ETC PROMOTER YOGESH RADHAKRISHNAN ON HIS SPAT WITH THE HINDUJA-RUN INDUSIND MEDIA

"Booz Allen had valued the MSO Indusind Media and Communications at Rs 15,000 million. We had a very clear-cut understanding with the Hindujas that at an initial investment of Rs 400 million, every rupee that the business appreciates, on the difference between the investment and appreciation, we will get 10 percent.

This is on paper. On the death of Raam Punjabi, based on the Booz Allen valuation, Rs 1,500 million was due to us. An equal share for the four of us was working out to Rs 400 million for Ram. Plus the 20 percent equity in Cable Video Opera (CVO), and the equity in IndusInd Media was 6 percent. The shares of all of these were asked for and were to be paid to the family of Ram Punjabi.

The Hindujas refused shamelessly. They went back on their word and dilly- dallied on the final agreement, putting new terms before us which were intolerable. We felt that if the Hindujas were not open to parting with a stake for a dead man, what are they going to give me when I am alive today?

What happens to me tomorrow if I am dead?

These were our concerns when we decided to quit.

At that time we did not have in our mind to get back, consolidate, create a parallel network. We were content with the music channel that we had started with great difficulty, with our own funding.

The moment we left, the Hindujas launched three or four false cases against us to malign us in the media and the business community. The idea was to throttle and kill us financially. Luckily God was on our side. We had goodwill from 15 years of hard work we had put in. We had a lot of people who came to help us, including people who the Hindujas had crossed on the wrong side. We flocked together and created this structure. We put up the channel, and it started doing extremely well. And then we started Wincable with Rajen Raheja, who had again, crossed paths with the Hindujas on various accounts.

They launched a complaint against us with the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police, which accused us of fraudulently taking away some cable subscriber connections which actually were theirs. Stupid things like that. They said that my partner Jagjit Singh Kohli connived and issued cheques worth Rs 1.4 million. When the police investigated, they found that Jagjit Singh did not have signing powers of more than Rs 100,000.

The Hindujas put a lot of pressure on the police for a thorough investigation. The police have dismissed the case after a thorough investigation. They dismissed that there was a criminal conspiracy, and said that whatever dispute there is could be settled in a civil court when the time comes.

That was the first victory that we really had.

When we got this in our hand, we launched a case against them at the Thane court. This court has issued a process against all the Hindujas, Ram Hingorani, AK Das, and Hima Mehta, the communications head then.

Plus we have a civil suit in the Bombay High court suing them for Rs 10,120 million, which is pending hearing right now. The figure is based on the valuation that they have, the appreciation in CVO and IndusInd Media and Communications, besides damages for our mental torture and agony.

We have an extremely strong ground. We are not doing this to harass anybody. The fact is that we are fighting for our rights. We are trying to make a point. If in India, big industrialists start using entrepreneurs like us to help them build their business empire, and throw them away like a piece of toilet paper, I don‘t think anybody should tolerate it in today‘s world.

There are courts. Courts are fair. They may take a long time. I don‘t think they will take sides at this moment. And if you have a very strong case, they are definitely there to take cognisance of the breach of faith."

Asian cable TV magazine Television Asia conducted a survey in October 2000 amongst 400 cable operators Asiawide (majority of the respondents were from India). The survey has come out with some flattering results for HBO, which has been rated as numero uno in five (see tables below) out of the seven categories that the channels were rated on by cable ops. Discovery was the other good performer as far as cable operators were concerned. Star Plus was another dark horse winner when it ranked highly on best programming and most popular channel.
Fashion TV with all its breast and bottom display was surprisingly ranked as the channel offering the worst programming and sales.

The survey also probed cable ops‘ minds on other issues like when and why they would dump or carry a channel from their networks. 62% said that they would opt for channels that provided the maximum amount of programming value to their subscribers. Other reasons why they would retain/drop a channel included included digital poor transmission quality (five per cent), too many advertisement breaks (three per cent), language/dubbing issues (five per cent) and poor affiliate relations (three per cent). Another five per cent said they would prefer to add channels rather than drop them. Eight per cent named a few channels that they would choose to block but did not assign reasons for their decision.

The Indian contingent consisting of SET India COO Rajesh Pant, Reliance Entertainment vice-chairman Amit Khanna, ESPN Software India chief Manu Sawhney and Pentamedia representative John Silverman put a brave front at the Casbaa 2000 conference which concluded today at Singapore Expo. While Pant outlined the contours of the Indian cable and satellite television industry throwing in numbers about its size and growth, Sawhney spoke about the basic subscription television market. Khanna gave a broad perspective on India‘s economic strides, and the huge potential in the entertainment and information technology businesses. Silverman gave insights into how India could become a development base for animation, giving examples of Film Roman‘s 51 per cent partnership with Pentamedia wherein it will source content from India. Sawhney spoke about the inability of pay TV programmers to collect more than 30 per cent of the subscription revenues cable TV operators collect from subscriber.

All the panellists were bullish about India‘s cable and satellite television future. They expected the government to push through a convergence bill in the winter session of parliament. Sawhney spoke about the notification that the government is expected to push through by 19 November making it compulsory for cable ops to put addressible set top boxes into subscribers‘ homes.

The sad part is that the panellist threw little new light on the cable and satellite scene and its regulation in India. It seemed a deja vu of the situation two years ago, when the panellists then spoke glowingly of the situation in India only to have the door slammed shut in their faces by the government‘s inaction a few months later. Somethings never change.

The conference organisation committee would do well if it would have more focused sessions on issues confronting Indian cable and satellite television programmers, rather than a general overview which is available on several web sites. An approach of that sort would add more value to Asian executives. For example, this year executives could have been enlightened about the rapid strides that the new wave programming that is hitting Indian television screens courtesy the competition between leading channels Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment, B4U, Sun TV, among several others.