Friday, September 4, 2009

Trai extends time for stakeholders to provide financial details

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked all stakeholders - broadcasters, aggregators (that is, authorised distributors of the broadcasters), DTH operators, multi-system operators, cable operators and consumer advocacy groups – to submit their financial structure and operational details by 22 September. The latest revision in dates has been taken keeping in view the request by several stakeholders that the information has to be collated and would take time. Trai had initially asked the stakeholders to submit their details by 17 August, which it later extended to 31 August.

The Supreme Court had, in its order dated 13 May, directed the sector regulator to consider the matter relating to tariff for cable TV services in non-Cas areas regarding all aspects. Trai had, thereafter, decided to study the matter anew and sought the information to obtain a realistic understanding of the operation of various stakeholders, for which it prepared the formats for collecting information. Trai has drawn the attention of all the stakeholders to the court’s order of 13 May, passed in Civil Appeal No. 829-833 of 2009, wherein the court directed all parties to cooperate with the sector regulator so as to enable it to carry out the exercise. The Tdsat, in its order dated 15 January, had said non-cooperation in the exercise, including non-furnishing of information, will be viewed as violation of the said order.

-Indiantelevision

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Sandra's elimination..

Sandra was everywhere in Vijay TV and now its one feather out of her cap.. she was eliminated last to last week in Anu alavum bayam illai show. She was doing well in all the rounds in the competition and it looked like she would make it to finals in the competition. But, sadly last week due to her health issues she was eliminated. She was taken to hospital and she did not come back to complete her task.

This round was in the middle of fire and all the contestants were really trying hard to get to next round. Sandra when performing the task got fainted and fell down.. later she became unconscious and rushed to hospital. Since she could not complete her task she was eliminated in that round from the competition. I thought Vijay TV would give her a chance to come back but I dont think that would happen. This kind of elimination should nto happen unless the contestant is not able to complete her task or not willing to complete her task...

Its Daughter Vs Father..

This could be a real challenge !!! Its father vs his daughter in Boys Vs Girls Season 2 this week in the show. Yeah, Nethran who is in Boys team and his daughter Abhinaya in the girls team are being challenged. This challenge is with the classical dance and looks like its a good competition. From the promotional video it looks like both of them are okay with whomever wins the challenge.

When asked Nethran's wife, she says both of them are like 1 eye for her and if one eye is asked to be chosen its really difficult. So, she says she cant choose one amongst them. Nice reply !!! Lets see whom the judges select and who wins the challenge. This win will matter for the boys or the girls team but it doesnt matter for the Nethran's family.. its ultimately they are winning this round.

Whats up with Folk Round ??

This week in Airtel SUper Singer Junior 2 its the next level of auditions for the waitlisted kids.. they will be singing folk songs in this round and if they get spot selected, Vijay TV does the same what was done for last week's spot selected kids. Yeah, they give them graudation with medal and certificate. This week being folk round, all the contestants, judges and DD are in traditional dresses.

The show itself had turned as if its been shooted in a village. There are dancers who perform karagattam, mayilattam, poi kal guthirai and few more.. and they also have 50 rupee note as garland. once the contestant is selected for next round, it is being put on to the kid. sadly untill sterday it was only 1 contestant who got spot selected inthis round. DD has been doing a very good job and she was also dancing for a while for the music. I a not sure whats there in the next round and whether the selected kids will meet the main judges or what.. let me update u guys tomorrow with more information.

This round of the show has the family judges ;) (in SS term).. Mahathi, Shalini and Unni Menon are back in the show to judge the performances of the kids.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Reliance Big Broadcasting to launch 33 news channels

There finally seems to be some action at Reliance ADAG's broadcast stable, Reliance Big Broadcasting (RBB). Although Big officials are tight-lipped about the venture, sources close to the company say several channels will see the light of the day very soon. RBB has applied to the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry for a licence to operate 33 news channels, the highest for any single broadcaster so far. It has already got the downlink licence for 18 non-news channels under the brand name 'Big'.

Once it gets the necessary approvals, RBB would own over 50 television channels, the highest among all the existing broadcasters. The Zee Group, Star India and Eenadu groups own less than 25 channels in their bouquet. I&B Ministry officials say that of the 100 pending applications for news channels from 46 different firms, 33 are from RBB stable. And of the 33 applications, 29 are for regional news, each for its respective state of India. Sources say that RBB will begin operations of its business news channels (Big News Business English and Hindi) in first quarter of 2010-2011. Among others, RBB has applied for news channels like Big News Business English, Big News Business Hindi, Big News Crime, Big News Urdu, Big News Sports and regional channels Big News Gujarati, Big News Marathi, Big News Punjabi, Big News Telugu, Big News Tamil, Big News Kannada, Big News Malayalam, among others.

Overall, there are about 480 television channels allowed to operate in the country, of which 233 are news channels. Of the latter, 207 are uplinked from within the country. Currently, the news channels generate around Rs 1,000 crore of revenues from on-air advertising, with a roughly equal share of Hindi and English. Others who have also applied for a licence to operate news channels include TV18 India (CNBC TV18-South, CNBC TV18-Gujarati, CNBC TV18-Channel-3), Zee News Ltd. (Zee Biz, Zee Bangla USA, Zee Telugu, USA), Triveni Media (TML Voice of India-NCR, Voice of India-Gujarati, Voice of India-Punjab, Voice of India-Amchi Mumbai), Sahara India (Sahara Marathi, Sahara Bengali, Sahara Bhojpuri, Sahara Gujarati, Sahara English) and INX News (Delhi 011, Mumbai 022, Kolkata 033, Bengaluru 080), among others.

-Televisionpoint

Sathyam Cinemas to unveil 8-screen multiplex in Chennai

Sathyam Cinemas is to launch its new eight-screen multiplex at one of the Chennai’s upcoming malls Express Avenue. Announcing the tie-up today, Mr Kim Culley, Chief Operating Officer, Express Avenue, said the mall will also house an array of luxury and premium brands. The over 12-lakh sq. ft complex will have a total of nine lakh sq. ft retail space, two-lakh sq. ft office space and a 60-70 room hotel at a built-up area of over one lakh sq. ft.

The promoter of the project, Express Infrastructure, has invested close to Rs 400 crore in the project, “funded through internal accruals and debt”. The “destination mall” will also feature a 40,000-sq. ft theme-based food court, parking facility for 1,700 cars, 14 lifts, eight escalators and a travelator. According to people in the know, a Future Group’s retail brand will run a hyper market. Marks & Spencer and Dubai-based Landmark group’s LifeStyle will also be anchor stores. Sources also said the lease rental is fixed at Rs 200 a sq. ft, and the mall will be maintained by the company itself. Sathyam Cinemas currently operates one multiplex in Chennai. It has annual admissions of more than three million customers in its six screens.

- Business Standard

Madras HC issues notice to I&B Ministry

The Madras High Court (HC) has issued notices to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Prasar Bharati and the Central Board of Film Certification on the issue of transmission of obscenity, violence, vulgar telecasts and exhibition of indecent dramas, serials, dances and advertisements by private channels. Hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Rev Father Pancras M Raja along with three others, the first bench of chief justice HL Gokhale and justice D Murugesan, have asked the parties to file the responses by 5 October.

In the PIL, the petitioners have sought order to restrain repeated telecast of events which terrified viewers. These include the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and the 19 February police-advocates clash in the Madras High Court premises. According to the petitioners, youth and children were being exposed to 'mind pollution' by the TV programmes and advertisements telecast by the satellite cable TV networks. Contending that mind pollution was worse than all other types of pollution, the petitioners claimed that psychologists all over the world have been cautioning that exposure to media violence and sex had a damaging impact on children, minors and youth.

-Indiantelevision

Tamil Pechu Engal Moochu, 30th August, 2009

Tamil Pechu Engal Moochu, 30-08-2009

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Ajeesh sings for Goa..




According to sources, ‘Goa’ will be a Desi version of ‘American Pie’- an enthralling comedy entertainer. The film has Jai, Vaibhav, Premgi, Aravind and Sneha in lead roles, while Sampath performs a prominent role. As Sneha herself admits, she plays a kind of negative role in this film.

The music album of ‘Goa’ will have 7 tracks, with a song crooned by the winner of Airtel Super Singer on Vijay TV. Apart from scoring music, Yuvan Shankar Raja himself appears for a song and shakes a leg with hot models across sun-kissed beaches of Goa.

As this film happens to be the first production of Soundarya, she seems to have plans of releasing it on her dad Rajnikanth’s birthday, which falls on December 12.

I am eagerly waiting to listen Ajeesh's voice in film..

Hathway Cable & Datacom plans public float

The year 2009 could be historic for Indian cable TV companies as they plan to tap the capital market to fund their expansion into digitisation, move into corporate accountability, and create a wide pool of professional executives. After Digital Entertainment Networks (DEN), it is Hathway Cable & Datacom that is readying for an initial public offering (IPO). The leading multi-system operator (MSO) in terms of revenue is firming up details as it requires funding to seed more digital set-top boxes (STBs) and expand its broadband business.

Hathway Cable & Datacom, industry sources say, is looking at a public float to raise around Rs 2.5 billion. "The MSO has already raised money from private equity and would not be requiring a larger sized IPO. It also wouldn't like to dilute too much," sources add. Promoter Rajan Raheja owns around 58 per cent in Hathway Cable & Datacom while Star Group has 22 per cent and ChrysCapital 14 per cent. The regulation in India requires cable TV companies to cap their foreign holdings at 49 per cent. "The flexibility of diluting too much could also be constrained by the high presence of foreign holding in the company," a source says.

Hathway was also toying with the idea of merging Asianet Satellite Communications, the largest MSO in Kerala privately held by Raheja, with itself. After valuing Asianet and fixing the share-swap ratio, the consolidated entity would then have gone for a public float. Another option being explored is a listing through the reverse merger route. This was to be followed by a QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement) to raise funds. "The Hathway-Asianet merger is most likely not happening. And it looks almost certain that Hathway would go the IPO route," the source says.

The Hathway Cable & Datacom board is scheduled to meet in September. Hathway will watch DEN's IPO and take a decisive call. The size of the IPO would also depend on market conditions and the valuation that Hathway gets," the source says. DEN, the MSO jointly floated by IBN18 joint MD Sameer Manchanda and Network18 founder-promoter Raghav Bahl, is planning to raise $100 million through an IPO. Hathway has made several acquisitions over the last one year including two mid-sized cable TV companies, Bhaskar Multinet Ltd (the cable TV arm of Dainik Bhaskar Group) and Gujarat Telelinks.

-Indiantelevision

India has two big cable companies, Wire & Wireless (India) Ltd and IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (housed under Hinduja Ventures Ltd), that are listed on the bourses.

Mukesh's last fight..

Playback singer Mukesh had entry into Vijay TV's Paatu paadava with a bang and he continued to bang in the show for long time.. infact he came into the last round of the show which could win him 5,00,000 rs.. same as playback singer Satyan. Unfortunately he lost in the final round when he missed it out by 2 letters.. I was very sad after his lose..I was expecting him to win the show.. he was very confident. Mukesh is one singer whom I really started liking in recent days.. he is very simple and does not resemble to be a playback singer. I think we will start seeing him more in the channel in days to come..

Another playback singer Roshini, who came in the channel earlier with Isai kudumbam also participated in Paatu paadava this week..but she could not cross the third round.. she took home 20,000 rs as prize money. Show being hosted by playback singer Anuradha Sriram does not really make the contestant to be confident.. is it she who confuses the participants by giving some advices.. I am not sure whether she is asked to do this way..

4th Bhakti Thiruvizha..

Vijay TV proudly presents its 4th Bhakti thiruvizha from tomorrow.. the show will be telecasted at morning 5.30 AM and evening 6.00 AM. promotional videos for the show had started few days back and its time for the bhakti thiruvizha to start. I think Vijay TV is the only tamil regional channel to provide this kind of spiritual programs and I am sure this attracts lots of audiance..especially house wives, grand parents.. I dont regularly watch Bhakti Thiruvizha or any other spiritual show but whenever I am free and these shows come up I watch them.. they are not so boring at all.. usually most of the spiritual talk shows tend to be boring or frightning but this is one exceptional..

Back to family judges..

Remember in Airtel Super Singer 2008 they had a term family judges for Sujatha, Unnikrishnan and Sreenivas.. now in Airtel Super Singer Junior 2 it might be the term used for playback singers Unnimenon, Mahathi and Shalini.. after a week of break all the 3 judges are back together in teh show to judge the performances of the kids in the folk round.. after last week's few kid's double promotion, this week wil have few numbers down for the competition.

From the promotional video it looks like the kids wear traditional dresses and the stage is resembled as village.. there was also times where the judges dance.. I was shocked to see Unnimenon dancing.. first time I am seeing him dancing..

VJs samayal..




It was VJs cooking on day before in Samayal samayal kitchen killadigal.. Charming Sun Music VJ Mahalakshmi came to the show with her mother Subi and another VJ Kajal (who appears in films these days.. remember galath kaam math kar with vivek) came with her friend karthika to teh show.. this week had 2 new contestants last week being actor Shiva winning the dream kitchen..

Special ingredient for the day was anything with Banana tree.. from Banana fruit to vazhai thandu.. vazhai poo or anything they wish like.. both the teams prepared a fruit sweet dish and another dish in combination of chicken.. it was Mahalakshmi to win this round of the competition..she goes to next roudn with her mother and lets see she is able to get into final round..

Pooja Eliminated..




Its kutty Pooja who got eliminated from Anu alavum bayam illai show this week.. it was really a very difficult round and that too for both the Poojas it was.. since they attempted the competition first and second..atleast others got a chance to learn from their mistakes.. VJ Pooja had been very active and completing her task very well but this time she was the first contestant and she took quite a long time to complete her task. I first thought it would be either kutty Pooja or Aarthi to get eliminated since they both are not so fit physically. But, to my surprise Aarthi went to next round with ease.. she did not had much of problems..

Last week it was Sandra who got eliminated from the competition.. it was very sad that Sandra was out. I did not post about it.. Sandra has been doing very well in here and last week where the task was to go with the fire and get keys and flag. Sandra when jumping from a height wall got fainted n became unconscious.. she was then taken to hospital. Since she didnt complete her task she was eliminated.
 
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