Zee Telefilms is expected to launch its direct to operator (DTO) bouquet on 1 May. It was earlier slated to introduce the bouquet last year but could not meet its set deadline.
The management has announced that it has achieved a good response from the marketplace for its new channels - Zee Movies and Zee English.

It claims the sale of 1,100 decoders for Zee English and Zee Movies. Already 550 agreements have been signed. This figure excludes 140 decoders which have been distributed to 70 odd SitiCable MSOs. Zee sources claim to have signed on seven sub-operators of the rival cable network In CableNet in Mumbai for the two channels. More cable ops are being negotiated with and Zee claims to have achieved a penetration of 2.6 million cable homes. Zee English and Zee Movies have set a target of seven million cable TV homes and are confident of reaching the astronomical figure within three to six months.

The Hinduja-run MSO InCableNet has raised a voice of protest against the Maharashtra state government‘s move to double the entertainment tax levied on cable operators. The state finance minister announced the hike in the budget that was presented to the assembly for 2000-2001 yesterday.
In a press release , InCableNet has stated that the impost will "financially cripple an already burdened cable industry. The need of the hour is to implement the existing entertainment tax system rather than increase tax burdens."

Says IndusInd Media - the company that runs InCableNet - CEO Ram T. Hingorani: "The increase will result in a substantial financial burden on MSOs like In CableNet and cable operators who declare 100 per cent connectivity."

Last year the cable TV industry had hailed the-then government‘s decision to levy a flat rate of Rs 15, Rs 10 and Rs 5 for each urban, semi-urban and rural cable TV homes respectively. This replaced the earlier system of charging a percentage of subscription fees.

InCableNet says that the government?s contention that entertainment tax targets were not being met by it on account of underdeclaration by cable TV operators (hence it was forced to hike rates) was unfair.

"The system needs correction not a 100% hike to supplement the lacunae in the entertainment tax levy system" points out Hingorani. "The cable TV subscriber is no mood to pay an increased subscription, particularly in view of the burden of rising prices of day-to-day commodities and the new hikes in kerosene and LPG prices. The current budget has also increased the professional tax which is bound to affect the common man in the state. This additional burden that the Cable TV industry will have to bear will stunt its growth further as the Government is doing nothing to promote it."

Hingorani also complained about the varying rates of entertainment tax levied by various state governments on cable TV operators. "All the states have approximately the the number of channels with common pay channels," he says. "Yet each of the governments imposes varying taxes."

Hingorani suggests that the government should work on schemes such as voluntary disclosure to encourage declaration of larger subscriber bases by cable TV operators.

The Hinduja run IN CableNet has inaugrated a new headend at Matunga, King Circle in Mumbai to service the areas of Sion, Wadala, Dadar, Chunabhatti, Dharavi and Antop Hill areas. The state-of-the-art headend will offer 70 channels to its subscribers and would also make Internet over cable available to them. The Hindujas have already begun the Internet services in the western suburbs of Bombay like Khar and Bandra and also in the south Bombay commercial zone - Nariman Point.
The cable service company IndusInd Media and Commission Ltd which boasts of catering to 4 million subscribers all over India had also signed grant agreement with USTDA (United States Trade and Development Agency) on 10 March 2000, to jointly commission a study to work out the feasibility of providing high speed Internet access over the Optical Fibre cable backbone established by IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd

The government in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has doubled the entertainment taxes that cable TV operators have to fork out to its coffers. Taxes were levied at the rate of Rs 5,10, and 15 per subscriber, depending on the subscriber‘s location. These have been doubled. The purpose to enhance the state‘s revenues. The government made these announcements in the state budget for 2000-2001 announced yesterday.
Maharashtra is amongst the leading cable TV viewing states in India. And there is alarm that other state governments may also make similar moves in their budgets.

Fears have also risen that the imposition will actually lead to a rise in subscriber fees because cable TV operators will not be interested in forking out the higher duty from their pockets. Currently, cable TV subscriber rates in Maharashtra range between Rs 75 and Rs 125 a month. These are expected to go up by about 25 per cent at least with the average cable TV fees rising to Rs 125, unlike Rs 100 that is the average currently.

Marginally, probably. Normally, cable TV operators tend to under-declare their subscriber base to the tune of 70 per cent to subscription channels and to government as they want to stem the outflow of money from their end. Since there are no audits or subscriber declaration compulsions to a cable TV authority, they fudge their numbers to reduce their burden. That will likely continue here too. If the tax authorities insist on tax payments based on last year‘s entertainment tax disclosures, the cable operator can easily turn around and say that he has lost subscribers to rival or smaller operators or they have not renewed their subscription.

Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics Limited is slated to launch its Internet television venture called NumTV (New Millennium TV) in the US on 14 April 2000. www.numtv.com or NumTV is an entertainment portal catering to the Asian diaspora worldwide. Its objective initially is to bring India in all its colours to Asians across the globe.The company, which started its test run in December 1999, has so far invested close to $20 million in infrastructural facilities, which are spread across in three cities namely Los Angeles (US), Singapore and Chennai (India).

Says Pentamedia Graphics director V Sundararjan: "NumTV.com is specially being developed for those who are away from home as well as for those who would love to see their favourite programmes live at home, at any hour of the day and in any part of the world. NumTV will be webcasting 40 Asian Channels (including 25 Indian channels), latest news events, sports, attractive programmes, movies, music (including live coverage)."

He adds, "The demand for the programmes by the consumers could also increase and we are trying to give them complete entertainment on the net. The programmes are being made available to the viewers who wish to watch at their convenience and cater to the different time zones across the globe."

Unlike other dotcom companies, NumTV is looking at integrating newspaper dailies on the Internet. Says Sunderarjan: "We are looking at having newspapers and magazines and journals on NumTV.com and providing rich content to the news and feature stories. What we mean by rich content is that the stories and features would be accompanied with some good animation and graphics. The content would be changed to suit the stories. Num TV will be available in various languages and will evolve itself to be accessed through Radio, Print and also stage live shows shortly."

NumTV.com will cater to the Asian community but Indians will not be able to view the broadband content due to the non-availability of high-speed access. But once it kicks off in India, NumTV.com hopes to be a success there too. The broadband portal will face competition from the recently launched Homeland Networks‘ tvofindia.com which too targets a similar community

The Zee Network launched the fourth of its regional language channels - Alpha Gujarati on 21 March. The launch took place at a bash attended by the who‘s who of Gujarati language theatre, film and folk art industry. The launch was done at the hands of the Hindi and Gujarati theatre and film star Paresh Raval.
"It was the complaint of a woman when I was travelling in the UK a few years ago that Zee TV does not air programmes in Gujarati which got me interested in regional language programming," says Zee Network chairman Subhash Chandra.

The channel is targeted at the rich Gujarati community which has been served by state-owned Doordarshan and the RITV owned Gurjari TV, now and then. A programming formula similar to that used on Zee TV is being used with Alpha Gujarati: women‘s oriented series, family dramas, sitcoms, music shows and participatory game shows.

The Zee Network looks likely to have a potential leader of its Alpha series of channels in Alpha Gujarati. Reason: it has the inhouse distribution advantage thanks to its ownership of its MSO Siticable. Second Gujarat is a very strong cable and satellite market. And extremely rich. Consumers today are willing to spend on flashy goodies with little restraint.Also Gujarat has a gaggle of entreprenuers who will use the channel to reach consumers if they are made to believe and understand that they are getting a good deal.And with a targeted audience for the channel they will undoubtedly be interested in even taking up commercial air time.

Meanwhile, Zee is looking ahead at launching channels in the four southern regional languages. Among these: a Telegu channel, a Tamil service, a Kannada service and a Malaylam channel.