ESPN Star Sports has acquired the Asian cable and satellite rights to the FIA Formula One World Championships for 2001-2005.

Rik Dovey, ESPN Star Sports managing director, says: ``F-1 knows we have the best distribution of any sports network in Asia and they appreciate the value we bring to their product through our superior production, expert commentary and pre and post-race support programming.‘‘

Formula One viewership on ESPN Star Sports has grown by nearly 10 per cent in the year 1999-2000 and the five-year deal represents the continuation of this, a company release states.

Formula One will be broadcast live on Star Sports Asia and Star Sports India each fortnight.

Viacom Incorporated, which has been toying with the idea of setting up operations in India to give its channels other than MTV a push, has left that job to its subsidiary MTV Networks Asia.

Viacom, which has MTV, children‘s channel Nickelodeon, Nick at Night (for older kids), VH1 and Black Entertainment Television under its umbrella in the US, has left it to MTV Networks Asia to handle all operations related to its channels.

The first on the agenda is Nickelodeon, which has been struggling to gain a toehold in the Indian market. We will probably see VH1 also making its entry sometime in the middle of the year.

Nickelodeon, for which a major thrust is planned over the coming months, will be handled by MTV India in tandem with Zee Telefilms. MTV and Zee have set aside their differences over how the channel is to be marketed and pushed through and the results will become evident in the next couple of months, Sanjeev Hiremath, MTV‘s distribution head, says.

Nickeledeon is being sold in India as part of Zee‘s Direct to operator (DTO) package and and the distribution of set boxes are going on at a brisk pace, Hiremath said. "However, ad sales will be handled by our team," he pointed out.

"MTV is looking after the other South Asian markets like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal," Hiremath said.

Sainath Aiyar, head corporate communications Zee Telefilms, said Nickelodeon was getting preferred carriage on Siticable (part of the Zee group) and was airing on the Zee TV channel twice a day which was already increasing its visibility. Nickelodeon appears in the 8:30 am to 9:30 am morning slot and the 4:30 to 5:30 pm evening slot.

Aiyar, however, admitted that the programmes, which replaced Disney Hour in same slots, didn‘t have the kind of viewer recognition that the Disney programmes enjoyed. "It will still be a while before Nickelodeon establishes itself," Aiyar said.

In a reflection of the deep divisions among cable operators and control room owners, a call for a shutdown in Mumbai to protest against the ongoing drive in the western state of Maharashtra to collect entertainment tax arrears was largely ignored in the city.

The call was given by the newly formed Union of Cable Operators and Cable Room Owners (UCOCRO), after a marathon meeting on Tuesday.

The attempt of UCOCRO to bring cable operators under one umbrella has clearly failed and few operators seem to buy the argument that the way to protest against the recent directive from the government to get tough on defaulting operators is through a united shutdown.

The matter has been hanging fire for over six months following the doubling of entertainment tax per connection per month from Rs 15 to RS 30 in municipal areas and from RS 10 to RS 20 in other parts of the state. It may be recalled that operators went on strike over the issue in August 2000 after which a committee representing operators, the government and consumers was set up to resolve the issue.

The fractious nature of cable industry can be seen from the email sent to us by a leading Mumbai cable operator in response to the report on the strike call posted on Tuesday:

"Do not put false and stupid statements about the cable TV industry, [total band(h) in Maharashtra]. If Atul Sharaf says there will be no transmission in Maharashtra, can he shut off his own network? Leave the whole maharashtra, and you unnecessarily put (out) a false statement.

"Just because of the few people who want to be leaders they do all this nonsense. Any sensible businessmen will not go for it. If the government imposes taxes it has to pass it on to (the) subscriber. Band(h) is not the solution. As it is operators are not paying 100 per cent tax of their subscriber but on the increase they can increase on their total subscriber base.

"You said there will be total band(h) on Tuesday midnight. All wrong and bullshit."