China said on Friday it had removed the BBC World television news channel from its airwaves for "infringing" broadcast rules, a move the corporation said was linked to a report on the banned Falungong spiritual movement.
BBC announced from London that Chinese authorities switched off the channel‘s encrypted signal through the Sinosat 1 satellite earlier this week, Agence France Presse reported.

The contentious story reportedly aired Sunday and was prepared by the BBC‘s Hong Kong office. It focused on the fifth anniversary of the return of the former British colony to Chinese rule. The story included information about the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which Chinese officials call an evil cult that is a threat to order and stability.

One of ESPN Star Sports? most successful on ground initiatives to get closer to the younger generation - ESPN School Quiz 2002 - has just completed a hugely successful run. DPS Farakka walked off with the coveted trophy. DPS Farakka won both the first and the second National finals respectively to emerge All-India winners of the ESPN School Quiz 2002. The team from DPS Farakka walked away with a grand cash prize of Rs 500,000.
While this cash prize will be used by the school to improve the sporting facilities in the school, the team members Suvojit Chakraborty and Rahul Mukherjee will enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from ESPN Star Sports in recognition of their quizzing talent. They will be flown to any major international sporting event of their choice from events featured on either ESPN or Star Sports!

In both the National finals DPS Farakka beat Loyola School from Trivandrum and Mt.St.Mary?s School from Delhi quite easily. In the first National final while Mt.St.Mary?s could muster a paltry 5-point tally, Loyola did not disturb the scorekeepers! In the second National final Mt.St.Mery?s scored 23 and Loyola scored 35.

Hosted by popular presenter Harsha Bhogle, The ESPN School Quiz 2002 showcased the best of sports quizzing talent from around the country. As many as 108 schools came through a tough selection process to feature on this unique TV show. To start with, over 2000 teams from 17 cities had to get past a written test. Cities and towns like Bhilai, Bhopal, Darjeeling, Dehradun, Farakka, Gangtok, Indore, Mangalore, Nasik, Siliguri, Shimla, Surat, Tezpur, Vijayawada and Udhagamandalam were represented for the first time. On-ground quizzes were also conducted in 6 cities in the search for the best.

The 27 top teams from each of the four zones - North, South, East and West - were selected for the final phase of ?On-Air,? quizzing, giving every one of the 216 students a chance to test their knowledge of sports against the best competition in the country.

Manu Sawhney, managing director, ESPN Software India Ltd, said: "We at ESPN Star Sports are committed to promoting sporting excellence in India and School Quiz 2002 further exemplifies our effort in this direction. This show provided a unique opportunity for the sports-loving students to pit their knowledge against the best talent across the country and bring pride and glory to their institution."

Apart from the Grand First Prize, the other prizes were as follows --

The teams winning the National Semi Finals won Rs. 200,000 each (Team Prize)

Zonal Final Winners from each zone won a Trophy (Team Prize) Both team members of all the 12 Zonal Semi-Final Winners received an ESPN Kit each (Individual Prize)

Winners of the Preliminary Rounds from each zone won a Milo wristwatch (Individual Prize)

All participants will received ESPN Certificates Of Excellence

After the World Cup what? That is the question that the naysayers have asked of Ten Sports on the programming frontThe "upstart" sports broadcaster has put car racing, boxing, beach volleyball... as some of the fare on its menu.

And it all starts Saturday, 6 July. Formula One, the FIVB Beach Volleyball International Circuit and a series on boxing legend Muhammad Ali is what is being showcased. On Sunday, Ten presents Indian car racing ace Narain Karthikeyan live & exclusive at the Telefonica World Series.

On 6 & 7 July, Ten will be airing the British Grand Prix from the Silverstone circuit, which comprises a fraction of the FIA Formula One World Championships. Ten will be telecasting the qualifying races as well as the championships all year long. The telecast is 5:30 pm onwards on both Saturday and Sunday.

Over 150 attendees from 67 organisations, including government, institutions, international corporations, Internet Service Providers and broadcasters attended the Delhi workshop on Digital Video Broadcasting and Internet Protocol.Dishnet DSL, a leading ISP and the first ISP in India to offer the DSL, broadband access, sponsored the workshop as an existing customer of PCM, along with other co-sponsors. Indiantelevision.com (this site) was the on-line partner for the eventSpeaking at the inaugural function, director engineering of Prasar Bharati Y Pratap highlighted the advantages of DVB and IP via satellite for broadcasters and telecommunications player. He said: "As IP via satellite can offer more bandwidth, the service offered can be many and the quality will also be of good quality".

During the same function, senior V-P sales and marketing of Pacific Century Matrix Loo Tong Mun said that the company intends to offer a global network that serves as a single resource for customers‘ worldwide requirements. According to Mun, there has been exponential growth in traffic over Internet and PCM, while exploiting the opportunities, will develop beyond Internet access to a caching and multicasting and content distribution facilitator.

Focussing on the advantages of satellite for IP, Mun said that it makes the whole process "distance insensitive" while being reliable and scalable mechanism for delivery.

Other speakers during the inaugural function included RRN Prasad of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Amitabh Singhal, secretary of Internet Service Providers‘ Association of India and Guru Hariharan of Call Centers Association of India.

Hallmark Channel US has announced that one of television‘s most recognisable shows "M*A*S*H" - will helicopter on to the channel in September 2003. The series will be cable exclusive to Hallmark Channel.
All 255 episodes of the sitcom were acquired under the deal with Twentieth Television. Each of the 255 episodes has been digitally remastered, an official release informs. The deal also includes the two-and-a-half hour M*A*S*H finale, which is still the most watched telecast in television history.

Executive V-P, programming, David Kenin said: " This is a series that will continue to drive the growth of Hallmark Channel and can be utilised in multiple dayparts. During its 11-year run, ‘M*A*S*H‘ aired in six different time periods on five different nights, and left the network ranked as the No. 1 sitcom on television. "

For nine of its 11 seasons on broadcast television M*A*S*H was a top five sitcom. It has been nominated for or won 23 Emmy Awards, 16 Golden Globe Awards, four Humanitas Prizes and six People‘s Choice Awards the release states.

M*A*S*H influenced by the Robert Altman film was produced and distributed by Fox from its premiere on 17 September 1972 to its finale on 28 February 1983 the release states. Cast Members include Alan Alda, McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers Harry Morgan. Guest appearances during the 11-year run of "M*A*S*H include Richard Gere, Brian Dennehy and the Oscar winning director of ‘A Beautiful Mind‘ Ron Howard.

Hong Kong-based satellite broadband service provider Pacific Century Matrix (PCM) is looking at forging alliances through one or more partners to offer its product in the country.

At the Workshop on DVB and Internet Protocol which took place in Delhi, PCM‘s India head Sandeep Bhargava told indiantelevision.com today that it was looking at increasing its customer-base in India.

Bhargava disclosed that the current list of customers of the company includes Internet Service Providers and even some broadcasters. He however added: "But I cannot tell you the names now as it is a competitive business and we are in the process of establishing a full-fledged operation in India."

The company founded in 1999, is a joint venture between Richard Li-promoted Pacific Century Group and European Aeronautics Defence & Space Company (EADS). The joint venture is a facility-based telecommunications services operator offering DVB/IP broadcasting services for TV broadcasters, a range of one-way and interactive broadband data delivery and network management end-to-end solutions for multimedia business, content and service providers.