It‘s not only Sony Entertainment that is bidding to push sporting spectacle on its entertainment channels. If Sony will be pushing ICC cricket on its SET and MAX channels, the Star Network is doing its own little number on Star World and Star movies. Star has announced boxing specials next week on two of its general entertainment channels - Star Movies and Star World.

Reigning three-time world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis defends his title against Mike Tyson on Star Movies on 9 June live at 6:30 am with a repeat at 9:30 pm. Meanwhile, Star World is all set to pay tribute to boxing legend Muhammad Ali on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The Muhammad Ali 60th Birthday Celebration airs on the channel on 4 June at 9 pm.

Hosted by Will Smith, who played the boxing legend on screen in Ali, the one-hour special was taped at the new Kodak Theater in Hollywood, the venue of the Academy Awards in March this year.

Joining Smith to present film clips of Ali‘s legendary career are film stars Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding, Jr, Samuel L Jackson, Sidney Poitier, Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight, John Travolta.

CNN chat show host Larry King and Layla Ali, the boxer‘s daughter will also be present on the occasion. The show includes musical performances by India.Arie (Strength, Courage & Wisdom), Mariah Carey (Happy Birthday), Natalie Cole (This Will Be) as well as a special message from boy band NSYNC.

After a long hiatus, Mudra Videotec, the television software production and marketing arm of advertising major Mudra Communications is all set to renew the golden relationship it shared with Doordarshan in its halcyon days.
After soap Shayad Tum, it has now announced the launch of a new daily soap to be launched from 3 June on DD National.

Mera Humsafar, concieved and written by experienced film and TV professional Vinod Pande, is a moving tale of a single mother and her mentally challenged daughter. "The serial potrays the adversities faced by the family in life and how they cope with these with dignity and determination to finally emerge victorious", says Pande, who has earlier written and directed several hit DD shows including Air Hostess, Reporter, Ek Kahaani and Detective Pradhaan.

An inspiring saga, it hopes to educate people about dealing with a common and socially stigmatized problem of having a special child. Mudra Videotech creative consultant Abhigyan Jha says viewers, bored of "saas bahu" dramas, need a change. "If you study the top 10 shows on DD, you can see that they belong to different genres."

An upbeat Mudra Videotec CEO Kaushik Roy too seems pretty confident of the success of Mera Humsafar. "Within a short span, we have made a meaningful comeback with relevant and popular programmes on air. We are proud of our association with Vinod Pande and Mera Humsafar has all the potential of being a new trendsetter on TV," he says.

Mudra has in the past produced some of the most succesful shows on Indian television such as Buniyaad, Udaan, Rajani and Chunauti among others. It has developed 11 projects in the last six months, prominent among them the sucessfull, Shayad Tum starring Shekar Suman and Mandira Bedi.

Roy says Mudra has taken on the challenge of a different theme consciously and is willing to face the risk. Roy‘s stand seems to be in place since Godrej, Johnson & Johnson, Dabur, Colgate, Nirma and Kunwar Ajay sarees have already come on board. Mera Humsafar stars Abhimanyu Singh potraying Jeeten and Barkha Madaan as Poonam, the female protaganist.

A dip stick report prepared by the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) has placed Radio Mirchi‘s listening audience at 70 per cent of the total listenership of FM radio in Mumbai, in the one month after the launch of the four private radio stations in the city.
Commissioned by the Entertainment Network promoted Radio Mirchi, the report, says CEO AP Parigi, concerns the target audience in the age group of 18 to 35, Sec A & B, who tune into radio in cars. This segment is the one advertisers look at, and has helped the channel rope in advertisers at least three times more than the nearest rivals who started around a week after Radio Mirchi went on air, claims Parigi. The preliminary report will be followed by comprehensive reports after three to six months, he says. Radio Mirchi station head Kaushik Ghosh says similar exercises conducted in Indore and Ahmedabad four to six months after the launch of Radio Mirchi indicated that in terms of media consumption, the volume of radio listenership in these cities now equals that of TV viewership.

While Parigi says the FM channel will exploit all in house Times of India properties to target "an addressable population of 120 million in Radio Mirchi‘s 10 stations."

It also deployed Miss Universe contestant Neha Dhupia in the creative role of impromptu correspondent from Puerto Rico, where the pageant was held. Live phone-ins were used to bring Neha live from Rico, with updates on the process of the Miss Universe pageant, as and when the Indian representative got time off from her commitments. She also spoke exclusively to Radio Mirchi immediately after the pageant.

Parigi says the exercise will be followed up with radio adaptations of the Brand Equity Quiz, the Filmfare awards and the War of the DJs, all Times properties. No sponsors have been roped in for the Miss Universe coverage. After Indore, Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai, the channel is now targeting Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai as the next Radio Mirchi destinations, says Parigi.