Anjuman, the UK-based Reminiscent Television Network‘s (RTN) Urdu language entertainment channel, is being phased out in the Middle East due to its poor response.

Anjuman will be replaced by a new combi channel, Mashraque, having an equal mix of Urdu and Arabic, that will essentially target expatriates from India and Pakistan who need a working knowledge of the two languages in order to be able to work in the region, along with the local populace.

Mashraque is to be a free to air channel and will be beamed off the Arabsat satellite. The network‘s Indian affiliate RITV was supplying 30 per cent of the content for Anjuman.

It has also entered a deal with entertainment major Viacom, which will promote RITV‘s Lashkara and Gurjari channels as part of a pay package ‘Asia Plus‘ in the Middle East and North Africa. The package also includes the Sony channels (Sony Entertainment, MAX, AXN and CNBC India), MTV, 24-hour Hindi news channel Aaj Tak and Malayalam language channel Kairali.

Although channel officials were unable to put a figure on the extent of viewership Mashraque would target, they said the channel‘s profile would enable it to compete successfully with other government owned channels in the region, like Dubai TV and Saudi TV. The channel is being projected as an entertainment channel with a judicious mix of songs, soaps and comedy. The channel is, however, reluctant to divulge details about where it would be source content.

While Asia Plus will be headquartered at the new Dubai Media City enclave, RITV too is planning to set up its offices there to establish its presence in the region, it is learnt. UK-based RTV which has the cutting edge of offering a group of ethnic channels under one umbrella, owns 20 per cent of RITV.

RITV launched Lashkara and Gurjari in 1998, both 24-hour channels which address the needs of the Punjabi and Gujarati communities respectively. Since their launch, both channels have been telecast in over 30 South Asian contries. Lashkara made its UK launch in May 2000. RTN runs a seven-channel bouquet in the UK.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) Super Selector Fantasy Cricket Game, the interactive game launched on the sports broadcaster‘s India services in September 2001, surpassed its own world record for the number of monthly entries received for any single on-line game conducted across the globe.

Super Selector broke its own world record when over 265,000 participants registered on www.espnstar.com to play the web-based game in November, more than double the 109,907 participants in October who registered in the first 10 days of the game‘s launch, an ESS press release said.

Participants from all over India registered to play the monthly competition, with western India leading the pack with 78,967 participants, followed by 71,921 from south India, 56,363 from the North and 27,048 from east India.

The remaining 30,000 entries were from outside India. Nearly 50 per cent of the respondents were in the 16-21 age group, 24 per cent were 22-30 years old and 16 per cent were below 15.

ESS managing director Rik Dovey said: "The success of the Super Selector game continues to scale new heights in interactivity. The synergy and integration of this project, both on and off air, has given us and our sponsors an unprecedented opportunity to connect with our target audiences in an innovative way, while bringing cricket to a new level of enjoyment - never seen before in Asia."

Super Selector is sponsored by Kingfisher Premium Lager Beer, TVS Victor Motorbikes and Peter England Apparel.