Consumer and professional electronics company Philips announced two deals at BroadcastAsia 2000 and CommunicAsia 2000 in Singapore on 6 June. The first relates to the commencement of the supply of set top boxes to Zee Telefilms while the second relates to a news production equipment order placed by software production company and CNBC India co-promoter TV18.

The DSX6071/94 DVB-compliant set top boxes which Philips is supplying to Zee Telefilms are for its direct to operator digital TV channel bouquet project. Zee Telefilms had ordered 25,000 set top boxes but Philips expects this to go up by another 100,000. The boxes are installed with Mediaguard and Mediahighway software supplied by French company Canal Plus Technologies which will allow Zee TV to encrypt its channels, which are currently free to air. Zee TV hopes to charge India‘s 30,000 to 40,000 strong cable operator community a licence fee to retransmit its bouquet of 8-12 television channels. A smart card will be supplied to the cable ops after payment of the licence fees.

Former Star TV India chief Rathikant Basu-promoted Broadcast Worldwide and Sahara TV sign a joint venture deal to launch a Direct to Home / Direct to Operator satellite TV service in India. Sahara DTH will acquire 49 per cent stake in Broadcast Worldwide, according to a press release sent on e-mail by Basu.
This is a story which would have hit page one of any newspaper any day. Unfortunately, Basu denied it. "It is mischievous as somebody is sending out the press release under a fictitious e-mail account. I don‘t even know the Sahara people," he clarified.

The hullabaloo started on June 1 when the chief executives of broadcasting/media companies in India received an e-mail purportedly from Basu, through a hotmail account, inviting them for a party on the occasion of the recent launch of Tara Punjabi on June 2.

Attached with this invitation over e-mail was a press release which announced the Broadcast Worldwide and Sahara TV joint venture. The details were immaculate and in the realms of being a possibility, including Star India‘s Urmilla Gupta quitting to join Basu‘s company, the same way as she had quit Doordarshan to head the DTH division of Star India.

We reproduce here the e-mail from Basu which, he says, is fictitious. Only, the names of the recepients have been deleted to safeguard their identity.

From: Rathikant Basu [mailto:rathikant_basu@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 9:49 AM
To:XYZ
Cc:XYZ
Subject: TARA

Rathikant Basu Cordially invites you to be part of the celebrations as Broadcast Worldwide launches TARA - The Punjabi Channel On Friday, June 2, 2000 at The Darbar Hall, Taj Palace, New Delhi, 7 pm onwards.

RSVP - Seema 98112 22578

Attached - Press Release BROADCAST WORLDWIDE

Press Release

BROADCAST WORLDWIDE AND SAHARA TV SIGN JV

Dated 1 June 2000, Mumbai,

Broadcast Worldwide and Sahara TV signed a Joint Venture deal today launch a Direct to Home / Direct to Operator satellite TV service in India.

According to the MOU Sahara DTH will acquire 49 per cent stake in Broadcast Worldwide.

Commenting on the deal, Mr. Rathikant Basu, Chairman and CEO of Broadcast Worldwide said, "This deal is a beginning of a long term partnership with Sahara and will provide a digital platform to several niche channels in the direct to home market".

Mr. Mahesh Prasad, CEO & Advisor, Sahara TV said, "We are impressed by the entrepreneurial skills and broadcast industry experience of Mr. Basu and look forward to an alliance with Broadcast Worldwide in the digital era."

Mrs. Urmilla Gupta, Executive Director Of Star TV DTH will be joining Sahara DTH as Executive Director and CEO from first week of July 2000. Mrs. Shukla Das, has been appointed as Director of Programming at Sahara DTH. Star TV DTH division personnel including Ms. Saloni Singh, Mr.Vishal Chowdhury, Mr.Sanjay Pathak, Ms. Riti Jarg and Mr. Jayant Shah will also be joining Sahara DTH which will be headquarted in Noida near Delhi.

SEEMA - 98112 22578
SAHARA DTH - BROADCAST WORLDWIDE
C4 SECTOR XI NOIDA 201 301
PH 914 550737, 914 542227 .

At first it was Television 18, Cinevista Communications and Sri Adhikari Brothers. Now its the turn of two more television companies to go in for a listing.
This time round, entering the market are CEE (I) TV and Telephoto Entertainment Ltd.

CEE (I) TV is a company which deals with the production and telecasting of TV serials and movies, production and marketing of audio albums, marketing of audio cassettes, and production and distribution of feature films. CEE is mainly target at the South Indian audience and has a library of 1000 hours of television software and 912 feature films for overseas satellite rights. It also has strategic tie-ups with Kelly Broadcasting Systems in the US and B4U South in US, Canada, Europe and Middle East. The company has planned to offer 26.65 lakh shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 10 with a total IPO of Rs 53.3 million.

Also joining the action is Chennai-based Telephoto Entertainments Ltd. This television content provider has planned an IPO of 27,50,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each at par, aggregating Rs 27.5 million. The issue will open on 19 June and close on 24 June. Telephoto Entertainments has a library of 500 episodes and is currently showing 25 episodes per week in the Sun network.

However, another television software company, Nimbus Communications which was slated to hit the market in June has now decided to put off its IPO and postpone it to a future date. Instead the company has gone in for a private placement of Rs 12.3 billion.