ESPN Star Sports (ESS) will be launching a dedicated Southeast Asia feed for Star Sports from August. The feed, which is based on viewing habits and preferences of viewers from the region, is customised in both programming and presentation to deliver sports popular with Singaporean audiences, a company release states.

This includes the best of European football (English Premier League, UEFA Champions‘ League, Serie A and Spanish Liga), Formula One motor racing, golf and tennis. ESS will also launch SportsCenter, the region‘s only live daily sports news service, the release says.

The news came in the wake of an announcement that ESS and Singapore Cable Vision (SCV), its Singapore pay TV partner, have reached an agreement to renew the carriage of ESPN and STAR Sports channels in Singapore. The contract will run for five years, effective 1 July.

It has also been confirmed that the English Premier League (EPL) will be available in Singapore on only ESPN and Star Sports channels 23 and 24 on SCV MaxTV. (In February this year, ESS won the exclusive Asian broadcast rights for the Premier League.)

Announcing the conclusion of the broadcast contract with SCV, ESS managing director Rik Dovey said: "This multi-year agreement between SCV and ESPN Star Sports signifies two things - commitment and confidence. Both companies are committed to bringing viewers in Singapore the best sports television sporting action and, working closely together, both companies are confident of further developing the pay TV market in Singapore."

Dovey added that ESS‘ English Premier League programming, together with the company‘s UEFA Champions‘ League, Spanish Primera Liga, Chinese National Football League, Korean Football League, major Asian internationals and the Italian Serie A coverage, "completes what is the strongest football programming line-up of any sports broadcaster in the world."

The board of directors of ETC Networks Limited will meet on Tuesday, July 31, 2001 to consider, inter alia, un-audited financial results for the first quarter of the financial year, 2001-2002, a company release states.

ETC Networks Limited runs two channels - etc and etc Channel Punjabi - and the company has registered a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 24.3 million on a turnover of RS 538.2 million for the year ended 31 March 2001.

etc is a music based entertainment channel with music dominating 85 per cent of the programming content and is beamed from Thaicom-3 and is a free to air analog / digital channel.

etc Channel Punjabi is a Punjabi family entertainment channel compromising of serials, religious programmes, music and feature films. It is a free to air channel and is available through digital transmission signals beamed from Thaicom-3.

Besides having a very wide presence in Punjab, it has enabled etc Channel Punjabi to penetrate deeper into rest of the country and other international markets, the release adds.

Animation major Pentamedia Graphics has announced positive results for the quarter ended 30 June 2001. The company posted a 38 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 417.2 million compared to RS 308.3 million the previous year, an official release states. Sales increased to RS 1580.9 million from RS 1144.9 million in June 2000.

The growth in turnover, operating profit and profit after tax is 38 per cent, 54 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, the release states. Revenue contributed by animation, special effects, web entertainment and other multimedia services were 55 per cent, 15 per cent, 10 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

The company is planning to launch a new children‘s entertainment television channel "Splash" on the Asiasat satellite. Pentamedia subsidiary Intelivision Ltd is responsible for the channel launch and is looking at an investment of about RS 120 million with revenues of RS 140 million from advertising and other rights in the first year.

Intelivision has secured permission from the information and broadcasting ministry for uplinking the channel through VSNL (the government-owned internet gateway provider). A teleport at Kelambakkam in Chennai is envisaged in the near future.

Test transmission is scheduled to begin by 1 August via ST teleport, Singapore. Intelivision has decided to uplink through Singapore as it is cheaper. Once the teleport at Kelambakkam becomes operational, the uplink service will be shifted to Chennai. The programme grid for the initial two months of on air presentation has been finalised, the release says.

The future projects of Intelivision include a bouquet of Indian satellite channels to be broadcast through KU Band from an Indian platform to ethnic Indian populations in US, Europe, Middle East and South Africa.

PENTAMEDIA, FILM ROMAN REACH SETTLEMENT: On 9 July, Pentamedia and Film Roman closed the chapter on what has been a PR disaster for the media major. The $15 million buyout plan for 60 per cent stock in Film Roman never materialised and after a number of modifications Pentamedia called off the whole thing. A settlement agreement was reached where Pentamedia paid Film Roman $350,000 to release it from all possible liabilities arising out of Pentamedia‘s failure to keep to the schedule of payment.

And at a meeting held on 13 July the company board approved the allotment of 12.7 million Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) at the rate of $1.50 per GDR for cash to investors as advised by Investment Banking Division of Amas Bank, Geneva. The allotments raised $19.05 million and diluted the firm‘s equity by 2.3 per cent. The listing agents for the GDRs are M/S. Deutsche Bank Luxemburg SA and the legal Counsel is M/S Jones Day, London. These GDRs along with the existing GDRs of Pentamedia Graphics Ltd, will be traded at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.