Pubcaster Prasar Bharati‘s much tom-tommed call for pre-qualification bids for prime time slots on national broadcaster Doordarshan‘s Metro channel drew a blank according to reports, at the time of writing.

Industry sources however, say a bid has been put in for the 11:00 PM to 12:30 PM slot by the Delhi-based Moving Pictures Company (India) Ltd promoted by Ramesh Sharma, its chairman and managing director. The time band covers two slots - 11 PM to 12 midnight and 12 midnight to 12:30 am. The advantage for Moving Pictures is that here there is no floor price, unlike the other time slots from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM This bit of information could not be confirmed at the time of posting the report.

The pre-qualification bids, which were opened at 3:30 PM today, came up empty for the prime time band. This cold shouldering of the new DD tender offer has sent out a strong message that in these difficult times, with channels having enough hassles running their own operations, the headache of managing DD Metro and more so the mandarins behind it was just not worth the effort. It also makes virtually irrelevant tomorrow‘s opening of financial bids which are scheduled for 3:30 PM at Doordarshan Bhavan in Delhi.

The fact that HFCL Nine Broadcasting, which holds the rights for the prime time slot 7:00 to 10:00 PM on DD Metro till September did not put in a bid means that the HFCL-Kerry Packer promoted company has called DD‘s bluff. But a statement put out by Ravina Raj Kohli, CEO, HFCL Nine Broadcasting, still holds out hope that, at the end of the day, it will be Nine Broadcasting that finally ends up renewing its deal for the prime time slot on DD Metro.

And what of Zee Telefilms‘ "interest" in the 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM slot? Partha Sinha, senior vice-president marketing, who had been quoted on 10 June saying: ?We are positively disposed. I see no reason why Zee should not make an expression of interest in that channel,? was singing a a different tune today.

Sinha says that a detailed study of the whole thing in the interim led Zee to conclude that bidding for the slot was not a viable proposition. "And not just in financial terms, but looking at the bigger picture too," he adds.

Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea brushed off the matter in a single line response "Star did not not bid, and that‘s more than enough said on this issue," he says.

In a signed statement Nine Gold CEO Kohli had this to say:
"We at HFCL Nine Broadcasting are not surprised at the outcome of Doordarshan‘s call for fresh bids for time slots on DD Metro. Given the unrealistic terms and conditions proposed by DD, the bid for prime time on DD Metro looked commercially unviable.

"As stated earlier, HFCL Nine Broadcasting India LTD will be happy to initiate fresh talks with DD on the terms and conditions proposed earlier by us. These terms and conditions have been drafted based on our experience with DD Metro, and offer the best financial terms to DD without diluting the brand image of the national broadcaster.

"Having kept DD‘s best interests in mind for the past 10 months, we at HFCL Nine Broadcasting continue to believe that we are the best partners for DD Metro and look forward to continuing and strengthening our existing relationship."

With industry saying nyet to Prasar Bharati, it‘s now over to the pubcaster to make the next move.

Sharkstream.com, UTV Interactive‘s wholly owned subsidiary which offers broadband content for users in Singapore, has become a subscription service.

The service, priced at S$ 4.99 per month, features streaming programming in entertainment, drama, comedy and current affairs genres in Hindi and Tamil. Sharkstream also offers services in English, Malay and Mandarin which will remain free for the next two months, says Biren Ghose, CEO, UTV Interactive. Sharkstream was being launched with subscription driven services in only two languages so as to better understand the dynamics of high quality video acceptance over broadband in the East Asia region. After this the other language channels will also become subscription driven. Sharkstream was now the first paid broadband network in Asia, Ghose said.

The total broadband market in Singapore was roughly 200,000-strong Ghose said, and Sharkstream had a subscriber base of 45,000 to 50,000 (registered users using of the free service) making it the most-used broadband network. Ghose said he was expecting at least 5,000 to 10,000 subscribers to sign on in the beginning. They will be offered a menu card of five to seven content packages under different price heads, he added. The standard package is S$ 4.99 per month, S$11.99 for three months and S$23.99 annually.

Explaining why Singapore was an ideal location to offer broadband content, Ghose said in Asia, only South Korea was ahead in terms of being broadband-enabled.

Queried as to the minimum subscriber base required to cover operational costs, Ghose put the figure at 5,000. He pointed out that with this model having come into place, UTV Interactive could also offer its expertise to enable large content providers to set up their own platforms.

Zee TV has won three awards in the TV Programmes category at the 26th RAPA awards (Radio & TV Advertising Practitioners‘ Association of India) held on 8 June 2001 in Mumbai.

The awards were received by Zee TV vice-president marketing Partha Sinha who says: "These awards are especially important for Zee in this highly competetive environment as they reiterate the channel‘s efforts to offer the best to its audience. We are proud to get this recognition from an organisation which consists of some of the leading luminaries from the media and advertising fraternity."

The award winning Zee TV programmes in the various categories are:
Koshish-Ek Asha (the best Hindi soap opera,) which is the story of the valiant attempts of an Indian woman to fight powers, that are more powerful than her and emerge victorious.

Dastak (the best Hindi non-fiction programme) which seeks an insight into certain social issues that still fall in the category of social taboos like rape, child abuse, police brutality, AIDS, sale of human organs and so on. The show features a unique ‘dial-a-help‘ service for which the programme has tied up with NGO‘s like HelpAge India, Cry, Prayan and others.

Zee Talkies (the best Hindi film magazine) deals with current issues and happenings in the film and music world. The show features candid interviews with stars and other professionals in the show business.