Close on the heels of an agreement with Prasar Bharati for TV production of international cricket in India from 2002 to 2004, Nimbus has signed another deal with the pubcaster.

This time, for exclusive handling of all ad sales on the cricket series between India and Zimbabwe currently being aired on DD. The arrangement between DD and Nimbus, which claims to be the only tenderer to make it to the financial round, visualises a minimum guarantee of Rs 70.02 million and a revenue share of 70:30 in favour of DD. Nimbus will begin with the production of the TV pictures of the India-Zimbabwe series in February 2002, ending with the Australian tour of India in 2004, as per the agreement signed earlier this month.

All five series are to be aired in India exclusively over Doordarshan. Prasar Bharati, which owns the world rights, has also licensed broadcasts over several international networks across the world, claims Nimbus. WSN won the contract, after a pre-qualification process followed by a financial tender, winning over rival bids made by TWI and WorldTel. The contract is for a sum of Rs 284 million (approx $ 5.80 million).

World Sport Nimbus, a joint venture between the UK based World Sport Group and India based Nimbus Communications, has recently acquired from World Sports Group, its 50 per cent equity in Global Cricket Corporation (GCC). GCC‘s other 50 per cent equity is owned by News Corporation. GCC holds the commercial rights of all ICC cricket till 2007. Claiming that the acquisition had been on the cards for quite a while, WSN director Venu Nair says, "This completes our participation not just in the management of the commercial rights of the ICC business but also in its ownership."

WSN has also been commissioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to produce and distribute a weekly global cricket show titled ICC Cricket World for worldwide distribution. The show has been licensed to Channel 4 in the UK for free TV. Negotiations for airing in India, Middle East, Australia, South Africa and several other territories are at an advanced stage for the show that premieres in late February 2002.

In December 2001, Indian Television Media Information & Publishing (which runs the website http://www.indiantelevision.com) organised Qalam 2001 - a two-day scriptwriters forum and workshop - along with 14 renowned scriptwriters and producers. At the forum, the company made a commitment that it would shortlist promising attendees and continue to provide them with a training and interactive platform even after the two-day pioneering effort concluded.

The promise was kept on 23 February when the first of these sessions - under the Qalam umbrella - got off the ground at its office in the northern suburb of Andheri in Mumbai under the able guidance of veteran scriptwriter BM Vyas, who took a select bunch of them through the rudiments of scriptwriting.

"The writer should relate to the story," said Vyas, who took out three hours of his time to give the lowdown to the wannabe scriptwriters. He spoke about scriptwriting starting from the concept to the actual shooting of the script.

He explained getting the right concept can lead to the story and from there on to the script. He also cautioned attendees about the points that should be kept in mind while writing. "Each scene should lead to the other and there should be an emotional growth in the story, which should be entertaining," he explained.

At his wittiest best, he gave examples from daily life, making the process easy to understand. He even acknowledged the fact that if a writer has the airs of him being a writer he can never be a good and a successful writer.

Eight of the 14 (six were unable to come) selected writers - shortlisted by the jury consisting of Joyce Thierry, Rekha Nigam and Sandhya Divecha from the 70-odd scripts received during Qalam 2001 - attended the first of what is planned to be a series of weekend interactive training programmes over the next two months. The exercise is planned to culminate in scripts, which will be ready to be given to producers.

Star India executive & participant Gayathri Rajan said: "He (Vyas) is just amazing. The way he spoke was just great."

Said Indian Television Media Information & Publishing CEO Anil Wanvari: "My vision is that all of them get a chance to write scripts which are translated into television work. At least two of them should go on to become scriptwriters the industry will treasure. We are trying to get other reputed writers to nurse the budding scriptwriters, apart from the speakers who helped make Qalam 2001 a success."

The Intelsat 904 communications satellite was successfully launched aboard an Ariane 44L launch vehicle at 1:59 am EST today.

The satellite is expected to be operational at the beginning of the second quarter of this year. The Intelsat 904 launch is expected to increase total customer capacity by up to 34 per cent by mid 2003, according to the broadcast, telephony and corporate network solutions company. The 904 satellite will be deployed at 60?E over the Indian Ocean region and will offer Internet, broadcast, telephony and corporate network solutions to customers on its 76 C-band and 22 Ku-band transponders (measured in 36 MHz equivalent units). The satellite will provide high power Ku-band spot beam coverage for Europe and the Middle East and additional C-band capacity to customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Intelsat claims to have a customer base in over 200 countries and territories.

According to the company, the Intelsat 604 currently holds the 60? E orbital slot, but will be moved to occupy one of Intelsat‘s new roles at 157?E, expanding service to customers in the Pacific Ocean region. The next launch of an Intelsat IX series satellite will use a Proton K/Block DM launch vehicle from Russia. The launch site will be the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a release says.

In the end it went through 21 days later than initially announced but the pieces appear to be falling in place for a strategic investor to come on board. Subhash Chandra‘s Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL), at its board meeting today, cleared a corporate restructuring proposal whereby 11 of its subsidiaries would either be merged with ZTL or wound up.

After this exercise is completed (expected to take six to eight months) there will remain only 12 companies under the ZTL umbrella. An official statement says the revised corporate structure will result in better utilisation of resources besides being simple and efficient from the point of view of compliance of tax laws, accounting and legal compliances.

The move by Zee Telefilms to further rationalise its large number of subsidiaries follows divestment of its stake last year in three subsidiaries ? Buddha Films LTD, Zee Sports LTD and Zee Publishing Ltd.

ZTL currently has eight wholly-owned subsidiaries in India including Patco, EL-Zee Television LTD, Siti cable, ZIML, e-Connect India, ZILS besides two regional channel companies in Dakshin Media LTD (Tamil) and Kaveri Entertainment LTD (Kannada).

Its overseas subsidiaries include Zee Multimedia Worldwide LTD British Virgin Islands (ZMWLBVI) which is the holding company of ZMWL Mauritius and others. ZTL holds 50 per cent stake each in Winterhealth Company LTD which is the holding company for Asia Today Ltd.

Other ZTL subsidiaries functioning abroad include Expand Fast Holding BVI (which is the broadcasting company for Zee Music, Alpha and English channels) and Zee Multimedia Worldwide, Mauritius.

Companies proposed to be wound up:
1. E-Connect India Ltd
2. Programme Asia Trading Company Ltd
3. Elzee Television Ltd
4. Kaveri Entertainment Ltd
5. Dakshin Media Ltd
6. Winterhealth Company Ltd, Mauritius
7. Hokushan Trading Ltd, Hong Kong
8. Expand Fast Holdings Ltd, BVI
9. Zee Multimedia Worldwide Ltd, BVI
10. Asia TV, USA
11. Zee TV SA (Proprietary) Ltd South Africa