MAK TV, so far shrouded in secrecy and some spicy speculation, will fill the small screens very soon. The 31 December deadline that was being talked about, has come and gone, but the veils will be taken off anytime now, it is learnt.
In a crowded marketplace with umpteen channels in every possible genre elbowing each other for space, MAK TV better have some strong content ready in its six-channel offering. Apart from a music channel, Style - a fashion channel and Prime - a regular Hindi entertainment channel, there are three regional channels. While the Telugu and the Bangla channels are in for some stiff competition (the strongest coming from the ETV stable), a combined Sindhi-Gujarati channel may well hit it off with audiences due to its novel positioning.

The entire management team of MAK (Manoranjan, Aur Kya), headed by CEO Karan Saluja, has been comfortably housed in office space bought at the western suburb of Andheri in Mumbai. Reports indicate an initial investment of Rs 700 million has been made by unnamed promoters.

Several key personnel from rival channels have been inducted to beef up the team. There are four directors in Hitesh Sabharwal, former distribution head of Sony Entertainment Television, Satish Menon, former head of Zee News, Prashant Sanwal, former V-P, SET MAX and Amit Ray, executive VP Mudra Communications. Ray however, is not leaving Mudra but will function in an advisory capacity on the board.

Rupa Das, former programming V-P, Sony and Vaishali Sharma (ex-Sony again) in marketing are also on the team.

The battle between InCableNet and ESPN Software over increased subscription rates entered the courts today after the Hinduja Group MSO filed a contempt of court case against it and its managing director Manu Sawhney, and Sricharan Iyengar, V-P, distribution & affiliate sales.

The case - filed in the chambers of Justice Patil of the Bombay High Court - was on ESPN‘s request adjourned to Monday afternoon, an InCableNet release says.

"The contempt notice was a result of ESPN/Star Sports switching off their signals to InCableNet depriving viewers of feed with effect from the night of 5 January, 2002. The Hon‘ble Bombay High Court, had by an earlier order dated 12 June, 2001, directed switching on of the signals of ESPN/Star Sports on an additional payment of Rs 4 lakhs (400,000) per month, until further orders of the Court," the release says.

An ESPN spokesperson said: "It is InCableNet which has approached the Hon‘ble Bombay High Court alleging that ESPN Software has committed contempt of its order. The court has granted time to ESPN to clarify its position. We would not like to comment further as the matter is sub judice."

The standoff between the two sides (which shows no signs of letting up) arose after the MSO refused to sign on to the increased subscription package that went into effect from 1 January where the monthly tariff for the ESPN and Star Sports channels was pegged at RS 24 from the earlier RS 16.

Gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati may be singing its swan song tonight but Star Plus has been making sure that the grass does not grow beneath its feet in the 9-10pm slot.

The channel claims that the debut of the new gameshow hosted by actress Neena Gupta Kamzor Kadii Kaun has beaten Sony‘s Kkusum and Kutumb hands down in the rating‘s sweepstakes.

On Christmas day at 9pm KKK drew TAM ratings of 6.3 across 9 cities. Also the shows share and TVR have meant that the previous six weeks average on Tuesday‘s has doubled. As far as share is concerned it is a normal 10.7 per cent. With the show it shoots up to 21 per cent. The TVR with KKK is 6.2. Take it away and the figure is exactly half. The six weeks average audience goes up from 1.1 million to 2.1 million. KKK ranked 11th was the third most popular program on 25 December, a company release says. Kyunki Saas.... and Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii took the top two spots.

Star also claims that for the week 23-29 December 2001 it had 40 programmes in the top 50 while no competitor featured in the top 16.

Coming back to KKK, the question that remains is whether the show can sustain these figures. It will take a ratings figures from a few more episodes to provide one with a better idea of whether the show, which is the Indian avatar of BBC‘s The Weakest Link has clicked with the Indian junta or not. But the start has certainly been encouraging.