A day after Zee Network officials claimed to have advanced Rs 2200 million to several Ketan Parekh companies for acquiring shares of various media companies, the stock came under further pressure during opening trade on the stock exchanges.

The scrip was locked at eight per cent lower circuit at RS 110.10. The counter saw trade in 18,515 shares and there are pending sell orders for 2.709 million shares, according to indiabulls.com.

According to reports, the funds for Zee‘s transactions were borrowed from Global Trust Bank.

Meanwhile, Zee‘s claim that it made the advances to acquire 28.5 per cent in AB Corp (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation) and 15 per cent in B4U was strongly denied by both companies.

B4U CEO Ravi Gupta, speaking from his London office, rubbished the Zee claim while emphatically denying any transactions with Zee. AB Corp has also denied receiving any advances from Zee Network or its group companies for a stake in the company.

After five years with ESPN Star Sports, Simon Yu, ESPN STAR Sports‘ senior vice-president, affiliate sales, will be moving on to take on new and different challenges in his career.

In a mutual agreement with the company, Yu will not be renewing his contract come 30 June.

Yu joined ESPN Asia in 1993 before the company‘s joint venture with Star TV in 1996. Yu is one of three people who started the distribution of ESPN in Asia. After the joint venture of ESPN and Star Sports, Yu continued to oversee the distribution sales of both channel brands and syndication in Asia.

Turner International India has made it clear that it has no plans to pick up a stake in any Indian channel at this point in time.

Anshuman Mishra, managing director of Turner International India, made the assertion while responding to queries about rumours doing the rounds that his company was considering picking up a stake in the Hindi entertainment channel SABe TV promoted by the Adhikari brothers.

"We have no plans for investment in any channel in India," he emphatically stated on the sidelines of the ‘Eureka 2001‘ awards ceremony held in Mumbai yesterday. The function was organised by the Entrepreneurship Cell of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, in association with CNN and Avendus.

Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) has hired another CEO, adding to the clutch of chiefs who run the company. This time it is advertising agency Rediffusion DY&R president Sandeep Goyal who is going to be at the helm of its broadcasting operations.

Sandeep Goyal: From advertising to broadcasting

"We are happy that we have found in Sandeep the right mix of creativity and commercial acumen," says Zee TV chairman Subhash Chandra. "Despite him being young - just 38 years- Sandeep will be able to build on the strengths of the Zee Network which he is inheriting. He will be able to build stronger bonds with stakeholders (media buyers, viewers and the society) by providing them the infotainment they are looking for. We welcome him on the team."

Sandeep Goyal Picture courtesy Business Standard