HTA, Chennai bags Ad Club, Madras Awards honours in close finish
India's largest ad agency Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA) is in the limelight, down south.
Based in the UAE but built specifically for India. Launching 1 April is Taj Entertainment Network (Ten) Sports, a channel that has the subcontinent as its target of coverage. Announcing this today, television services and content provider Taj Television Ltd CEO Chris McDonald said the channel, the brainchild of the man who made Sharjah cricket what it is today - Abdulrahman Bukhatir - would reach audiences in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives to begin with. The channel is being unveiled just ahead of the start of the next tri-nation Sharjah cricket tourney involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand that kicks off on 8 April. DISTRIBUTION UNDER MODI GROUP-PROMOTED FIRM: Distributing Ten Sports in India is HMA Udyog Ltd. McDonald admitted that one of the promoters of HMA Udyog is a Modi Group company. The industry grapevine has said that the Modis had won the right to be the distribution platform for Ten Sports ahead of the Zee Network and Sony Entertainment. Ten Sport‘s cricket programme line up includes The Sharjah Cup, Cricket Triangulars from Morocco, Classic India and Sharjah Cricket, The Sharjah Champions Trophy, Australia‘s tour of Zimbabwe in April/May as well as all international cricket from Sri Lanka. Taj picked up the Sri Lanka cricket rights for a guarantee fee of $13.9 million. The rights, which were earlier with World Sports Group-Nimbus (WSG-Nimbus), reportedly runs till 2003 (the period for which WSG Nimbus had the rights when it originally signed a three-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka in 2000). Ten Sports will also broadcast other popular sporting events like the World Wrestling Federation, The English FA Cup, Manchester United FootbaIl, the WTA - the best of women‘s tennis from all over the world, the ATP Dubai Tennis Open, The Ryder Cup, Champions Trophy Hockey and Champions Challenge Hockey, an official release states. The channel has signed up two well-known names from the world of entertainment & sports in Raageshwari and former test cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar as channel ambassadors. While Manjrekar will be hosting regular sports shows, Raageshwari gets behind the personal side of sporting personalities on One on One With Raageshwari. Taj Television operates out of a 55,000 square-feet state-of-the-art facility at Dubai Media City. It will beam off the Panamsat 10 satellite initially as a digital free-to-air channel but will be going pay at a date that is still to be decided, McDonald says. Commenting on the programming that Ten Sports was offering, Peter Hutton, vice-president, programming and events, said Ten Sports started with an immediate advantage in that it held the broadcast rights to four cricket tourneys in virtual perpetuity - two Sharjah tourneys as well as a new offshore cricket venue in Morocco, which will showcase its first tournament in August. Outside of cricket, one sporting property that is exclusive to Ten Sports is WWF events. Ten Sports will be showcasing eight hours of WWF programming every week and plans to push this in a big way, Hutton says. CHANNEL COORDINATES |
BBC World does not plan to be content with a barrage of India specific programmes this summer, it would seem.
The channel has announced a range of fresh weekend programming, split into three seasons for the coming three months targeted at the avid traveller and aviation aficionado.
April on BBC will be heralded with Voyager, in which various intrepid travellers follow in the footsteps of famous men before them in the legendary journeys they undertook. Michael Palin will trace the road taken by Ernest Hemingway through many exotic locations the author visited and wrote about in his novels, in the first episode, to be aired at 2.40 pm, Saturdays. Among others, archeologist Michael Wood takes a unique expedition from Greece to India, tracking the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, in June.
Frontiers in Flight also takes off this April on BBC World, with a focus on the evolution of modern day aviation, renowned fighter pilots who served in the two World Wars and historic flights that changed the face of the field. The shows will air at 7:40 pm Saturdays with repeat telecasts on Sundays.
The Women at the Top season on the channel is being programmed to coincide with the 2002 Business Woman of the Year award in June and will train the spotlight on women who have advanced to the pinnacle in their chosen fields. It includes a three part series Boss Women featuring some of the best women achievers the world has seen in recent times, to air Saturdays 7:40 pm. This season will be complemented with women specific Hardtalk Specials and World Business Report which will highlight contributions from women in business.
For those with a yen for wheels, lifestyle programme Top Gear takes off this summer on the channel on Thursday evenings. The Car‘s the Star and Clarkson‘s Car Years are the episodes that target the car lover with a critique on the state of the global car industry as well as a look at modern models.
Among its other programming initiatives are The Future Just Happened, a four part series on how the Internet and the new economy are forming the backbone of a new social order that revolves around high technology. Designing Our Lives, another four part series this summer, takes a look at how people are being compelled to improve their tools and surroundings to fit changing needs and wants. The channel‘s flagship science documentary series, Horizon, continues with an in-depth look at the lost city of Atlantis, in mid-April.
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