Paul FitzPatrick has taken over as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Crown Media Holdings, Inc. from 10 October.

Crown Media Holdings owns and operates pay television channels, prominent among them being the Hallmark Channel. FitzPatrick, who was chief operating officer of Crown Media United States, which operates Hallmark in the country, replaces Lana Corbi, who last month was named president and chief executive officer of Crown Media United States.

FitzPatrick will oversee the development and creation of new channels, business development, business affairs, human resources and network information systems world-wide on behalf of Crown Media Holdings. Based in New York, Mr. FitzPatrick will also retain the responsibility as head of distribution for the Hallmark Channel U.S., which he formally joined in 2000.

Australian born FitzPatrick was earlier COO of the Golf Channel, the first single sports genre cable network, where he was responsible for overseeing programming, production and network operations, distribution, marketing, advertising sales and information systems.

FitzPatrick has also been president and chief executive officer of NewsTalk Television, a company he founded in 1988 and launched in 1994. Certain assets of the channel were acquired by MSNBC in 1996.

Continuing its push to localise content for India, kids‘ channel Cartoon Network is looking at acquiring the television rights to more properties similar to its recent aquisitions of two animation films: Pandavas - The Five Warriors and Sinbad - Beyond The Veil of Mists. Produced by Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics Limited, the series had their Indian television premiere on Cartoon Network in September.

"We are in discussions with a number of animation producers in India but nothing has been finalised as yet," Jennifer Fletcher, senior V-P, ad sales, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, said.

Fletcher, who was in Mumbai for a meeting of Turner‘s ad sales team, spoke to indiantelevision.com on Tuesday. She said it was the localisation effort that dictated the increase in Hindi programming on the channel which currently stands at nine hours a day. For the southern markets, Cartoon Network provides two hours of programming in Tamil.

And emphasising how important India was to Cartoon Network, Fletcher pointed out that 50 per cent of the toon channel‘s advertising revenues across Asia came from India. Queried as what were the expectations on the ad sales front for the year, Soumitra Saha, VP ad sales, said that even after factoring in inflation, Cartoon Network expected to see a 10 per cent revenue growth this year. Though Saha refused to give any numbers, industry estimates indicate that ad revenues this year will be in the region of Rs 220 million.

Queried as to what the channel had lined up for Diwali, Saha said a Dream Diwali promotion was currently on which would give 250 kids the chance to meet their favourite toon characters, among other things.

Apart from a new chairman after a gap of nearly three years, there are some more new faces on the Prasar Bharati board.
Three new part-time members have been appointed - former vice-chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia, M A Zaki, journalist Vidya Niwas Mishra and retired bureaucrat S Kashi Pandiyan. Prof U R Rao, former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation, took over as chairman late last week.

Anil Baijal, additional secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting, continues to enjoy the support of minister Sushma Swaraj, evident from the six-month extension he has been granted. He continues to hold additional charge of the post of executive member, Prasar Bharati board. His extension order is applicable for six months from August 14, 2001, or until further orders, according to an official press release.

The decision has been taken. The once hugely popular Kaun Banega Crorepati is being phased slowly out of Star Plus, and family drama serials are taking pride of place on prime time once again.

From October 29, KBC will be aired only twice a week, while the channel will pull KBC Junior off the air from December. Star is now weaning audiences back to the family soap, with actor Aruna Irani‘s maiden production venture, Desh Mein Nikala Hoga Chand, an NRI saga, taking over the Monday 9-10 pm slot. Balaji Telefilms‘ Kasautii Zindagi Kay will start beaming from Monday to Thursday at 8.30 pm, from the end of October. Kundali, a popular serial that had to go off the air when Channel Nine Gold wound up, will be beamed on Star beginning October 25, 8 pm.

The Business Standard financial daily, quoting INTAM figures for KBC for the month of September, reports that while the cumulative programme viewership for the show is an impressive 2.01 million, its average programme viewership is only 828,000, compared with 1.8 million for the its top soap, Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.

Sources in Star say that there are two to three more programmes lined up come November, but officials are not yet willing to divulge details. Discussions are still on where to slot these new shows. The possibilities are in the afternoon band, the late night band (post-11 pm) or the early evening band (7:30 pm - 9:00 pm).