BRIEFS

DD SPORTS LAUNCHED ONLY TO VANISH

State-owned broadcaster DD launched its satellite television sports channel on 18 March amidst much fanfare and nationalistic brouhaha with the telecast of a cricket match featuring national cricket players. The six-hour daily service got instantaneous carriage by almost all cable networks nationally during the match telecast. Came the next day, and most cable operators turned it off. Observers believe that DD Sports will face problems of this sort until the broadcaster sets up a distribution team to deal with the cable TV fraternity.

TNT & CARTOON NETWORK: PAY TV HICCUPS

TNT & Cartoon Network, which became a basic encrypted subscription channel from 1 March, is facing resistance from cable TV operators who are refusing to pay the insignificant Rs 2.90 to Rs 3.50 per subscriber as carriage fee. While large MSOs such as InCablenet, Siticable, Hathway, and Seven Star have inked deals with TNT & Cartoon Network's distribution team, independents all over the country are refusing to sign up. The management of Turner International India says the channel is available in more than 4 million Indian cable TV homes.

POLITICAL GROUP TAKES STEPS ON CABLE TV PIRACY

The Shiv Sena Chitrapat Shakha has taken a decision to ban the telecast of new Hindi films on cable TV networks in Maharashtra. The organisation is affiliated with the Shiv Sena political party, which rules in the state. It says that it will take the government's and the police force's help in trying to curb cable TV piracy. Indian cable TV operators normally telecast films illegally on their networks at the same time as their theatrical release, without paying any copyright fees to owners, thus resulting in lower theatrical box office collections for filmmakers. The association hopes its crackdown on cable TV operators will bring back audiences to theatres.

HARDWARE FIRM BAGS FIBRE OPTIC CONTRACT

Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) has been assigned a project to lay a fibre optic cable network in Mumbai by electricity utility BSES. The contract worth Rs 20 million will allow BSES to offer value added services, which include Internet access. HFCL, which manufactures telecom equipment and television set-top boxes, is aiming to become an ISP on its own.

MUMBAI MSO INTRODUCES DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

Multisystems cable operator (MSO) Hathway Cable has started transmitting a daily Hindi news bulletin at 9:30 pm. Called C-News, the bulletin is Mumbai-specific and is being relayed to a claimed 600,000 Hathway cable TV subscribers. The cable TV firm has set up a studio and hired 40 staffers for the news service.

MTV WINS CREATIVE ADVERTISER AWARD

MTV India has jointly won the creative advertiser of the year award with the Mauritius Tourism, given by the Advertising Club, Mumbai. The agency of the year award was given to Contract Advertising, which is part of the JWT network. The Ad Club, Mumbai is one of the largest advertising clubs in the world with a membership of over 2,000. This year's Abby awards show was sponsored by Turner Broadcasting Sytem, which operates, TNT & Cartoon Network and CNN.

CNN ANNOUNCES THAI JOURNALISM AWARDS

CNN, United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) and the Council of Mass Communications Faculty Members of Thailand announced the winners of the third annual Young Journalist Award last week. The winner, Ekkaphon Nanta-o-sot, a Thai journalism student will get a six-week internship at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, followed by a two-week training stint with CNN's Bangkok Bureau. The two runners-up, Katewadee Kulabkeaw and Saowarat Opasayanont, both communications students have been awarded internships at CNN's Bangkok bureau and at UBC's news centre. In addition, both students will fly to Hong Kong - home of CNN's Hong Kong bureau and CNN International's Asian regional production centre - to witness the production of Asian CNN programs.

ITALIAN BROADCASTER INSTALLS SEA CHANGE DIGITAL SERVERS

Italian digital video broadcaster Tele+ has installed Sea Change International's digital video server system to provide its viewers with a selection of movie services. Since early this year, Tele+ has used Sea Change's Broadcast Media Cluster to store its programming selections, which are played successively in a near video-on-demand application. With tightly-coupled software management from Louth Automation's ADC 200, the entire digital play-to-air system enabled Tele+ to streamline its operations and gain new efficiences compared to its former analog tape environment.