The rise and rise of the media stocks continue. The last few days has seen Ekta Kapoor‘s Balaji Telefilms scale new peaks. Today it was Subhash Chandra‘s Zee Telefilms that led the way as the bourses recorded a third straight day-on-day gain.

The BSE 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) ended with a modest gain of 8.10 points at 3,411.92. The NSE S & P CNX Nifty Index also gained 4.60 points to end at 1,110.60, capitalmarket.com reported.

Zee Telefilms (up 5.68 per cent to Rs 185.95) has seen renewed buying interest amid hopes that the board may discuss equity sale to a strategic investor at its 29 April meeting where it is to declare its year-ending financial results. The meeting is expected to clear the decks for a hike in foreign fund stake ceiling to 49 per cent from the current 30 per cent. Over 493.2 million Zee shares were traded on the BSE today.

Balaji Telefilms continued its uninterrupted rise to close at Rs 632.85, up 5.26 per cent over yesterday‘s close. The scrip has risen over 50 per cent from Rs 408.90 on 26 March 2002 to its current level.

The performance of the Balaji scrip is of course pivoted around the overarching popularity of Ekta‘s serials - one-third of the top 100 TRP-rated serials on air today are Balaji shows.

With Balaji launching some new programmes on Sony TV and Zee TV, while lowering focus on south Indian serials, things can only get better, is the market sentiment.

Mukta Arts (up 10.27 per cent to Rs 124) advanced on sustained buying after the company said last week that talks for the sale of library rights have been going on for more than a year with Zee Telefilms, Sony Entertainment Television and Star TV Network. Over 145.4 million Mukta Arts shares were traded on the BSE today.

Other media stocks like recent Zee acquisition ETC Networks (up 13.07 per cent to Rs 52.35), Tips Industries (up 11.42 per cent to Rs 156.10), Padmalaya Telefilms (up 7.60 per cent to Rs 160.65) and Adlabs Films (up 6.86 per cent to Rs 70.85), also gained ground.

In what it claims is a first for any television channel, MTV will be premiering its first multimedia visual image campaign, MTV Coordinates, from 1 May in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Russia.

The innovative campaign was produced in 20 regions around the world with content reflecting the individuality and diversity of the company‘s network of award-winning localised TV channels and web sites, says an official release. The campaign will be unveiled at the Wolfsonian-FIU in Miami Beach, Florida 22-25 April during the annual MTV Networks International Creative Conference.

MTV Coordinates evolved out of an initial idea by Melissa Silverman of the MTV US On-air Promotions department based on a souvenir book from the MTV Video Music Awards called "Common" that celebrated diversity and anti discrimination attitudes among youth. Following the attacks that took place on 11 September, MTV networks around the world expressed a desire to produce local image spots that celebrate the common bonds as well as diverse perspectives of young people worldwide. MTV Coordinates developed organically over a seven-month period with input from various MTV Creative Directors across the globe.

The campaign features a series of spots, each highlighting special keywords chosen by individual channels, such as rhythm, community, identity, sex, chaos, laughter and beauty. The keywords are interpreted by a series of original still images taken by photographers commissioned by MTV in local markets. Set to a vibrant and eclectic music soundtrack, the 30-second spots are linked together by complementary graphics conceptualised by Fernando Lazzari of MTV Latin America and featuring the exact latitude and longitude coordinates for cities worldwide that are represented in the still images, resulting in a campaign that is universally appealing but also locally inspired. Each participating MTV produced one promo but will share the entire series of spots among channels and websites around the world.

"MTV Coordinates reflects the diverse creativity and vision that has been such a vital component of our success in operating localised TV channels and websites around the world," commented Lisa Hackett, senior vice-president of programming, marketing and operations, MTV Networks International. "We‘re especially delighted to launch our new multimedia visual image campaign at The Wolfsonian-FIU, a museum and research center dedicated o the study of visual culture and its ability to persuade and influence."

Said Cyrus Oshidar, vice-president, Creative, MTV India: "It‘s a first for any television channel and it is great to be a part of a truly global initiative."

MTV website elements for the campaign include streaming of all the spots on individual websites and a flipbook of the extensive series of photographic images. In addition, selected websites will feature locally produced elements such as electronic greeting cards and other announced soon.

MTV channels and websites participating in MTV Coordinates include Australia, Brasil, Canada, Espana, European, France, Germany, India, Italia, Japan, Korea, Latin America (North, Central and South), Mandarin, The Netherlands, Nordic, Polska, Russia, Southeast Asia, UK, & Ireland, and US.

The music featured in the spots includes acclaimed acts such as Iceland‘s Sigur Ros and Poland‘s Andrzej Smolik. In addition, several spots include original music produced specifically for this campaign.