SABe TV continues on its promise of providing ‘relief‘ to viewers with the launch on 25 February of a new sitcom Sajan Tu Jhoot Mat Bol.
The show is directed by Rajan Waghdhare and written by Ashok Patole, the same team that has given the well known SABe TV sitcoms Yes Boss and Sriman Srimati.

Also launching on 25 February are some new current affairs progranmmes which will lock in the 10 to 10:30 pm band five days a week. Karan Thapar hosts two shows, Line of Fire on Mondays and Court Martial on Thursdays. Both the shows are in English. Veer Sanghvi hosts another English show Meeting of Minds on Tuesdays, while Priya Tendulkar anchors Jawab Talab, modelled on BBC‘s Hard Talk, Wednesdays.

To round it off on Fridays there is Khula Manch (open platform) which has Manoj Raguvanshi in the anchor‘s seat. Unlike the other new shows, though, Khula Manch is a one-hour programme.

Once these programming initiatives are instituted, SABe TV will have the distinction of not having a single soap in the time band from 7 pm to 10:30 pm. SABe TV‘s family dramas will essentially be confined to the afternoon slot.

The programming format is as follows:

Cinevista Communications‘ Q3 results paint a rosier picture than they did in the previous quarters of this fiscal.
The company that had posted net losses of Rs 20.32 million in Q2 2001, has managed to turn its fortunes by declaring a small, yet net profit of Rs 1.11 million in the quarter just ended. Whether the turnaround in its fortunes can be attributed to a change in nomenclature (the company changed from Cinevista Communications to Cinevistaas Limited on 20 December, 2001) cannot be proved, but it has definitely managed to pull itself out of the red - the company had been consistently posting losses for the last three quarters. It is now looking up again - with Sanjivani and Shhh Koi Hai airing on Star Plus and a feature film Yeh Mohabbat Hai, due for release shortly.

The company has cut down significantly on administrative costs (Rs 1.10 million in Q3 2001 as against Rs 2.51 million in Q3 2000), while cost of production and telecast charges too have come down from Rs 77.6 million to Rs 48.9 million in the corresponding third quarters of 2000 and 2001.

The company‘s realisation from serials has taken a beating though, with revenues slipping to Rs 46.54 million from Rs 87.97 million in the same quarter last year. Its income from other sources has however seen a rise from Rs 12.15 million in Q3 2000 to Rs 17.70 million in Q3 2001.

Moody‘s Investors Service will time the entry of its mutual fund rating service in India with a collaboration with CNBC India on the Mutual Fund of the Year Awards.
A leading global rating agency, Moody‘s announced today that is strengthening its business in the Asia Pacific region and establishing closer linkages with the country, which it sees as one of the largest emerging markets in the world.

CNBC‘s Mutual Fund of The Year Awards (MFA), which were launched a year ago, serve to showcase the credit rating firm‘s expertise in mutual fund analysis and ranking. The first MFA was held in February 2001.

CNBC India CEO Haresh Chawla says the mutual fund industry was playing a significant role in developing the equity culture and a healthy long term investing ethos. Therefore, it is essential to recognise the expertise and performance of this critical investment service, he added.

Divinity, unlike human frailty is more consistent at producing tangible results, at least for television production houses.

Ask Creative Eye. The production house that has an assembly line of mythologicals in its stable, has posted an 83 per cent increase in its net sales for the quarter just ended over the previous quarter. While the company‘s income from operations does not compare favourably with figures of the same period last year (Q3 2001 stands at Rs 61.1 million as against Q3 2000 net sales of Rs 157.9 million), the revenues are better than those in Q2 2001 which stood at Rs 33 million. The company claims that net profit after tax is up by 156 per cent over the previous quarter; the figure of Rs 9.2 million is however, much lower than Rs 14.5 million reported for the same quarter last year.

The better performance of the quarter can probably be attributed to the production house‘s lessening dependence on Doordarshan and its perceptible shift to the satellite channels. The company, that came out with an IPO in late 2000, posted net sales of Rs 33.4 million in the second quarter of 2000.

After its second quarter results, company officials had said that Creative Eye would spend Rs 30 million to upgrade and add to the additional facilities of its existing studios. Plans are in the pipeline to invest Rs 20 million to set up another studio.

The cost of software has gone up from Rs 28.4 million to Rs 38.2 million over the previous quarter, but the figures are nowhere close to the Rs 135.1 million incurred on software in Q3 2000.

The company currently has Shree Ganesh on Sony, Jap Tap Vratt on Star, Om Namo Naaraayan on Sahara, Jai Santoshi Ma on Zee, Om Namah Shivay (Tamil) on Star Vijay and Jaane Anjaane on DD1. It has also been commissioned to make Nav Graha Shakkti for the still-to-be-launched Mak TV and Kya Beti Paraya Dhan Hai for ETV Hindi.

The company has announced that it has already utilised Rs 110 million of the Rs 252.2 million raised during the IPO and has invested the balance in fixed deposits with nationalised banks.