The Indian contingent consisting of SET India COO Rajesh Pant, Reliance Entertainment vice-chairman Amit Khanna, ESPN Software India chief Manu Sawhney and Pentamedia representative John Silverman put a brave front at the Casbaa 2000 conference which concluded today at Singapore Expo. While Pant outlined the contours of the Indian cable and satellite television industry throwing in numbers about its size and growth, Sawhney spoke about the basic subscription television market. Khanna gave a broad perspective on India‘s economic strides, and the huge potential in the entertainment and information technology businesses. Silverman gave insights into how India could become a development base for animation, giving examples of Film Roman‘s 51 per cent partnership with Pentamedia wherein it will source content from India. Sawhney spoke about the inability of pay TV programmers to collect more than 30 per cent of the subscription revenues cable TV operators collect from subscriber.

All the panellists were bullish about India‘s cable and satellite television future. They expected the government to push through a convergence bill in the winter session of parliament. Sawhney spoke about the notification that the government is expected to push through by 19 November making it compulsory for cable ops to put addressible set top boxes into subscribers‘ homes.

The sad part is that the panellist threw little new light on the cable and satellite scene and its regulation in India. It seemed a deja vu of the situation two years ago, when the panellists then spoke glowingly of the situation in India only to have the door slammed shut in their faces by the government‘s inaction a few months later. Somethings never change.

The conference organisation committee would do well if it would have more focused sessions on issues confronting Indian cable and satellite television programmers, rather than a general overview which is available on several web sites. An approach of that sort would add more value to Asian executives. For example, this year executives could have been enlightened about the rapid strides that the new wave programming that is hitting Indian television screens courtesy the competition between leading channels Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment, B4U, Sun TV, among several others.

Despite official denials from Zee TV, the news is that Zee TV‘s romance with one of its CEOs Deepak Shourie has ended. Shourie, according to company sources, has been asked to go by the top brass when he failed to agree to management consulting firm, A.T.Kearney‘s recommendation that the news television division be merged with the entertainment television division.
Sources indicate that Shourie had chosen the path of individualism over consensus which is the policy being pushed by the executive committee lead by Zee Telefilms chairman and largest shareholder Subhash Chandra. Things came to a head a couple of days ago when Shourie refused to kow tow to the Kearney recommendation.

Additionally, Zee TV sources indicate that Shourie failed to deliver on Zee TV‘s publishing venture with titles such as Zee Premiere, TV World failing to pick up circulation or get any direction even as they continued to bleed. Shourie also headed the foray by Zee TV into FM Radio which has got the group into a tight spot with government. Law minister Arun Jaitley had been severe on Zee TV‘s decision not to honour its commitment to pay up the remainder of the amount for the radio licences it had bid for.

Chandra had warned in a business magazine a while ago that he is going to brook no incompetency within his senior management. Heads would roll, was the warning issued then. The current decision to let Shourie go is in an indicator that he means business. And he is extremely keen on getting the Zee Telefilms scrip back to the stellar heights that it had once achieved.

One wonders whether the Shourie decision will have a back lash on Zee TV especially considering the fact that Arun Shourie, Deepak‘s brother, is a minister currently. But sources indicate that Chandra is not fearful of that either.

Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp group is making a further thrust into India. The group‘s digital pay TV solutions and conditional access systems company NDS (www.nds.com) is setting up research and development centre in India‘s software capital Bangalore.
The NDS Bangalore based R&D center will focus on developing interactive TV applications and broadband technologies, and will be an additional resource for the NDS R&D centers worldwide. The group will initially consist of around 30 highly qualified engineers, who will report to Dr Jasjit Saini, vice president consumer devices, NDS Group.

Says Saini: "These new research facilities will expand our intellectual capital with the aim of increasing innovations in digital broadcasting and growing our portfolio of offerings for the large Indian marketplace."

NDS is currently recruiting on a local and national basis. Although it will be operational by the end of the year, the official inauguration of the center is expected to take place during the first quarter of 2001 when it will be co-located with News Corporation‘s New Media Group offices. A press release from NDS points out that all NDS research centers work together on projects and share competencies. Thus the Bangalore R&D center has the potential to reach the 20 million pay TV subscribers worldwide, dependent on NDS technology for their TV viewing.

NDS recently pocketed a contract to become the exclusive supplier of digital conditional access to Doordarshan, the Indian national television network. This will create a platform for DD‘s next generation of digital entertainment and interactive TV services.

Encrypted at DD‘s broadcast center in New Delhi, the signal is sent to set top boxes in over 6,000 cable headends. The first digital encryption of a DD broadcast signal was its sports channel which went live on 14 September 2000.