News Broadcasting
BT Broadcast, Dish TV in distribution deal
MUMBAI: BT Broadcast Services (BTBS), the broadcast and media solutions arm of British Telecom (BT), announced on Tuesday that it had signed a distribution agreement with ASC Enterprise’s direct-to-home (DTH) platform Dish TV.
The agreement enables European and US broadcasters to, for the first time, tap into India by jointly marketing the DTH capacity on Dish TV. Besides the Indian subcontinent, this agreement also applies to other English speaking markets in the Asia Pacific.
Commenting on the other implications of the tie-up, Essel Group additional vice-chairman Jawahar Goel said, “The deal with BT was signed a couple of weeks ago and will facilitate the playout of the Zee Channels in the UK and the American markets.”
BT’s towers would be used by Zee to send its eight-odd channels on the various platforms in the US and UK. In the UK, Zee channels are also available on the BSkyB platform.
Information available with indiantelevision.com indicates that as part of the package deal, on an average, Zee would be paying BT about Rs 700,000 per channel per month to be taken to the US and the UK markets.
Apart from providing teleport services, BT has also offered Zee that it can bring non-Indian channels to be added to the Dish TV platform, which has been agreed upon to “gauge the performance of BT,” a senior executive of Essel Group said.
Both BTBS and ASC Enterprises will market an end-to-end service that includes:
* 3Mb/s (the Dish TV standard) of capacity on the platform;
* encryption using Conax conditional access;
* a Dish TV EPG listing;
* 24 hour signal quality monitoring from BT Tower;
* full resilience, with redundant equipment automatically switched into service within 1 second of any failure;
* contribution of signals from Europe and the US to India, Australia and other English speaking markets in Asia;
* access to Dish TV subscriber community – currently standing at 150,000 and forecast to grow to 1.5 million by end-2004*;
* ultra-short lead-time – the service can be provided within 1 month of contract signature;
* subscriber management for premium channels that charge for the content provided.
In addition, there are a number of premium services, including standards conversion between NTSC and PAL, time shifting to allow repurposing of content between time zones and seamless bit rate conversion.
BT Broadcast Services CEO Mark Smith said, “In the past, there have been significant barriers to entry for European and US broadcasters to the exciting and rapidly growing Indian, Australian and Asian English speaking markets, and this new service makes it much easier, and more cost effective, for this to be achieved.”
“BTBS and ASC Enterprises TV have consolidated our international broadcasting capabilities to create a powerful channel to this key global market,” Smith added.
ASC Enterprises director Amitabh Kumar said, “ASC Enterprises is very pleased to be at the forefront of bringing US and European TV channels to satellite TV viewers on the Indian Subcontinent. Our joint offering with BT Broadcast Services presents a fantastic opportunity for global broadcasters to transmit their channels to a new potential audience of one billion people.”
Set top box/dish packages will be sold to consumers through Zee TV’s 10,000 resellers, and revenue collection and subscriber management will be handled by Zee TV’s sister company, ASCEL. According to the Zee Group’s current forecasts, Dish TV’s subscriber base, which currently stands at 150,000, will grow to 1.5 million by end-2004.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to host Fury in the Gulf conclave on West Asia crisis
Three-hour summit to unpack geopolitical fallout and impact on India
MUMBAI: CNN-News18 is set to host a special three-hour broadcast, Fury in the Gulf – War Conclave, on April 7, aiming to decode the escalating West Asia crisis and its far-reaching implications for India.
Scheduled from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the conclave comes at a time when tensions between Iran and the United States are reshaping global geopolitics and triggering economic uncertainty. With India’s deep energy ties, trade links and large diaspora in the Gulf, the developments carry significant domestic relevance.
Built around the theme ‘Conflict, Consequences, and The Future,’ the programme will feature six curated sessions combining one-on-one interviews and panel discussions. The focus is to cut through the clutter and offer viewers a clearer understanding of the fast-evolving situation.
Key sessions include ‘Diplomacy in Times of War’ featuring Shashi Tharoor, and ‘World After the Iran Conflict’ with voices such as Ram Madhav, Reuven Azar, representatives from the European Union and the Iranian Deputy Envoy. Another session titled ‘Another Dunkirk?’ will bring together K. J. S. Dhillon and Jitin Prasada among others.
CNN-News18 editorial affairs director Rahul Shivshankar said, “In times of war, clarity becomes the most powerful tool. Fury in the Gulf – War Conclave brings together credible voices to address the questions and confusion that arise amid an overwhelming influx of information.”
He added that the initiative is aimed at delivering “facts, perspective, and insight” at a time when misinformation can easily cloud public understanding.
Echoing the sentiment, CNN-News18 CEO– English and business news Smriti Mehra said the conflict marks a defining global moment, with consequences that extend well beyond the region. She noted that the conclave seeks to present the crisis with “depth, nuance and responsibility” so audiences can better grasp its real-world impact.
As geopolitical tensions continue to dominate headlines, the conclave positions itself as an attempt to bring order to the noise, offering viewers a structured, insight-led look at a complex and rapidly shifting global situation.
