With latest addition to the family Vijay TV firmly in tow, Star India today gave notice it was ready for a long haul battle with undisputed leader Sun TV and distant second Jaya TV for the ultimate prize - the eyes and minds of the Tamil viewer.

Starting 1 October, Vijay TV will have a slew of fresh new programmes, starting with mega soaps like Marumagal, Kathai Kathaiam Kaaranamam, Kavyanjali, Agnisatchi, Kudumbam oru Kovil to weekly comedy shows like Crazy times, Galatta countdown, along with mega movies during the week.

Announcing this at a press briefing in Chennai, Ajay Vidyasagar, GM, said: "Our programming philosophy has been to get strong story lines to be enacted by the best Tamil actors and actresses. The focus has been to raise the bar on packaging, promotions and the quality of presentation that has been the hallmark of the Star network. With Vijay we believe that TV viewing families in Tamil Nadu will have the privilege of choice".

Kicking off the programming blitz is a daily soap Marumagal, with top cine star Khushbu making her debut on Tamil TV. She is cast as Nandhini an intelligent young woman who gets married into the family of a rich businessman. The story revolves around her demanding mother-in-law, played by Manjula, the popular film star of yesteryear, and how she solves tangles and wins the love and affection of everyone. This is also for the first time that Khushbu will star with Manjula and both are excited about the show.

Kathai Kathaiam Kaaranamam, is a collection of stories written by literary stalwarts like Vaasathi, Sivasankari and Balakumaran. This series is directed by Revathy, with the lead roles enacted by top rated actors and actresses. In the first story Shobana cast as Malathi in Vaasanthi?s hugely popular Nampikaikalum Anumanumgalum, plays the lead role.

Galatta is a music countdown show with comedians Senthil and Manivannan hosting.

Slotted for the weekend is Crazy Times scripted by Crazy Mohan one of Tamil cinema?s leading humourists.

According to Vijay TV officials, the new programming line-up has been crafted after an elaborate exercise done across consumer segments in Tamil Nadu.

Suresh Iyer, programming head for Vijay says: "We have gone into local production by partnering with some of the best quality production houses. There is a lot of involvement from our end. We have set up a creative services cell that thoroughly evaluates all shows and based on merit these will play on the channel. We have a strong commitment to provide quality content and bringing stars to the homes of consumers (instead of the consumer going in search of them)"

Sameer Nair, head of programming, Star, said: "This is only the first step towards what we believe is a long term plan in harnessing the creative talents in South India. And like we have learnt with Star Plus, we are in a marathon and not a hundred meter race"

It now appears that efforts are on to discredit the ratings system further.

Industry sources say that recently two individuals claiming to be the representatives of Star India contacted a few households that are a part of the TAM Media peoplemeter sample in Lower Parel in central Mumbai.

The sources say that the two offered money to the households to watch Star shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. The incident took place last week, the sources say. According to them, two of the households which were approached accepted the money. Indian Television has learnt that Rs 500 was what was offered.

The same team reportedly went to TAM peoplemeter homes in the western Mumbai suburbs of Dahisar and Bandra.

Apparently TAM officials are aware of the sample being contacted and have questioned them. Though no official was available for comment, TAM is reportedly investigating the incident.

Star India also refused comments on the issue.

The news is expected to either break on a television channel, a website or be presented to industry in the next two days.

The credibility of the TRP system issue has again come under the spotlight with business daily "Economic Times" reporting today that Zee Telefilms broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal has written a letter to ORG-MARG CEO Titoo Ahluwalia saying the publication of TAM/Intam ratings must be suspended immediately as Zee has reasons to believe the data by TAM/Intam is "seriously influenced".

For cable operators focused on increasing new services and capacity within their existing networks, Scientific-Atlanta and Pacific Broadband Communications (PBC) have announced the launch of two solutions for getting the most out of existing bandwidth.

Based on ultra-dense ASIC and CMTS technology developed by Pacific Broadband Communications, the new Prisma? G10 Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTS) and Prisma IP? CMTS Line Card will form the basis for scalable data deployment that allows a DOCSIS 1.0 cable network to harness bandwidth previously unavailable, while providing an easy migration path to DOCSIS 1.1 and DOCSIS 2.0, a company release says.

The relationship will combine PBC‘s high performance CMTS technology with the worldwide service structure and cable industry experience of Scientific-Atlanta. Specifically, the parties have agreed that Scientific-Atlanta has exclusive marketing and distribution rights for North America and non-exclusive worldwide distribution rights for the Prisma G10 CMTS and Pacific Broadband Communications has rights to market, sell and support the CMTS to cable operators outside North America.

Prisma G10 CMTS - Addressing the needs of network operators with an installed base of cable modems where traffic and penetration growth is beginning to exceed CMTS capacity, the stand-alone Prisma G10 CMTS solves the problems of upstream bandwidth and router performance limitations within existing high-speed data networks. By leveraging PBC‘s carrier class C MTS, Scientific-Atlanta‘s Prisma G10 provides operators with an ultra-dense solution of 32 downstream channels and 128 upstream channels, enabling cable operators to support more cable modem traffic with less bandwidth, according to the release.

Prisma IP CMTS Line Card - The Prisma IP CMTS Line Card is based on a CO-development effort, announced earlier this year, between the two companies and will be integrated with Scientific-Atlanta‘s Prisma IP optical transport platform. For network operators establishing converged networks, the new CMTS is a metro optical transport solution that integrates a CMTS line card to eliminate additional routers and optical transport equipment normally required for a DOCSIS 1.1 or 2.0 deployment - effectively increasing subscriber penetration of data services without expensive reconfiguration of hubs and nodes.

These Prisma CMTS solutions leverage PBC‘s custom-built chips to deliver superior RF performance, allowing existing networks to use 16 QAM transmission within 3.2 MHz segments, effectively doubling or quadrupling the upstream data throughput. This is combined with the ability to allocate multiple channels per port for the industry‘s highest per port throughput. The increase in throughput supports more cable modems per port, thus significantly lowering the cost of the CMTS on a per cable modem basis.

The Prisma CMTS solutions further employ enhanced packet processing technology to eliminate data routing bottlenecks. While the Prisma G10 CMTS will be available by the end of 2001, the Prisma IP CMTS will be commercially available next year.