Briefs

INSAT 2E STARTS HUMMING

Insat 2E, the latest in the series of satellites built by Isro has started beaming down television services. Amongst the first television channels that have leased transponders on the satellite figure Vijay TV and Asianet. The satellite has 17 high power transponders and other services such as Sun TV, Eenadu, Raj are expected to migrate to it in the next couple of months.

DD INDO-PAK BORDER TRANSMITTERS INAUGURATED

Information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan last week flagged off mobile low power transmitters (LPTs) in Radhnapur, Panandhro, and Jamjodhpur in the Jamnagar district bordering Pakistan in the western Indian state of Gujarat. He announced that the ministry had sanctioned the installation of two additional high power transmitters (HPTs), while three HPTs in Radhnapur, Bhavnagar, and Junagadh were ready for commissioning. Other LPTs are slated to commence in additional districts in the state by end-July.

LEFTIST GOVERNMENT AIMS TO SET UP TELEVISION CHANNEL

The Communist Party of India -Marxist government in the southern Indian state of Kerala has stated its intention to launch a television channel in its cultural manifesto. It says it wants to do this to fight back against the wave of private television channels which has dropped into the Indian television viewer's home. It wants to own the channel as it feels that there is too much communalism and commercialism erupting in India and this is creeping into television content too. It says that it will pressure the government in Delhi to give it the go-ahead to launch its channel.

DTH WANNABE C. SIVASANKARAN'S BANK TRANSACTION IN DANGER

Infighting within the south Indian Nadar community has put the divestment gambit from the Tamil Nadu Metropolitan Bank by DTH wannbe C. Sivasankaran in jeapordy. Sivasankaran had sold his 67% stake in the bank to a Nadar association for Rs 1,550 million and had already handed over a part to the association and pocketed Rs 200 million. The opposing Nadar association made up of original promoters of the bank believes that it should have been made the offer first and that no other association has the right to make any transactions and it is creating a ruckus in the community.

ESPN SPONSORS NBA JAM SESSION

ESPN has signed on with the NBA as the official TV sponsor for the NBA Jam Session, an interactive basketball games and skills event making its Asian debut in Taiwan from 6-8 August. The 1999 NBA Jam Session is presented by Nike, and will be held at the Taipei Municipal Gymnasium. Other sponsors include Sprite, Upperdeck, Spalding, Gatorade, Canadian Airlines and Asia World Plaza Hotel.

ARIANESPACE CROSSES LANDMARK

Satellite launch services company Arianespace has crossed an important landmark when it signed on to launch the Egyptian satellite TV operator Nilesat's Nilesat 102 bird last month. The launch contract brought the total number of satellites launch deals signed by Arianespace in its 20-year old existence past the 200 mark. Chairman Jean-Marie Luton expects Arianespace to sign launch agreements for another six satellites by this year-end.

FIPB CLEARS CHENNAI ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX PROPOSAL

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has green signaled a 49% foreign-owned entertainment complex which is to come up in the southern Indian city of Chennai. The project has been promoted by a non-resident Indian and will have an equity base of Rs 775 million with investments being poured into cineplexes, restaurants, bowling alleys, ice-cream and beauty parlours, and shopping malls. The foreign investor is the US-based Future World Investments.

PACE GETS HEALTHY BOTTOMLINE

Pace Micro Technology, a purveyor of decoders for some of the world's biggest pay TV companies unveiled a pretty bottomline for 1998 with pre-tax profits of 15.1 million pounds as against a loss of 12.1 million pounds in the previous year. The rise in profit was on lower sales of 182.8 million pounds as against 184 million pounds last year. The drop in sales was a consequence of the migration of the UK television market from analogue to high-tech digital services. Pace added that the digital boxes market would continue to be under pressure in the coming year with margins getting squeezed.

ASIANET TO LAUNCH TELEVISION CHANNEL FOR NRIs

Malayalam language television service Asianet has announced that it will shortly launch a channel targeted at non-resident Indians originating from Kerala. Asianet was recently bought over by Raji Menon from his nephew Sashi Kumar, who appointed Mohan Nair, a senior business journalist, as its chief executive.