Starts 3rd October

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  • Sun Network will feed the movie hungry KTV

    Submitted by ITV Production on Oct 15
    News Headline

    Southern regional language powerhouse Sun Network does not let the grass grow under its feet. Hardly had the dust settled on the relaunch of potential rival Vijay TV under the Star India banner, than it announced the high profile launch of its movie channel - Kondattam TV (KTV) - set for 22 October.
    Indications are that the launch of the channel was advanced in response to the happenings on the Vijay front. Promoter Kalanidhi Maran is pulling out all the stops to ensure that Star is not allowed to gain a firm foothold in Tamil Nadu, it appears.

    Kondattam, which means celebration, is targetted at the family. The focus is movies, movies and more movies. Three movies will be shown a day, one of which will be a major blockbuster. The new channel will take advantage of Sun Network‘s library of over 5000 movies. Because of this another network will find it difficult to enter the film market, says Santosh Nair, marketing head, New Age Entertainment, which is handling promotion and marketing of the channel.

    Sun Network will hold a 100 per cent stake in KTV, which will be aired 24-Hours in Tamil. Sun has allocated a budget of Rs 70 million to promote KTV. Full page advertisements in major publications like Hindu and Dinathanthi have been appearing over the past fortnight in order to build excitement. Huge hoardings in Chennai have also been taken out.

    Rajnikanth who is a God among movie goers in Tamil nadu, is one of the stars whose films will be shown on the new channel. In fact, when Sun TV had shown Baasha a while back, it got a TRP of 40 (market research agency AC Nielsen‘s TAM data). "If a film gets half that rating on KTV it will be enough for the channel to follow Sun in second position (Sun has an estimated 60 per cent market share among Tamil language channels). Other stars like Kamal Haasan, Sarat Kumar, Satyaraj, and Arvind Swamy will also be showcased," Nair says.

    While New Age will handle marketing, Sun will use its cable arm Sumanagali Cable Vision to distribute KTV. Sumanagali has a vice-like grip on cable connectivity in the state‘s major cities - Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and Trichy.

    Nair says plans were afoot for a while to launch the channel. The channel will start as free to air and the possibility of it becoming pay appears to be remote at the moment.

    Other content on KTV will include film-based music programs like countdowns. Plans are also on the anvil to have game shows on the channel, the license for which will be acquired from abroad. There will also be live events like concerts.

    Nair is not worried about the possibility of Sun TV and KTV eating into each other‘s audience since the former‘s content is diversified, while the latter‘s content is film-based. He also foresees KTV breaking even sooner rather than later.

    KTV Technical details:

    Satellite: NSS-703 57? E
    Polarisation: 3750 R
    Freq: 3980 Mhz (Digital)
    FEC: ? Symbol
    Rate: 28,000

  • KTV

    Sun Network will feed the movie hungry KTV

    Oct 15

    Southern regional language powerhouse Sun Network does not let the grass grow under its feet.

  • Three years after post fell vacant, UR Rao is
    Prasar Bharati chairman

    Submitted by ITV Production on Oct 15
    News Headline

    Prasar Bharati has a chairman again, after a gap of three years.

    Prof UR Rao, former chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), took over as the head of the pubcaster late last week. The post had been lying vacant since the demise of eminent journalist Nikhil Chakravarty, who passed away in July 1998. Chakravarty had taken over the reins of the fledgling Prasar Bharati in 1997, when it was entrusted with the modalities of granting autonomy to the state-run All India Radio and Doordarshan.

    Getting down to business almost immediately, Rao, who is an acknowledged expert in the field of satellite technology, announced yesterday that state run Doordarshan would provide uplinking facilities to private television channels, opening up new revenue streams for the national broadcaster. The proposal comes in the wake of anticipated policy changes from the government allowing private channels to have uplinking facilities from the country.

    Rao, who was previously a part-time member on the Prasar Bharati Board, also said the corporation was trying to shut down DD channels that were not doing very well. Rao said at least two channels, which he did not name, would definitely be closed down. An internal analysis was going on and channels, whose "reach is not high" will have to go off the air, Rao has been quoted as saying.

    Rao, who started his career as a cosmic ray scientist at MIT, has carried out extensive work in high energy astronomy and has published over 250 scientific and technical papers in various journals. Convinced of the imperative need to use space technology for rapid development, Rao took responsibility for the establishment of satellite technology in India and guided the design, fabrication and launch of the first Indian satellite ‘Aryabhata‘ in 1975. Prof. Rao and his team followed this with the launch of two experimental remote sensing satellites, Bhaskara-1 and Bhaskara-11, the first experimental geostationary communication satellite APPLE, two Rohini satellites on India‘s launch vehicle SLV-3, the INSAT-1 series of four satellites (revolutionising the communication scenario in the country) and IRS-1A and 1B, two state-of-art remote sensing satellites. These have since been followed by the launch of INSAT-2A and 2B, IRS-1C and 1D.

    Prof Rao became chairman, Space Commission and secretary, Department of Space in 1984, and during a decade when he also enjoyed tenure as chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was responsible for accelerating the development of rocket technology within India for launching satellites into low Earth, polar and geostationary orbits. During this time he was also vice-president of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) where he stimulated initiatives in promoting the use of space technology in developing countries.

    The development and deployment of the INSATs have initiated a total communication revolution in India, providing human connectivity even to the remotest corners of India, through business communication, emergency communication, nation-wide radio networking, information networking services and rural telegraphy.

    His predecessor at Prasar Bharati, Nikhil Chakravarty, on the other hand, was a media personality in his own right, though not as technology-savvy.

    As founding editor of Mainstream, the journal whose gloss was in its deliberative content rather than on its cover, he expressed the insights that come from quiet contemplation of serious themes.

  • UR Rao

    Three years after post fell vacant, UR Rao is Prasar Bharati chairman

    Oct 15

    Prasar Bharati has a chairman again, after a gap of three years.

  • BBC to tie-up with Prasar Bharati for AIDS awareness programmes

    Submitted by ITV Production on Oct 15
    News Headline

    The BBC World Service Trust, a charitable arm of the BBC‘s World Service, is setting up a production partnership with Prasar Bharati to campaign for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention‘s
    The project is being undertaken on behalf of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and will concentrate on the low-prevalence northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana. The Beeb is now seeking senior creative personnel from India to head the year-long project, likely to be started by December this year.

    The project will involve TV programmes targeted at youth, the most vital audience for an HIV / AIDS campaign, according to the BBC. One of the programmes envisaged an ‘exciting‘ weekly half hour show aimed at 15-30 year olds watching Doordarshan from Delhi, Lucknow and Jaipur. There are also plans for broadcasting thrice-weekly short-form drama series at peak viewing times, from Doordarshan Kendras in Delhi, Lucknow and Jaipur. ‘The series will engage the audience in a stimulating storyline that opens up the issues of relationship responsibility, sexual health and AIDS prevention‘, sources say. Plans are also afoot for launching an innovative phone-in show for young people on FM, with repeats on the main channel. This is scheduled to be the centerpiece of an AIR campaign on HIV/AIDS prevention from Lucknow.


  • BBC to tie-up with Prasar Bharati for AIDS awareness programmes

    Oct 15

    The BBC World Service Trust, a charitable arm of the BBC's World Service, is setting up a production partnership with

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