Star India and Ronnie Screwvala‘s UTV are set to formalise a deal to hand over control of the Tamil language channel Vijay TV it owns to the Rupert Murdoch-promoted company on Wednesday, industry sources say.

When contacted both Screwvala and Star India CEO would only say that nothing had been finalised as yet and that there would be a joint press conference in Chennai on Thursday explaining all issues relating to Vijay TV.

The UTV group acquired Vijay TV from the UB liquor group in 1999 for Rs 180 million. According to reports, the stock holding in Vijay TV at present is: Founder Promoters - Ronnie Screwvala & Co hold 51 per cent, News Corp 12 per cent, Warburg Pincus 6 per cent, Mitsui Japan/ILFS & IVC / International Equity Partners / United Breweries 4 per cent, other institutional investors including Schroder‘s, etc 2 per cent and with the public 25 per cent.

Whatever may be the current status of ownership, Star virtually runs the channel anyway with it reportedly controlling programming, content, distribution and airtime sales. Business daily Economic Times reported that Star has appointed Ajay Vidyasagar as chief operating officer to manage the channel‘s affairs.

Sources say that what has been delaying a formal inking of the deal till now is working out what exactly that stakeholding structure should be. Star has already put in an application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Bureau (FIPB) for Vijay TV, sources say.

According to current indications, after the papers are signed on Wednesday, Mukerjea and Screwvala will be flying down to Chennai to explain things to senior personnel at Vijay TV what exactly the new dispensation would entail. Mukerjea, however stated he was going with Screwvala to Chennai for the press conference, nothing else.

Vijay TV?s acquisition is apparently part of Star?s long-term plans to enter the regional broadcasting market. Mukerjea has at one time been quoted as saying that "expansion in the South through Vijay TV was synergetic." Interestingly, at a press conference called at the end of June to celebrate a year of Star Plus becoming a completely 24-hour Hindi channel on 3 July, Mukerjea was quite categorical that a southern foray was not on the agenda at present.

If the deal does go through as expected, it could well make things difficult for rival Zee which has announced the takeover of Asianet Bharati as well as Asianet Kaveri ahead of renaming the channels Alpha Tamil and Alpha Kannada as the southern language additions to its Alpha regional bouquet.

In Tamil Nadu, the pecking order in the channel stakes is Sun TV (way ahead), Raj TV, Vijay TV and Asianet Bharati. It is the fight for the No.2 spot that should prove interesting viewing in the coming months.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and Hong Kong pay-TV operator Cable TV have reached an agreement for non-exclusive distribution of ESPN and Star Sports channels in Hong Kong, a company release says.

With news of the agreement comes confirmation that the multiple-year contract will include broadcast rights for full soccer coverage of the English Premier League.

Announcing the conclusion of the contract with Cable TV, ESS managing director Rik Dovey said: "We‘re thrilled to have arrived at this agreement with Cable TV and to being back in the territory (Hong Kong). This agreement between ESS and Cable TV represents a renewed commitment and partnership, and together we look forward to bringing viewers in Hong Kong the best sports television including the English Premier League which kicks off in two weeks."

Dovey said that the agreement was timely as it ensured that viewers in Hong Kong did not miss out on the expanded coverage of the upcoming EPL season, which includes a record five live matches a week on ESPN and Star Sports. Live broadcast of these matches will not be seen on local free-to-air terrestrial television.

On 15 August, ESS will also launch its new encrypted South-East Asia feed for Star Sports. The feed, which is based on viewing habits and preferences of viewers from this region, is customised in both programming and presentation to deliver sports popular with Hong Kong audiences.

Business news network CNBC Asia has incorporated cellular phone short message service (SMS) into its programming. Viewers can now send questions and comments to analysts, market watchers, corporate personalities, and CNBC anchors directly via SMS and get the responses live on air.
The network says this will allow it to become more interactive with and accessible to viewers across the region, as well as gain valuable viewer feedback.

Queried whether the service would also be incorporated in CNBC India, CEO Haresh Chawla said there were no immediate plans in that direction. "We will be studying the response to CNBC Asia‘s service before taking a call on that," Chawla said.

CNBC India is a joint venture between Television Eighteen India Limited (TV18) and CNBC Asia. Raghav Bahl is the promoter of TV18 and holds 49 per cent stake in CNBC India. CNBC Asia holds a majority 51 per cent stake.

The Broadcast Worldwide-promoted Tara regional channel bouquet has recently launched a collection of Hindi and Punjabi songs in partnership with Milestone Entertainment. The audio cassette has been titled Tara Rum Pum clearly indicating its Tara Punjabi lineage. The broadcaster intends to further release these cassettes in all the regional languages it is aired in. "This new exercise is targeted at increasing awareness of the channel," says a source in Broadcast Worldwide.

For a long time the company‘s survival has been speculated about, and one regularly has heard the buzz of a complete sellout, courtesy the tough times it has been passing through. But the management, led by promoter (and former Star TV India chairman) R. Basu, has managed to stay afloat.

In the current exercise he has halved the staff - especially the production team - strength to 200. And he is using the $800,000 worth of investment Broadcast Worldwide attracted from Mauritian company Crombie International to revive its flagging Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati channels and increase subscriber awareness.

Four new shows are being introduced on Tara Bangla. Among them: an intercollegiate quiz hosted by Barry O‘Brien (brother of quiz master Derek), and a half hour women‘s show Sukanaya, Both will be introduced in September.

Tara Marathi is being revamped with a new offering beginning 22 August called Snowcem Tara Ganesh Utsav. A panel of judges will be visiting selected community worship halls and homes with Ganesh pandals in Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad and Nasik. In Mumbai there will be five awards for the best Ganesh home and sarvajanik puja pandals, while the outstation ones will be given two prizes.

The entire activity will be broadcast in half hour slots on Tara Marathi from 30 August backed by on air and offline advertising .Simultaneously Tara Marathi will be launching a music cassette called Snowcem Tara Ganesh Utsav, which will comprise of songs sung by famous artistes, including Marathi singer Suresh Wadkar. Approximately 7,000 of these cassettes will be distributed free.

Around October, the second half phase of revival will be undertaken. Tara Punjabi and Tara Gujarati will be similarly revamped.

Broadcast Wordwide director business development Pradipto Sircar says that channels drive to generate classified advertising is working out fine, thank you. Rates are being hiked on Tara Marathi (from Rs 300 to RS 400) and on Bangla (RS 400 to RS 500) for a thirty second still ad. "This exercise of broadcasting classified ads is mainly to utilise the unique localised strengths of the channels. It is quite an unique concept for channels and is highly cost effective," he says.