STAR snatched more awards than any other Asian broadcaster at this year‘s PROMAX and BDA (Broadcast Designers‘ Association) Awards in Los Angeles, USA, with 14 awards - 1 Gold, 4 Silvers and 9 Bronzes.
Over 3,000 entries from across the globe vied for top promotion, marketing and creative awards at the annual event. Awards won by Star‘s creative team are for work done for a range of channels: Channel [V], Star Movies, Star Sports, Phoenix Satellite Television and National Geographic Channel, a company release says.
"We‘re proud of the achievements of our dedicated on-air and off-air creative teams. Their award-winning works highlight the fact that Star continues to set the standards for the Asian television industry," Bruce Churchill, president and chief operating officer of Star said.

PROMAX and BDA are international associations of broadcast design and marketing professionals. They offer the world‘s premier educational conferences for promotions, marketing and design executives in electronic media. The two organisations are non-profit associations owned by their members.

Scientific-Atlanta has announced it is laying off 1,300 workers or 30 per cent of the workforce at its Juarez, Mexico facility.
The company says it was forced to make the move (necessitated after it discontinued the third shift) because the under the economic conditions prevailing, it no longer needs the last shift to satisfy demand.

Scientific-Atlanta did not rule out further staff cuts saying it was evaluating the need for any additional restructuring in other parts of the company due to reduced demand.

At a meeting of the Prasar Bharati board today in Delhi, it was decided that a panel headed by the pubcaster‘s CEO KS Sarma would be formed to look into the issue of the telecast rights of ICC designated cricket.

It may be recalled that last month Prasar Bharati chief executive KS Sarma had stated that the pubcaster was seeking the Indian government‘s intervention on the matter of telecast rights for sporting events to create a "level playing field in the larger interest of the viewing Indian public."
Prasar Bharati has already lost out on the live telecast of the just concluded Fifa World Cup and is also under severe pressure from World Sport Nimbus on the issue of rights of ICC-organised cricket matches, the cable and satellite TV rights which are held by Sony Entertainment TV for six years.

Also discussed at the meeting were some relatively minor programming issues. The pubcaster will soon be commissioning programming on Indian classics. While 75 per cent of the programmes will be produced in house, 25 per cent will be farmed out to private producers.

The conditional access system (CAS) issue took another political hue today when Samajwadi Party politician and member of Parliament Amar Singh lashed out at the government and some foreign broadcasters at a seminar organised by Consumer Action Network (CAN) on the technological and economic implications of CAS.
Inaugurating the seminar in Delhi, Singh strongly condemned the actions of some broadcasters who were lobbying for DTH and opposing CAS. He said that there are two lobbies in Parliament, one which is pro-consumer and the other which is "dancing to the tunes of foreign broadcasters and media persons.
" Drawing parallels between the CAS issue and ‘East India Company‘, Singh in his inimitable style, said that in our country, foreigners have a history of making an entry and controlling the economy of the country, which in turn would lead to the control of society and politics.

He said that he is certain that the amendments passed by the Lok Sabha, relating to the CATV Act, which will facilitate CAS, will see the light of the day in spite of the efforts of the "vested parties to scuttle the bill."

Some of the issues brought forth at the seminar, included the lobbying being undertaken by some broadcasters to stall implementation of CAS, the issue of insufficient number of suppliers for set top boxes in the country, the real benefits of CAS, the global scenario and the problems being faced in India.

Col V Khare, member BIS and Technical committee, department of Information Technology while commenting on the technical aspects of CAS said that the issues being raised by the broadcasters and the vested parties were "trivial in nature and that the Indian manufacturing companies were definitely up to the task of delivering cheap and good quality set top boxes in a short period of time."

Khare said that some foreign broadcasters were trying to confuse and diffuse the issue, so that they could "continue to mislead advertisers and consumers on the basis of fictititious connectivity and TRPs." He further added that CAS is the answer to most problems being faced by the cable and broadcasting industry.

Vikky Choudhary, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and an active supporter of CAS, lamented the fact that the cable industry does not have the recognition as an industry and added that CAS is a good initiative of the I&B ministry.

"People who oppose CAS are opposing consumer‘s interest and making CAS mandatory will be a victory of the consumers as it‘ll end the broadcasters‘ monopoly," he added. Supporting the concerns, Ahmed Abdi, national president, CAN said the Indian government has to continue its pro-active consumer stance by taking the following additional measures immediately: firstly, ensuring a three-phase rollout to cover metros in next six months, mini metros in the next 12 months and the entire country in the 18 months. Secondly, to ensure easy acceptability of the set top boxes by consumers and subscriber management systems by cable operators all duties including central/ state and local levies should be waived for a period of three years.

Thirdly, as government has decided to fix a maximum retail price for free-to-air channels, it should also freeze all current pay channels‘ rates till deployment of set top boxes is actually in place.

"Thereafter the broadcasters would have to persuade the customers to subscribe to their channels both in terms of attractive content and pricing," he explained.

Fourthly, as the Convergence Bill is still being scrutinized by the standing committee of Parliament, an interim arrangement to settle all disputes in the TV segment between cable operators/ broadcasters and consumers may be considered by appointment of an ombudsman.

The speakers felt that in recent years while cellular telephone, insurance and banking sectors have seen a fall in subscription rates and upliftment in services offered, cable television charges have gone up by "almost 500 per cent in the last five years.

" CAN proposes to record the findings and suggestions of the seminar and forward it to the information and broadcasting industry, calling for immediate action.

CAN claims to be an organization comprising spirited citizens with special concern for consumer welfare.

WorldSpace Corporation, which claims to be the global pioneer in satellite audio and multimedia services, has inaugurated three new channels.

Orbit Rock features classic rock and roll from the late 1960s, 70s and 80s from artists like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and The Who. Orbit Rock will also highlight music from more recent times. The Hop highlights great hits from the 1950s and 60s, the era when rock and roll was born. Oyeme! is the WorldSpace tropical music channel offering beats of Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cumbia, and the latest in Latino Dance Mixes. It features top 40 Latin music with emphasis on the Tropical music genre and will be hosted in English.

The channels are exclusive to the WorldSpace system and can only be heard by using a WorldSpace satellite audio receiver. The three new services are the latest additions to an existing line-up of a variety of WorldSpace music channels that range from jazz to classical music and pop to country. They complement a diverse group of brand name broadcast partners such as Swiss Radio and Leman Telecommunications that have recently signed on with WorldSpace to broadcast via the AfriStar and AsiaStar satellites.

WorldSpace, a media company, broadcasts satellite audio, data and multimedia content to Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The WorldSpace satellite network consists of three geostationary satellites: AfriStar, AsiaStar and AmeriStar.