If you have had no problems keeping track of 21 members of the Virani family, try dealing with 32 as India‘s Numero Uno Hindi family drama Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi fast forwards 20 years into the future from next week.

Star Plus, that has been riding high on the TRP charts thanks to the Balaji soap for the last one and half years, is now making efforts to ensure that viewers stay glued and devoted to the next generation of Viranis as well. A new marketing initiative in the form of a mock remote control, with details of the new avatar KSBKBT, coupled with the extended Virani family tree, has been doing the rounds of local media.

The channel will telecast a wrap up of the serial thus far on a special episode this Saturday at 8:30 pm. From next Monday, Mihir, to the sorrow of his fans, will be out of the serial. Get ready for a gracefully aging Tulsi, and the numerous progeny of the rest of the third generation Viranis, as the serial zooms into 2022. The rest of the present cast is unchanged. The new entrants in the cast include Ritu Chaudhary, Mehul Kajaria, Mausami Mewawalla, Hansika Motwani, Sandeep Baswana and others.

The injection of innovation into KSBKBT has in all probability been inspired by the plateau that the serial had struck in its storyline recently. Earlier this week, a member of the first generation, Goverdhan Virani, breathed his last on the serial, paving the way for a change in the plot.

First Toon Cricket, and now toon merchandising. Cartoon Network is determined to cash in on its popularity in the subcontinent by creating brands out of its characters.

Warner Brothers has tied up with Gotham Entertainment Group to produce comic books featuring Cartoon Network‘s popular cartoon stars. Dexter, Johny Bravo, the Powerpuff Girls, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones and The Jetsons will now speak in local languages in comic, colouring and storybooks for kids via a licensing agreement between Warner Brothers consumer products worldwide publishing and Gotham Entertainment Group in India. Needless to say, Cartoon Network denizens will now assail kids not only on TV, but also on the streets, at school and in their rooms.

All the books in the series will first be published in English, with plans to publish in Indian languages including Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu before the year is out.

The 36-page comics will be brought out every month and will be made available nationwide at bookstores and newsstands for Rs 10 each. Gotham will also launch activity books, colouring books, stickers and game books featuring the Cartoon Network characters. The books in the series will help develop memory, reading and spelling skills, and an opportunity to learn scientific experiments using simple household items.

BBC World says it has registered a 16 per cent growth in its reach over last year‘s figures following a series of distribution agreements worldwide.

The 24-hour international news and information channel is now available in over 200 million homes, a company release states. The demand for the channel has grown in the past few months, particularly in the US, according to BBC world Sales & Distribution director Jeff Hazell. "This time last year we were in 173 million households worldwide and now we can boast over 200 million, 90 million of which receive the channel 24 hours a day," he claims.

In January 2002, BBC World entered into new agreements with PBS networks in the US, enabling the channel to assert its presence in 80 per cent (nearly 80 million) of US public service TV households. The channel already has an agreement with US public television provider, WLIW and other networks in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. According to the BBC, WLIW New York is the fourth most watched public television station in the US reaching a weekly cumulative audience of nearly two million households in the New York metropolitan area.