Building on the success of Qalam 2001, a two-day creative writing workshop held in December 2001, television services company Indian Television Dot Com Pvt. Ltd takes its vision of providing a forum for the industry to discuss issues critical to the business to the next level.
India?s first TV air time forum ?Ad-Wise? 2002, a day-long meeting ground to understand the various issues impacting the business of TV air time, is being held in Mumbai (MayFair Rooms, Worli) tomorrow. The theme of the forum is ?Future Shock: The Road Ahead? and is targeted at professionals from broadcasters who sell air time, media planners and buyers from ad agencies and media concessionaires, and at marketers.

A cross section of television, advertising, media, research and marketing professionals are slated to come and share their views at Ad-Wise 2002. Among them: Raj Nayak, executive vice-president, Star India, Abraham Thomas, ad sales head Sony Entertainment, TAM India CEO LV Krishnan , Initiative Media CEO Ashish Bhasin, Mindshare Fulcrum CEO Vikram Sakhuja, and Eureka Forbes COO SK Palekar, to name a few.

SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta is delivering the keynote address. According to Dasgupta, Ad-Wise 2002 is a forum whose time has come. ?India?s television channels are dependent mainly on advertising for their sustenance,? says Dasgupta. ?And there are many issues that need to be discussed amongst the various constituents. Ad-Wise 2002 should serve as a platform for that.?

Nayak echoes that sentiment saying: "It is sad that in spite of being an industry dealing in thousands of crores, there is no authentic source of TV Spend. How do media independents who work on 2 - 2.5 per cent commission take an exposure of crores of rupees where clients do not pay on time? Why are brand managers becoming salesmen? Ad-Wise 2002 should throw up a lot of interesting issues.?

Ad-Wise 2002 is supported by both Star India and Sony Entertainment. MTV India, Sabe TV, Turner International are other broadcasters who have put their might behind it.

Close to 250 professionals involved in air time sales for television, media planning and buying, research and in marketing are slated to attend Ad-Wise 2002.

Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra today dismissed industry speculation that the government was about to ease the restrictions on DTH broadcast in India.
Speaking on the sidelines of a media briefing announcing the go-ahead of his Agrani satellite project, Chandra said he did not see DTH happening anytime soon.

There has been some speculation that the information & broadcasting ministry, in conjunction with the communications and IT ministry and the Prime Minister‘s Office, is likely to soon raise the FDI bar to 49 per cent from the current 20 per cent in DTH ventures. Other anomalies in the DTH policy announced last year like cross media restrictions were also supposed to go.

Media baron Subhash Chandra has a number of firsts to his credit. To that list add another one. India‘s first private sector satellite initiative officially went onstream today with the signing of a turnkey contract between Chandra‘s Agrani Satellite Services Ltd (ASSL), Alcatel Space Industries and Arianespace (providing the launch vehicle).
The contract was signed today by Chandra and Pascale Sourisse, chairman and CEO, Alcatel, in the presence of Jean-Marie Luton, president - director-general, Arianespace.

The geostationary satellite is expected to begin commercial operations from the fourth quarter of 2003 and will be delivered in orbit on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

The deal involves the in-orbit delivery of a 5.4kw satellite with a 14-year lifespan. The long life satellite with 24 C band (12 in the India coverage beam and 12 in the Asia coverage beam) and 14 Ku band transponders are distributed over two beams, one for India coverage and the other steerable over the Middle east, South East Asia or Europe. Of the Ku-band transponders, seven will have a fixed India coverage; three, a steerable coverage over Europe, Middle East and South East Asia; and the remaining transponders will be switchable between fixed and steerable. These transponders have a total bandwidth of 1,404 MHz.

The satellite is expected to support a broad range of applications ranging from TV broadcasting and DTH to rural and distance routes.

Queried as to how much of the satellite‘s capacity would be used by the Essel/Zee channels, Chandra said 15 per cent of the C Band capacity and a small percentage of the satellite‘s Ku Band capacity would be utilised. The remaining bandwidth will serve television broadcasting and distribution companies, Internet service providers and other telecom service providers.

The ASC Enterprises Ltd (Ascel)-promoted ASSL is the first private satellite system to be authorised by the Indian government under the 1997 Satcom policy framework. The government has also approved the equity participation of Alcatel and Arianespace in ASSL.

The main reason that the lead time for the satellite to become operational is only 18 months or so is because ASSL is acquiring an existing satellite from Alcatel. The satellite was built in 1997 for use by Shinawatra Satellite, Thailand. It was, however, never used and has been lying in storage for four years.

The total project cost is Rs 11.5 billion in which the debt funding of Rs 6.9 billion is being arranged by a consortium of Indian banks and financial institutions. Of the equity component of Rs 4.6 billion, Alcatel and Arianespace have taken a stake of 9.75 and 3.25 per cent stake respectively. This will be worth $15 million and $5 million respectively.