ESPN Star on Friday unleashed ambitious programming plans for the year, even as cable ops in the country gear themselves to protest against the revised subscription rates of Rs 24.

ESPN MD Manu Sawhney, who addressed a press conference in Mumbai, said a total of 261 days on the channel would be devoted to cricket, of which 82 would feature Indian cricket. However, while DD will grab eyeballs in the beginning of the year with telecasts of international matches played on Indian soil, ESS has to wait till March to cover the Indian tour of the West Indies. The RS 8 hike in subscription rates, consequently, is not being seen too kindly by cable ops who are threatening to take the channel to court over the matter. Sawhney, however, is unperturbed.

Even as the year‘s plans harp on the massive willow coverage, he says the channel‘s focus has shifted to other sports like soccer, tennis, Formula 1 and golf. "The Indian viewer is discerning enough not to harp on Indian cricket all the time," he said, when quizzed about the response of cable operators to the hike.

An integrated PR campaign accompanies the new programming initiative, in print as well as on the electronic media. The channel‘s on-air promos feature its anchors Navjot Sidhu, Naseeruddin Shah, Harsha Bhogle and Geoff Boycott speaking of their passion for sport. The signature tune ‘It‘s my life‘ runs through the entire campaign, making a pitch for the younger generation sports lovers in the country. ESS is hoping to pack in the viewers with three of the four Grand Slam telecasts, the US Open golf tournament, the Australian Grand Prix and the English Premier League soccer, among other sporting events.

Maintaining that the Indian viewer is going through a period of maturity and currently demands plurality of choice, Sawhney says pay TV is fast becoming the norm in India as in the rest of the world. Lamenting the under declaration of connectivity, Sawhney says cable ops give out only 16 to 20 per cent of the actual subscriber base. The channel has also taken the drastic step of switching off signals to certain cable ops in cases of gross underdeclaration and non-payment, he said.

Sports commentator Harsha Bhogle, who also addressed the media conference, said value added sports channels like ESS are doing yeoman service by showcasing human achievement rather than human failures projected by news channels.

ESS‘ programmes like Super Selector has already broken the record for the largest show of its genre globally. After netting 316000 participants in the last month of 2001, the show hosted by Naseeruddin Shah has won several awards including the Promax and BDA Asia awards for 2001.

The ESPN School Quiz that has covered two million students in 23 cities in India, will also be aired as a 61 episode programme from April 2002. The ESS programming line up also includes the Indian tour to England in June, the Indian tour to New Zealand in December and the India, England, Sri Lanka triangular in June, Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open and ATP Masters Series tennis, the UEFA football championship and the World Superbikes Championship.

Cable Television Laboratories has announced that it has finalised the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) software specification.

Called OCAP 1.0, the specification enhances the ability of consumer electronics manufacturers to build and market set-top boxes or integrated television receivers directly to consumers, a company release states. These devices can receive the services available on set tops provided by the cable operator. The specification enables cable to create an interactive television delivery mechanism to provide enhanced services to cable customers, the release says.

The OCAP specification is largely based on the European Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) middleware specification created by the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) organization. Thus, there is an opportunity for worldwide interoperability of interactive applications and content. The MHP and OCAP specifications also have been submitted to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a contribution to an international standard.

The release of the OCAP 1.0 specification supports an EE environment (based on Java technology), and will serve as the core for a family of future OCAP products. For example, OCAP 2.0, which will be released shortly, provides the addition of the Presentation Engine (PE) and a "bridge" that allows both to work together. The PE, similar to a Web browser, will provide support for creating and using the Web‘s standardised markup and scripting languages, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) andECMAScript. Manufacturers may choose to develop immediately to OCAP 1.0, or move directly to an OCAP 2.0 development, giving them flexibility to target different customer needs.

OCAP 2.0 will be fully backward compatible with OCAP 1.0. Further, OCAP 1.0 and 2.0 have been designed such that interactive television applications that have already been deployed by cable companies will continue to work when customers upgrade to an OCAP-compliant device.