It was in May 2000 that a media monster was born. Starcom and MediaVest merged to create Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) which now ranks among the top three media services holding groups with global billings of $16.5 billion. Yesterday SMG announced the operational merger in India as well.

The year-long process involved the integration the media teams of three Indian advertising agencies - Leo Burnett India, Ambience D?Arcy and Orchard Advertising - all BCOM3 member agencies in India, and was completed on 1 July.

Alongside the merger, there was also a leadership transition effected. Andrey Purushottam, took over charge as managing director of Starcom in India from Praveen Tripathi who stays with SMG but moves to Detroit on an international assignment.

Purushottam outlined three fundamental principles of the agency?s future offering ? accountability, integration and technology.

Elaborating on accountability, Purushottam said: ?It is ironical that while media spends constitute the largest component of the client?s marketing investments, media agencies have not satisfactorily related this to brand deliverables like marketshare and volumes. We believe that it?s our joint responsibility to maximise the client?s return on his media investment, not just to deliver GRPs.?

Purushottam emphasised that the current merger was only one part of a growth process that Starcom had delineated as a means to expand operations. He said he saw the company‘s growth in the near term as being through organic processes, acquisitions, new initiatives and a greater thrust outside Mumbai. He termed Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, as areas where Starcom was looking to increase its presence.

Purushottam reinforced what Keith Moran, CEO, Starcom Asia Pacific, who was also present at the media briefing, said earlier about Starcom‘s commitment to technology. Moran said $35 million had been pumped into proprietary research. Purushottam said Starcom India will be marketing the global tools aggressively and investing over Rs 10 million in the next 12 months to "re-engineer and refine agency systems and operations."

Elaborating on the use of technology and the web in particular in furthering the growth of Starcom, Moran said Starcom Digital as well as Starcom IP would be leveraging web-based technologies to "compile and disseminate information and improve services."

Queried on the company‘s estimates as to growth prospects vis-?-vis the depressed almost recessionary market conditions prevailing Purushottam said the estimates for the current year 8-10 per cent. This compared favourably with the world average of 6 per cent, it was pointed out.

Starcom India currently handles the media accounts of Acer Computers, Amtrex Hitachi, Bajaj Sevashram, Balsara Hygiene, Bayer Consumer Products and Birla Sun Life, Dabur Health Care, Fiat, Heinz, Linc Pens, Parle Bisleri, Proctor & Gamble, Raymond, Swedish Match, Tata Infomedia, Toyota, Trent, VVF and Western Union.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) will be launching a dedicated Southeast Asia feed for Star Sports from August. The feed, which is based on viewing habits and preferences of viewers from the region, is customised in both programming and presentation to deliver sports popular with Singaporean audiences, a company release states.

This includes the best of European football (English Premier League, UEFA Champions‘ League, Serie A and Spanish Liga), Formula One motor racing, golf and tennis. ESS will also launch SportsCenter, the region‘s only live daily sports news service, the release says.

The news came in the wake of an announcement that ESS and Singapore Cable Vision (SCV), its Singapore pay TV partner, have reached an agreement to renew the carriage of ESPN and STAR Sports channels in Singapore. The contract will run for five years, effective 1 July.

It has also been confirmed that the English Premier League (EPL) will be available in Singapore on only ESPN and Star Sports channels 23 and 24 on SCV MaxTV. (In February this year, ESS won the exclusive Asian broadcast rights for the Premier League.)

Announcing the conclusion of the broadcast contract with SCV, ESS managing director Rik Dovey said: "This multi-year agreement between SCV and ESPN Star Sports signifies two things - commitment and confidence. Both companies are committed to bringing viewers in Singapore the best sports television sporting action and, working closely together, both companies are confident of further developing the pay TV market in Singapore."

Dovey added that ESS‘ English Premier League programming, together with the company‘s UEFA Champions‘ League, Spanish Primera Liga, Chinese National Football League, Korean Football League, major Asian internationals and the Italian Serie A coverage, "completes what is the strongest football programming line-up of any sports broadcaster in the world."

The board of directors of ETC Networks Limited will meet on Tuesday, July 31, 2001 to consider, inter alia, un-audited financial results for the first quarter of the financial year, 2001-2002, a company release states.

ETC Networks Limited runs two channels - etc and etc Channel Punjabi - and the company has registered a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 24.3 million on a turnover of RS 538.2 million for the year ended 31 March 2001.

etc is a music based entertainment channel with music dominating 85 per cent of the programming content and is beamed from Thaicom-3 and is a free to air analog / digital channel.

etc Channel Punjabi is a Punjabi family entertainment channel compromising of serials, religious programmes, music and feature films. It is a free to air channel and is available through digital transmission signals beamed from Thaicom-3.

Besides having a very wide presence in Punjab, it has enabled etc Channel Punjabi to penetrate deeper into rest of the country and other international markets, the release adds.