Sticking to a schedule laid out at the end of July, B4U Entertainment Channel becomes B4U Movies on 2 October 2001, it was announced today.

In a new avatar 13 months after B4U Entertainment was launched on 3 September 2000, CEO Ravi Gupta and his team will be hoping to leverage what is B4U‘s main strength - its library of movies (over 2,000 films) that it holds the rights to, both current hits and blockbusters and old classics.

And wasting no time, the plan is to encrypt B4U Movies by November, Debashis Dey, chief distribution officer, B4U Television Network Ltd, says. According to Dey: "The proposed date for going pay is sometime in January ‘02. We feel that two months will be a reasonably good period for viewers to sample the channel." However, sister channel B4U Music will remain free-to-air a la MTV.

"After going pay in January the average rate per subscriber per month is proposed at Rs. 6.50p. We also feel that our channel will be a refreshing change, as it is not clustered by a bouquet of unwanted content, which currently the operators are forced to subscribe to," says Dey.

As for the programme line-up, current titles include - Lajja, Devdas, Suno Sasurji, Pyaar Deewana Hota Hai, Baas Itna Sa Khwab Hai, Daraar, Silsila Hai Pyaar Ka, Mohabbat, Beti No 1, among others, apart from hit films like Taal, Josh, Jungle, etc and old classics.

B4U Movies will telecast three hits per week - a Friday premiere, a Saturday blockbuster and a Sunday classic. In addition a super-hit ‘Movie Of The Month‘ will be screened, says Dey.

"In between films we intend to showcase a host of Bollywood based shows, highlighting film shooting, the studios and the classic films attached with them, Bollywood masala, gossip, behind the scenes, raw cuts, countdowns, market, flops, hits, comedies, super stars, and many more unique programmes in innovative formats," Says Dey.

Among the shows that are planned are:
Lehren - A Bollywood video magazine. The long running and popular ‘Lehren‘, will provide updates on Bollywood and the stars.
Studio Beat - A weekly round up from the studios in Mumbai. Using archival footage and interviews with old timers, stories around the studios that made the industry what it is today.
Superhit Hungama - A weekly countdown show set in exotic locations. Money Talkies - An update of the industry that throws light on the losers and the winners.
Box Office - A weekly update on collections and performance, reviews and analyses from trade pundits.
Shot Cut - Full length films cut down to half an hour, keeping only key scenes intact.
Director‘s Cut - Interviews with directors.
Stardom - profiles the stars.
Riot - The show presents some of the most hilarious scenes in Hindi movies. Countdown Caf鼯b> - The Indipop countdown that brings to you the best 10 tracks of the week. Ghazals, Punjabi Pop, Remixes and more.
South Side Story - Film update and news from southern India.
The Preview - Previews of the movies to be telecast on B4U.
Rushes - Daily updates on recent events in Bollywood.

The B4U Network is promoted by steel magnate L M Mittal, Kishore Lulla and Gokul Binani, all based in the UK. Lulla is also the promoter of Eros International LTD, the largest overseas film distributor and the first to take Hindi movies to the UK and the US.

CNN International Networks president Chris Cramer is livid. The reason. "Respected news organisations such as CNN and Reuters have become a target of a war of hatred, misinformation and cynicism," he says.

Cramer is especially annoyed by the spate of emails which have been doing the rounds denouncing the footage of Palestinians in East Jerusalem celebrating the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre as archival material (it is alleged to date back to 1991) and aired on CNN to sway public opinion. Cramer says that the origin of the rumour was from a chat room in Spain and that Reuters Television has since confirmed that the footage was indeed shot on 11 September and was not older material.

Cramer additionally adds that "fictitious CNN websites have appeared in the past week together with other allegations, disseminated via e-mail in South Africa, that CNN had allegedly reported that the attacks had been planned in South Africa." He says that this is totally untrue.

And according to him, what makes things worse is the fact that "e-mail attacks on broadcasters by lobby groups and those with special interests have become the norm in recent years. This was a concerted attempt to distort the news not just lobby against certain aspects of it.

Cyber-terrorism like urban terrorism is now an everyday occurrence, and it is equally as difficult to defend against it. Bitter irony when you consider that some of the earliest embracing of the Internet was by the US military to contain civil unrest in the event of a catastrophic war.

The race to be numero uno among television channels is hotting up what with tumbling TRPs, declining ad revenues and bumbling repetitive programmes. Over the past couple of months Sony Entertainment Television has come under tremendous shelling from its arch rivals Star and Zee
Digest this. 62 of Star Plus‘ shows figure in The Top 100 Intam ratings chart for the week ended 2 September 2001 as against just 19 shows each for Zee TV and Sony Entertainment.

Now SET is going all out to regain lost ground and is aggressively positioning itself as the channel to be watched on a Friday night. Starting this week (28 September), it will introduce a continuous programming block lasting four-and-a-half hours. The action starts at 7:00 p.m. with its game show Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke hosted by Govinda. Though the show is nothing to rave about having dropped out of the Top 100, SET is making every possible attempt to revive poor ratings. This Friday it will give lovers of Indipop music a special treat called Music Masti Special. Singers who have made a name for themselves will sing their most popular songs in between winning prizes.

The entertaining vein continues with its long-running popular dance talent show Boogie Woogie which has been pushed forward from its 9:00 PM slot to 8:00 p.m. It comes up against Zee TV‘s soap Mujhe Dor Koi Khinche, showing at the same time.

However, the real competition is, as expected, on Star Plus. Star started dominating the Friday night slot when it introduced three new one-hour shows - Kya Masti Kya Dhuum, a talent show hosted by filmstar Sonali Bendre; Khullja Sim Sim, a gameshow hosted by popular TV actor Aman Varma; and the horror show, Ssshhhh?Koi Hai - running continuously for three hours from 8:00 PM onwards. All three figure in the Top 30.

Fresh young blood as represented by new weekly drama Dil Se Dosti

SET has a new show of its own which it hopes will make a difference - a weekly drama called Dil Se Dosti at 8:30 PM It follows the trials and tribulations of five collegians - three boys and two girls. Producer-directors Tony and Deeya Singh (Just Mohabbat) wander off the beaten track of abortion and extramarital relationships in the hope of striking a chord with the nation‘s youth. It remains to be seen how different it will be from Zee TV‘s programme Hip Hip Hooray-II which has a similar theme but is slotted at 7:30 PM What must be of some relief for SET is that Hip Hip Hooray-II has failed to catch on in its second run and is doing as badly as JCPK.

Kkusum is now Sony‘s top show and leads the charge

The 9:00 to 10:00 PM slot seems a safe bet with popular soaps Kkusum and Heena at 9 and 9:30 p.m. respectively. Kkusum has just become the highest rated show on Sony after it surged ahead of CID reaching 10 on the TRP charts while Heena continues to hold its own despite its long run on air. Almost coinciding as it were with its entry into the Top 10, Kkusum becomes a 5-days-a-week show up from its current 4-days-a-week run.

The line-up culminates with the action-packed thriller CID at 10:00 PM and at 10:30 PM Aahat, a supernatural thriller.

All-in-all a lineup that should make the opposition sit up and take note. Especially if the viewer sits back and watches it all.