Thai communication major Shin Satellite has reported consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2002 of 1,303 million Baht, and EBITDA of 592 million baht. Total net profit for the quarter was 389 million Baht, a rise of 39 per cent from 279 million Baht in the first quarter of 2001. The company experienced a foreign exchange gain of 31 million Baht for the quarter.
Shin Satellite executive chairman Dr Dumrong Kasemset said, "Revenue from the transponder service business grew to 968 million Baht, and our Internet backbone business, called ProTrunk, played an important role in driving Ku-band utilisation up from 47% to 52%. Also noteworthy was the performance of Cambodia Shinawatra, a telecoms subsidiary in Cambodia, which achieved 240 per cent growth subscriber growth, mainly with prepaid customers, and lifted its revenue 23 per cent over the same period last year, to 134 million Baht."

Recent developments made by the company in broadband Internet technology, namely the iPSTAR system, have resulted in more orders coming for services, equipment and consequently more use of bandwidth on our satellites from international as well as domestic clients."

Hindi news channel Aaj Tak has bagged the Best Campaign of the Year (TV) Award at the 27th Radio and TV Advertising Practitioners‘ Association of India (RAPA) Awards 2001. The awards function is to held this evening in Mumbai.
Through the ad campaign, Aaj Tak wanted to put forth the message that it was serious about the business of news coverage 24-hours a day. The channel knew the importance of the ad having universal appeal and so it looked at situations where the serious facet of the brand could be accompanied by an underlying sense of humour, says a company release.

The campaign was conceptualised by Gajraj Rao of Apocalypso Filmworks. According to Apocalypso director Pradeep Sarkar, " We were given a free hand. The challenge was to mark the transition of Aaj Tak from a 1/2-hour programme to a 24-hour news channel and then as the Sabse Tez channel. The idea of using a black and white, humorous and old style juxtaposed with contemporary themes was to highlight the changes that it would make in our lives. The RAPA awards are a sure sign of the appreciation and success that the ads have achieved."

The channel has earlier been honoured by the Indian Television Academy and Media Meet. RAPA claims to have received a record number of entries this year. All Radio and TV entries produced in India and broadcast and telecast for the first time, in any part of the world, between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2001 were eligible to compete.RAPA claims to be the only organisation that honours and gives awards in 48 categories and 17 India languages.

Other dignitaries expected to be present at the RAPA event include Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, Mumbai‘s sheriff Kiran Shantaram and film director Mahesh Bhatt.

Ten Sports, which holds the telecast rights for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, looks like having a six-hour lead time over national broadcaster Doordarshan as far as airing the matches are concerned.
Ten Sports CEO Chris McDonald, while saying DD is in ongoing discussions with Ten Sports about taking highlights on a delayed basis, indicated the matches would be delayed by six hours or so.

Meanwhile, McDonald expressed confidence that Ten Sports distribution would be well in excess of 20 million homes by the time the World Cup kicks off on 31 May.