ITV

Tag: PAS-10 satellite

  • Zee Sports test signals on; targets May-end full launch

    Zee Sports test signals on; targets May-end full launch

    MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: Cricket or no cricket, the Subhash Chandra promoted Zee Telefilms is ready to play ball and much more with its proposed sports channel.

    Zee Sports, which began running test signals from midnight Sunday, is poised for a formal launch May end-July beginning. It would be an encrypted channel beaming off the PAS-10 satellite.

    Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, Zee Telefilms executive vice-president Himanshu Modi confirmed the development, saying, “At the moment we are running test signals to check out the technical aspects of broadcasting a channel.”

    Asked about the formal launch of Zee Sports, Modi, while admitting that fine-tuning of the project is on, indicated that by early June the sports channel should be on air in its full-fledged avatar, if not earlier in May.

    Though the 24-hour sports channel will be encrypted, it is still not clear whether it would be available to cable operators in a free-to-air mode or as a pay channel. The process of seeding the market with boxes would gain momentum in about 10 days time. In the initial phase, the bigger and more urban-centric cities would be targeted through cable networks and Dish TV’s DTH service.

    As far as programming is concerned, Zee Sports — whose executives these days are huddled in a series of meetings in Delhi discussing various aspects of launching a sports channel — is aiming to showcase hot sporting properties from the fields of soccer, motor sports and tennis.

    As far as available properties in these three areas are concerned, however, there is very little to go around as of now, information available with indiantelevision.com indicates. In soccer, there are the Dutch, French and Indian football leagues; in motor sports there is the A1 series and in tennis are the Tennis Masters, ATP and WTA events.

    There are two high value properties that will reportedly become available for bidding in the course of this year though. These are Champions League soccer and Formula One (F1) in motor sports. Both of these A-list events are currently with ESPN Star Sports.

    F1 becomes available from November while ESS’ deal on Champions League runs till the finals of this year’s tournament, which is to be played in Istanbul, Turkey, on 25 May. But what needs noting here is that even if Zee Sports were to make a strong play for these two properties, it would only be in the 2006 season that it could look to showcase the events.

    Cricket would have been a natural choice to drive a sports channel in India, but most cricketing properties Indian sub-continent rights have already been snapped up by existing major sports broadcasters like ESPN Star Sports, Sony Entertainment Television India and Ten Sports. In recent times, home series have been telecast on pubcaster Doordarshan owing to continuing telecast imbroglio and pending court cases.

    Earlier talking to Indiantelevision.com, Chandra had said that the sports channel would require a working capital of approximately Rs 2 billion. There were also talks of forming a joint venture with an Indian media company for the purpose.

    Time Warner, which has an existing 26:74 per cent distribution joint venture with Zee Telefilms, had also expressed willingness to partner in the sports channel venture last year. Zee is understood to have kept the proposal under active consideration.

  • Times defers biz channel to next year

    Times defers biz channel to next year

    NEW DELHI: Their business channel can wait till next year. The Times of India Group is more interested in an entertainment channel to be followed by a spiritual one this year, both of which would carry a nominal subscription fee.

    Pointing out that the plans for a business channel have been deferred for the next year, Bennett, Coleman and Co (Ltd) MD Vineet Jain told indiantelevision.com today, “The entertainment channel should be on air by November, followed by the spiritual.”

    The channel launch sequence set out by Jain only confirms a report indiantelevision.com had carried in the beginning of April about Times TV’s plans .

    Jain added that since the two channels would be digital, decoder boxes would have to be distributed. “There would also be a nominal price charged for the channels,” he said, hinting that both the channels may be clubbed together and sold for distribution purposes.

    While the entertainment channel will be called Zoom, names for the spiritual and business channels haven’t seen finalised. Both the proposed channels would be beamed off the PAS-10 satellite.

    Without specifying the format of Zoom, the channel to be launched in the last quarter of 2004, Jain said that it would be a general entertainment channel in ‘Hinglish’ (a combination of Hindi and English) as ‘the primary target audience would be in the metros’.

    He is confident about a market for this type of an entertainment channel.

    Jain clarified, “Even the ad sales team of ours is not aware of the content and format yet.”

    Meanwhile, he also confirmed that Arnab Goswami, formerly of NDTV 24×7, has joined the Times’ TV venture as head of programming for the business channel. The group is also looking for Goswami’s counterparts for Zoom and the spiritual channel.

     

  • BBC slated to go digital from today; will FTV also meet 1 December encryption deadline?

    BBC slated to go digital from today; will FTV also meet 1 December encryption deadline?

    BBC World, which turned 10 in India in October 2001, turned digital today. The news service will continue the analog feed on the PAS 10 satellite till 31 March 2002. The channel has additionally started beaming off the Telkom 1 satellite for audiences in southeast Asia.

    BBC’s digitisation effort is not restricted to India but will extend across the full footprint of PAS-10 satellite’s BBC World South Asia feed, BBC officials who visited the country last month said. This will cover Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Middle East, Bhutan and Bangladesh. BBC is received as a 24 hour service in 11 million homes in India.

    Another channel which was slated to encrypt today is the one that irks India’s information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj – Fashion Television or FTV. The channel had promised to encrypt on 1 November but later deferred it by one month. Although Modi Entertainment Network officials had earlier claimed that 60 per cent of the seeding operations concerning distribution of set top boxes had been completed, there is no official word from MEN on whether the operations are completed for the 1 December deadline.

    FTV claims a viewer base of 23 million, which it insists will stay post -encryption as well. Sources had said earlier that MEN would be bundling FTV along with Hallmark and DD Sports, the two other channels it currently distributes along with French music channel MCM. FTV had earlier been beaming off the Asiasat 2 satellite.

    A few MSOs have already switched off FTV. 7 Star Network, which operates in Mumbai’s northern suburbs, has already stopped transmitting the channel. FTV had been knocked off TV screens in Kolkata by RPG Netcom, a leading signal provider in the city in November, following the announcement of the switch to a pay channel.

    Among other Asian channels which have shifted to the Indonesian satellite Telkom 1 from 1 December are CNBC Asia, Bloomberg TV Asia and Fashion TV.

  • BBC World going digital 1 December

    BBC World going digital 1 December

    Television news channel BBC World, which completed 10 years of operations in India last month, is going digital from 1 December, 2001.

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Erica Rowe, head of specialist news distribution, BBC World, said to ensure a smooth transition to a digital feed, the 24-hour British news channel would be operating a dual illumination feed, continuing the analog feed on the PAS 10 satellite till 31 March 2001.

    Rowe and Gerrie Richie, head of network development, are currently in India for the dual purpose of announcing the digitalisation plan and meeting cable operators from across the country to “thank them for the support they have extended to BBC World” over the last ten years.

    Richie said the conversion of BBC World to a digital field “was part of an overall strategy we have for the distribution of BBC World.”

    Rowe said she was in India for the next four weeks as part of a communication effort celebrating BBC’s ten years in India where meetings with cable operators were being organised across the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta.

    Over 500 guests were invited for the Mumbai bash held last night at the Taj Hotel in south Mumbai, Rowe said. There would be similar parties in Bangalore (12th November), Delhi (16th) and Calcutta, 23rd, Rowe said.

    The digitisation effort was not restricted to India but would extend across the full footprint of the PAS-10 satellite’s BBC World South Asia feed, Rowe said. This would cover Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Middle East, Bhutan and Bangladesh, Rowe said.

    On the distribution front, Richie said BBC World reached 11 million households in India. Worldwide, BBC is received as a 24-hour service in 81 million homes.

    An important area where attention is paid is distribution in hotels. BBC World is available in over 55,000 hotel rooms around the world and there is a a separate person dedicated to ensuring that BBC World “is received in all the major hotels in the region,” Richie said.

    Queried as to why BBC hadn’t considered a free-to-air encrypted feed, Rowe said: “BBC’s philosophy for India is we want as many people as possible to view our channel. We don’t want to restrict it any way?” Richie replied in the negative when asked whether there were any possibilities of BBC allying with a bouquet or channel. “Our principle objective is to make sure there is a smooth transition from analog to digital and to hold on to the distribution numbers that we have. We haven’t considered at this stage tying up with any of the other players in the marketplace.”

    Technical Specifications Post Digitalisation
    Satellite: Panamsat PAS-10
    Transponder: 14C
    Downlink Polarisation: Vertical
    Downlink Frequency: 3970 MHz