MTV Asia announced today that the inaugural MTV Asia Awards (MAA) will be held in Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 2 February, 2002. The first pan-regional event of its kind in Asia, the MTV Asia Awards will be hosted by Mandy Moore amongst others, bringing together the largest gathering of international and local talent ever seen in Asia.

Filmed before a live audience of 7000 people, the show will be broadcast to over 130 million homes across the region, and promoted on MTV Asia‘s web-site, according to a company release. Portions of the programming will be carried on MTV channels worldwide, reaching more than a billion viewers across 140 countries. The MTV Asia Awards will be sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors and Panasonic.

Bringing recognition to the many leading talents of youth culture, MTV Asia will present 19 different awards during the show, including 10 favourite music artist awards from Asia, six international music category awards, one fashion category award, one film category award and one inspiration award. MTV viewers in all across Asia will be able to participate in the voting process.

The three-hour event will be broadcast across Asia on 2 February, 2002. Pre-event and post-event shows will frame the ceremony, giving viewers a backstage view of the event. All three shows will be broadcast on MTV Asia channels and terrestrial partners across Asia, with portions of the programming carried across MTV‘s global network, with 35 channels reaching more than 366 million households worldwide, the release says.

Frank Brown, president of MTV Asia, said: "Building on our expertise in world-class awards shows such as the Video Music Awards and Europe Music Awards, MTV has long had the vision to create the first pan-regional awards show for the youth audience in Asia. In the past few years, we have successfully created various local awards shows such as the CCTV-MTV Music Honors in China, MTV Philippines in the Philippines, MTV Penghargaan in Indonesia and MTV Mandarin Music Awards in Taiwan, paying tribute to the very best of local music and musicians. The time has come for a pan-Asia event celebrating music achievements, as well as the triumphs and trendsetters representing all aspects of youth culture across the region. The inaugural MTV Asia Awards will develop into an annual event that young people in the region will eagerly anticipate - a night of glamour and entertainment, MTV style - assembling the hottest talents from Asia and around the world."

To make the MTV Asia Awards truly reflective of the tastes of the Asian audience, the winners of all award categories, except for the inspiration award, will be voted by the viewers. Five nominees for each category will be announced and promoted on different MTV channels starting from 1 November, 2001, and the winners will be chosen through an open poll of viewers and fans in 10 countries. The inspiration award will be a special honor presented by MTV to either an inspiring individual whom young adults across Asia admire or to an organization that has contributed to the betterment of Asian youth and the region as a whole.

Mitsubishi Motors and Panasonic are the regional sponsors of the MTV Asia Awards, which will be promoted on air starting from 1 October, 2001 and continuing till show date on 2 February, 2002. The campaign will be supported by extensive off-air advertising, on-ground events and online promotions in the participating countries.

Says Masahisa Nimi, general manager, International Product Planning & Marketing Department, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation: "Asia is our strategic market, and we need to communicate with Asian youth and young-at-hearts in an exciting and dynamic way. Mitsubishi Motors achieved just that when it sponsored the MTV Europe Music Awards in the past, so we are well aware of MTV‘s supreme ability to communicate with youth via those attractive and breathtaking events. ...We look forward to sharing this historical moment with Asian youth by playing our part in this very first MTV Asia Awards."

Says Toshinobu Saito, director, Asia & Oceania Sales Office, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.: "Panasonic has been sponsoring the Olympic games and will sponsor the Formula 1, and we are equally excited to be a part of music history - the first and the largest Asian music award event...."

The predominantly music-based etc, quoting market research agency Intam figures, has claimed the top spot in the music channel stakes.

According to Intam figures for the week July 23, 2001 to July 29, 2001 (all India 4+ C&S homes) etc is the No.1 music channel with a reach of 4.9 per cent. The channel is followed by MTV 4.32 per cent, Zee Music 2.78 per cent, Channel [V] 2.55 per cent and B4U Music 1.84 per cent.

According to a company release, it is the channel‘s unique approach that has helped propel the channel to where it is. And that is to keep distractions from the song (or the singer as the case may be) to the minimum.

When the legendary Asha Bhonsle was featured it was she who presented her own story of 50 years. The programme was interwoven with many anecdotes and song clippings.

etc also prefers the golden oldies to the current crop of pop stars. The music of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh or Kishore Kumar have a far more enduring appeal, is the assumption.

The channel also has done away with video jockeys to have what it terms is a seamless flow to its music.

Now MTV and the other music channels may have something to say on that score.

A little over a month after media baron Subhash Chandra‘s Zee Telefilms Ltd, announced its promoters had placed 5 million shares with a U.S.-based institutional investor, another 2.5 million shares were offloaded yesterday with an FII.

Though Zee officials did not divulge the price, the placement will raise about Rs 270 million, according to merchant banking sources. The Financial Express, quoting market sources, said the deal was done on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at a price of Rs 106.50 per share, amounting to around Rs 266.2 million. The transaction represents about 0.6 per cent of ZTL‘s paid-up capital and further lowers the promoters‘ stake to around 58.3 per cent.

According to a company release, the proceeds from the placement will be paid back to ZTL upon settlement of the transaction. The group promoters had earlier borrowed Rs 2200 million from ZTL for the Essel group. They had announced that the entire amount would be returned by June 30. However, the Essel group has since then managed to pay back Rs 1100 million in two tranches. An initial payment of RS 600 million was paid and last month‘s transaction raised another RS 500 million. CIBC Oppenheimer was the investor in last month‘s deal and paid slightly less than Rs 100 a share for its stock holding.

AC Saha, president, corporate finance and strategy, Essel Group of companies, said: "Placement of these shares reinforces the promoters‘ commitment to fulfil their obligations, despite the share price of Zee Telefilms LTD not being very attractive at this stage.

The figure of RS 2200 million is what the Zee Network had reportedly advanced to Essel group investment companies, which was subsequently transferred to cornered bull Ketan Parekh‘s investment companies.

The announcement comes amidst a spurt in activity around the scrip over the last few days. The speculative activity is apparently linked to reports that Chandra may be willing to lower his personal stake to half the present equity which would effectively deprive him of management control of the company.

It‘s been a year and ten months since the Viacom-owned kid‘s channel Nickelodeon entered Indian air space but it might as not have come at all considering the kind of recognition levels it has achieved till date. In a fresh attempt to get it some viewer cachet, Nickelodeon will be launching a Hindi band of programming - "Nick Masala" - from 4 September.

Beginning the first Tuesday of September (the 4th) "Nick Masala" will be aired thrice a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the slotting is in the evening band from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM while on Sundays it will be in the noon band from 11 am to 1 PM Depending on how the new initiative is received, MTV India - which is directly responsible for pushing the channel in India (without disturbing the existing distribution arrangement with Zee that is) - will take a call on whether to increase Hindi programming.

How Nickelodeon is being distributed by the Zee-promoted Siticable has been a major sore point, with the pay TV service reportedly managing to get a cable TV penetration of less than 3-4 million, and a paying subscriber base less than one tenth of that.

Queried about what Zee was doing to improve things, Partha Sinha senior VP, marketing and communication said a promotional push which involved a host of on-ground activities - including direct-to-people contact efforts and other promotional spots - were in the pipeline to increase the visibility of the channel. Sinha said the rollout of these initiatives would take off by September-end.

DISNEY SHOWS ON FOUR ALPHA CHANNELS: Sinha confirmed that Zee had entered into a deal with Buena Vista (distributors of Disney programming in India) for airing dubbed Disney shows on four of Zee‘s Alpha regional channels - Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi. As for whether there were plans to bring Disney onto the other Alpha channels, Sinha replied in the negative.

When queried as to whether there wasn‘t cross-purpose activity going on when Disney shows were airing on Alpha channels while Zee was supposed to be promoting Nickelodeon, Sinha had this to say. He justified the move on the grounds that before Nickelodeon could be introduced onto the Alpha channels it would have to become more familiar to viewers. A chicken and egg scenario it would seem.

In the meantime, Nickelodeon still has a mountain to climb before it can turn from being a mere blip on the viewerscope to something more substantial.