Twenty weeks since Kerry Packer‘s HFCL Nine Broadcasting launched their serial on Doordashan Metro, the INTAM Television Viewer Ratings (TVRs) reflect that many of Nine Gold‘s serials are increasingly making their presence felt in cable and satellite homes.

Hoping to build on its gains, Nine Broadcasting has pitched for a 10-year contract for DD Metro with Prasar Bharati, the Economic Times reported on Saturday. It remains to be seen how newly installed CEO Anil Baijal responds to the offer. Considering how the profile of DD Metro has improved in this period, it will be an offer he finds difficult to refuse.

The TVRs indicate that Channel 9‘s programmes are scoring over that of DD1 with nearly 26 of its serials among the top 50 in all television homes. Telecast for three hours every day on DD Metro‘s prime time segment between 7.00 PM to 10.00 PM, 14 programmes are among the top 20 with two of its serials - "Superstars" and "Kundali" - sharing the second position with DD1‘s "Jai Hanuman" at 9.4 per cent TVR. In all non C&S homes DD1‘s "Suraag" leads with 27 per cent TVR followed by "Kundali" at 23 per cent.

Nine Broadcasting‘s five soaps figure among the top 50 in Ahmedabad (all C&S homes), with "Chonch Ladi Re Chonch" aired on Sundays at 8.33 PM with 8.9 TVRs while Star Plus‘s family soap "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" tops the chart at 21 per cent (Wed 10.32 PM).

Nine Broadcasting has paid Rs 1.21 million for the three hours of air-time on DD Metro.

ETC Networks Limited has registered a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 43 million on a turnover of Rs 326.6 million for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2000. PAT for the quarter ended December 31, 2000 is Rs 21.2 million, registering a growth of 159 per cent over the previous quarter ended September 30, 2000 at Rs 13.3 million.

In just its second year of operation, ETC has not only consistently retained the top position among music-based channels in viewership rating but also translated this popularity to very impressive revenue and profit figures, according to a company press release issued on Friday.

ETC Channel Punjabi, the regional channel under the umbrella of ETC Networks Ltd., which has just completed only its second quarter of operation, is also doing extremely well, having beaten all established Punjabi channels in the ratings war, as also attracting impressive revenue figures.

Etc hopes to consolidate its position with a whole slew of new programmes which are scheduled to come on air in the near future.

Come 5 February and a new corporate campaign is slated to break across Asia. That of rebranding Star TV as Star. The campaign covers a high-pitch run in newspapers and magazines and possibly the outdoors later.

	Star TV Asia chairman and CEO James Murdoch explains in a letter mailed to senior industry professionals has explained why TV is being dropped from the brand identity. He says that the past 10 years have seen a satellite TV broadcaster evolve into a company with strengths in:
The new Star logo

*Content (19,000 hours of programming; seven languages, 300 million viewers in 53 countries)

*Radio (for once it has admitted that it is involved in FM broadcasting though through its media partner Mittal who is launching six FM stations in 2001. "We believe the commercial FM market in India is one the most promising new media sectors in the region," says Murdoch in the note.

*Internet (owned properties such as channelv.com, vindia.com, espnstar.com, partnerships with others such as netease.com, indya.com)

Murdoch adds that "by leveraging our brands, content, technology, local expertise and extensive infrastructure; and by forging important partnerships in key markets, we are actively creating the next generation of media connectivity in Asia. As STAR evolves from a television brand to a multi-service, multi-platform brand, we are evolving our identity from the media (i.e. from STAR TV) to the core of our brand, i.e. STAR."

Five new soaps and a handful of in-house produced shows. That‘s the first of Zee TV‘s artillery as it starts its offensive against Star Plus and Sony Entertainment. The duo has already stolen quite a lot of advertising ground from it.

They include: Samander, Aanchal Ke Chaon Mei, Gardish, Ankahee, Kaise Kahoon. Kaise Kahoon, the first of the five soaps starts airing on 5 February (Monday to Thursday 3:30 pm), and is produced by Mona Kapoor. Aashique Rahul Roy makes his small screen debut with this soap. (Wonder whether his lover boy image will help attract audiences?)

The story is about two close friends from different communities whose friendship extends to theri families. The families begin to drift apart when a narrow-minded female protagonist comes into the picture. "Effort is taken to blend two communities out of this serial, the happiness, misunderstanding and sorrow that these two families undergo due to the narrow way of thinking of a single female," says Sudha Chandran, one of the leads in the soap.

	Aanchal Ki Chaon Mein commences from 6 February every Tuesday at 9.30 pm and is produced by Rakesh Sarang and Mir Muneer. "The series is the story of a woman torn between the attachment of her family and her own personal life," says Mir Munner the serial writer and co-producer. Slotted for the late night slot are Ankahee (produced by Manish
A still from Samander, one of the five new soaps

Goswami; debuts on 21 February, Wednesdays 9:30 pm) and Gardish (directed by Ravi Rai; 7 February, Wednesdays 10 pm). Ankahee has Govind Namdeo, Vivek Mushran and Iravati Harshe playing the leads . Samander by Rajesh Mishra debuts on 8 February and is to be telecast every Thursday at 10 pm with Kabir Bedi and the versatile Nikki Aneja starring.

And if this is not enough to add to the programming masti, it has lined up Chatpati Chaat - a 15 minute programe consisting of select comedy scenes from Hindi movies (Monday to Friday 10:45 am) and hosted by Bhavna Balsaver.

Will the new programming help Zee TV regain lost turf? For that it is over to King Viewer, who wields that ominous remote in his/her hands.