal case against the channel which has telecast latest Hindi movies such as Baadshah, Pyar Koi Khel Nahin., Biwi No 1, and International Khiladi. The channel is beaming off a Thaicom-3 transponder.

I&B MINISTER ACCUSED OF MISUSE OF POWER

Prasar Bharati Board member Rajinder Yadav has alleged that information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan misused his position to get speedier clearances for his son Rahul's series called Truck Dhina Dhin. He said that the programme, being aired on Wednesday nights on DD, was slipped through by I&B bureaucrats following pressure from Mahajan. Rahul has denied that his father's connections helped his serial get through, despite the fact that more than a 100 programme proposals have been pending with DD for the past decade.

ASIAN CHANNEL DEBUTS IN THE UK

Asia 1 TV, a new digital television channel targeted at Asian communities, especially Punjabi, was introduced last week in the UK. Its programming mix consists of religious, films, and cultural shows and television soaps.

VSNL UNVEILS NEW EARTH STATION

The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd has inaugurated a new Type A earth station at the Vikram Satellite Station in Arvi near Pune. The dish will carry both national and international telecom traffic

LMI-1 FLIES INTO ORBIT SUCCESSFULLY

LMI-1, the satellite owned jointly by Intersputnik and Lockheed Martin, was launched into orbit successfully last weekend (26 September 2:30 am Moscow time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton launch vehicle. The first in a new-generation series of telecommunications satellites, it will offer services over Russia and the CIS, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. It has a payload of 44 C-band and Ku-band transponders and is positioned at 75 degrees east.

The satellite is the first of four planned new-generation LMI-series, and will provide services that include TV broadcasting, telephony and VSAT-based dedicated network operations. The list is to be>expanded with the addition of multimedia services, direct-to-home TV/radio broadcasting, and personal mobile communications. 25 of LMI-1's C-band transponders have been leased by Russian long distance telecom carrier Rostelecom while 8 Ku-band transponders have been leased by and Sistema Telecom to provide digital TV broadcasting, multimedia services and high-speed Internet access over Russia.

EUTELSAT TO GET INDIA FOCUS

Satellite company, Eutelsat, owned by a consortium of European telcos, is increasing its India focus with satellites to be positioned at 36 degrees East. This part of a strategy to boost coverage over Russia, Africa and India. Two birds -Seasat and Eutelsat W4 - are awaiting launch. Sesat's (Siberia-Europe Satellite) Baikonur Cosmodrome launch was delayed following the closure of the launch site on heels of the failure of a Proton rocket. The other satellite Eutelsat W4 is ready to fly but is being held back until clarifications of financial guarantee from Russian broadcasting group Media Most are given and political tension eases.

WIZTEC GETS TURKISH AND ISRAELI DBS ORDERS

Israeli and Turkish DBS services YES and TeleON respectively have selected Israeli company Wiztec Solutions as the supplier of their subscriber management and billing systems. Wiztec will supply its Wizard system to the two companies.