United Television is getting ambitious these days. And How. The content provider is looking at multi dimensional fields like Internet, entertainment & production of TV series as well as movies to spread its tentacles.

As far as alliances are concerned, UTV said that it would retain Star TV as their strategic investors. According to a report in the Business Standard the company is looking at a wide range of activities that the broadcaster and UTV could do together.

For starters, Star TV, which holds a stake of 12% in the company, would act as a delivery vehicle for its bouquet of channels for international viewing. This would involve packaging as well as distribution of the bouquet.

The similar arrangement has been worked out between the two where UTV will provide the content as well as packaging for Star‘s proposed education and health channels.

Apart from the this the two will also storm the movie market by producing movies for the big as well as small screen. The movies made will be shown on the small screen through the Star satellites. The distribution of these movies for the big screen would be done by UTV.

And this is just one of its alliances. The channel has allied with various other channels and Internet companies for providing content.

Zee Telefilms Limited (ZTL) has fixed up rates for their upcoming Direct-to-Operator (DTO) package which will be unveiled somewhere between 15 May, 2000 to 15 June, 2000.
For a seven channel package (Zee Movies, Zee English, Zee Movies, Alpha Marathi, Alpha Gujrathi, Alpha Punjabi and Alpha Bengali), ZTL has decided to charge Rs 11.50 per subscriber. However, Zee is offering different rates for various subscriber slabs.

For a subscriber base of under 500 cable homes, Zee will charge Rs 11.50 per subscriber. For 501-2500, 2501-10,000 and 10,001 homes onwards, the price will be reduced by 50 paise each.

Other packages are also fixed up for combination of different channels. Zee will charge Rs 11 for a four channel package of Zee English, Zee Movies, Zee Cinema and any Alpha channel. The package consisting of Zee Movies, Zee English and Zee Cinema will be priced at Rs 10 while Zee Cinema and any Alpha channel would be priced at Rs 8.00.

The individual pricing of the channels from the Zee bouquet is:
Zee Cinema at Rs 6, Zee Movies at Rs 5 and Zee English, Alpha Marathi, Alpha Gujrathi, Alpha Punjabi, Alpha Bengali at RS 4 each.

Zee TV, Zee News and Music Asia will, however, remain free-to-air.

The publishing major - The Indian Express Group has made a foray into television businesses. The finance daily, The Financial Express will soon enter into pact with the Raghav Bahl promoted business news channel CNBC India which is a joint venture between CNBC Asia and Raghav Bahl‘s TV-18.
They have entered into a content sharing agreement. The Financial Express (FE) will have access to CNBC India‘s news while the satellite channel will utilise FE‘s journalistic infrastructure facilities for CNBC India‘s television channel and its business portal www.rupeemaker.com.

In the meanwhile, the Indian Express Group has entered into an agreement with the Rathikant Basu promoted broadcasting company Broadcast Worldwide. The Indian Express will produce Marathi and Punjabi news and current affairs programmes for the ‘Tara‘ group of channels promoted by Broadcast Worldwide. Shekhar Gupta, CEO of The Indian Express Group signed a pact with Kishor Alhuwalia, the CEO Broadcast Worldwide Punjabi channel in Chandigarh.

The Indian Express will use its editorial expertise while Broadcast Worldwide will provide it with its technical and production expertise. A new show ‘The Indian Express on Air‘ will also be launched.

The Indian Express Group has entered into the broadcasting world with this pact. But what needs to be seen is will it be able make hold its ground in this media.

A television channel war will soon hit the southern Indian state of Kerla. The state marked by religious sentiments and a huge television viewing audience has attracted over six players wanting to eat the pie.
Apart from Doordarshan‘s service, Kalanithi Maran‘s Sun TV Network‘s Surya TV and Asianet catered to the Malayalam audience. Zee Telefilms Limited‘s acquisition of Asianet opened the eyes of many players who now all want to tap the niche market.

Recently, Malyalam Communications, formed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) announced its recruiting spree for their upcoming channel Malyalam TV. More in the line is the Muslim League.
The Communist Party wants to portray their ‘ideologies‘ over the television channel. A similar plan has been laid by the Muslim League.

The high number of Christians in the state has tempted a player to launch a Christian Channel which will focus on the Keralite Christian community situated in Kerala as well as in the Middle-East.

Will sentiments on which the political channels are banking, last for long? Do people want ideologies or infotainment? Do they want to know about religion and political agendas rather than entertainment?
Doubts will be raised over the survival of channels with not much deep pockets. Advertisers beware...