ZeeNext.com, the entertainment portal from the Zee Group has added , a sports portal to its bouquet of portals.

Hosted on http://sports.zeenext.com, the sports website has been launched at a time when the cricket, World Cup soccer and Formula 1 fever are catching up. The website is built in association with Sportz Interactive, the sporting division of SIDS Interactive Network.

The aim of the sports portal is to provide users with real-time action, results and news, exhaustive content. For both users as well as advertisers, the portal promises to offer innovative and interactive tools.

From live coverage of international matches to providing users with access to one of the most comprehensive player and match databases,
the portal also aims to have information and live highlights as the 32 teams take on each other‘s might. The portal will also cover the Formula One season, and will follow the lives and careers of Indian racing icons like Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandok and Asif Nazir, among others. It will also have the latest results from the World Rally Championship and the Motor Grand Prix Championship.

The portal also promises to keep users up-to-date with the career paths of India‘s star duo: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, as it tracks events in tennis.

 new scare has emerged in the television industry about the possibility of the current government controlling and muzzling the media - more specifically television through the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Amendment 2002. The Amendment seeks to hand control of the free to air channel bouquet to the government, its pricing and its contents location wise.
According to one school of thought, the BJP-led NDA government has been reeling from a backlash from the media - more specifically channels such as Star News - which have criticised it for the manner in which it has dealt with Gujarat and the massacre of Muslims in the state. Earlier, it had also been hit by the defence related Tehelka scam and the bad media it got.

Says an observer: "It is quite likely that the government is pushing through CAS in the manner it is to serve its own agenda. Television channels are hurting its image. The government can - if a broadcaster goes against it order the cable TV operator not to carry a specific channel or carry it in an unfavourable frequency position so that very few individuals get to view it. "

The observer asks why can‘t the Indian government decide to take the same tack with the print media too. "Does the government decide the pricing of a newspaper or is it left to the publishing house," she asks. "And why are cable TV operators complaining about TV channels hassling them? Don‘t publishing houses change the pricing of their newspapers time to time? Don‘t they have packages for distributors? Does the government intervene when they force newspaper distributors to carry publications as part of a package at a specific price? Why should it do so for television?

"Cable ops are excited about their getting a chance to get back at channels (through CAS) who they believe have been armtwisting them with apparently uncalled for channel subscription package increases. Broadcasters on their part have been busy fighting or backing its entry. Consumers don‘t know any better.

"Most people are missing the possibility of the government muzzling the television channels," says the observer. "Maybe it may not, but there is always the possibility it may."

The ball is over to the Indian government to clarify its position on the issue.

Thai communication major Shin Satellite has signed an agreement with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) to provide and promote a Joint Satellite TV Transmission Service on the Thaicom 3 space platform.
The services would be implemented from July this year from Mumbai and New Delhi and will later be further extended to other cities. The entire bouquet of 30 + channels of Indian origin on Thaicom 3 currently uplinked out of its own facilities in Thailand will start relocating in India to ensure that channels on Thaicom will be in a position to uplink live programming and news directly from India without incurring added backhaul expenses.

VSNL will also start providing iPSTAR services and total international connectivity in India which would be enabled with Shin Satellite setting up an iPSTAR gateway in Mumbai in the fourth quarter 2002. The agreement between the two telecom majors establishes a framework for distributing Shin Satellite‘s iPSTAR satellite broadband and International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) services in India, according to an official release. The IPLC service will allow customers to lease a virtual line directly from their rooftops to an international connection, bypassing domestic terrestrial congestion in the process, the release adds.

The iPSTAR system is expected to be three to five times cheaper than equivalent systems, and offers much higher bandwidth cost savings, it says.