It‘s been a year and ten months since the Viacom-owned kid‘s channel Nickelodeon entered Indian air space but it might as not have come at all considering the kind of recognition levels it has achieved till date. In a fresh attempt to get it some viewer cachet, Nickelodeon will be launching a Hindi band of programming - "Nick Masala" - from 4 September.

Beginning the first Tuesday of September (the 4th) "Nick Masala" will be aired thrice a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the slotting is in the evening band from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM while on Sundays it will be in the noon band from 11 am to 1 PM Depending on how the new initiative is received, MTV India - which is directly responsible for pushing the channel in India (without disturbing the existing distribution arrangement with Zee that is) - will take a call on whether to increase Hindi programming.

How Nickelodeon is being distributed by the Zee-promoted Siticable has been a major sore point, with the pay TV service reportedly managing to get a cable TV penetration of less than 3-4 million, and a paying subscriber base less than one tenth of that.

Queried about what Zee was doing to improve things, Partha Sinha senior VP, marketing and communication said a promotional push which involved a host of on-ground activities - including direct-to-people contact efforts and other promotional spots - were in the pipeline to increase the visibility of the channel. Sinha said the rollout of these initiatives would take off by September-end.

DISNEY SHOWS ON FOUR ALPHA CHANNELS: Sinha confirmed that Zee had entered into a deal with Buena Vista (distributors of Disney programming in India) for airing dubbed Disney shows on four of Zee‘s Alpha regional channels - Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi. As for whether there were plans to bring Disney onto the other Alpha channels, Sinha replied in the negative.

When queried as to whether there wasn‘t cross-purpose activity going on when Disney shows were airing on Alpha channels while Zee was supposed to be promoting Nickelodeon, Sinha had this to say. He justified the move on the grounds that before Nickelodeon could be introduced onto the Alpha channels it would have to become more familiar to viewers. A chicken and egg scenario it would seem.

In the meantime, Nickelodeon still has a mountain to climb before it can turn from being a mere blip on the viewerscope to something more substantial.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and Astro, its Malaysian Pay TV Partner, have reached an agreement to make available exclusive coverage of the English Premier League soccer matches on their Pay TV platform for the next three seasons, according to a company release.

Announcing the conclusion of the broadcast contract with Astro, ESS managing director Rik Dovey said that it would provide viewers in Malaysia with expanded coverage of the EPL, including five live matches a week on ESPN and Star Sports.

"We‘re thrilled to have arrived at this broadcast agreement with Astro," Dovey said. "Now Malaysian football fans can enjoy Premier League action at a level they‘ve never before experienced."

ESS will broadcast 165 live games and over 1000 hours of EPL coverage per season.

Going strong on its expansion plan despite the depressed media scenario, the Ramoji Rao owned Eenadu Television Network on Wednesday added "ETV Urdu" to their kitty of regional channels. The 24-hour free-to-air digital channel was finally launched on 15 August (Independence Day) after a long wait by the chief editor Eenadu group of publications and chairman of the Ramoji Film City (RFC), CH Ramoji Rao, at the RFC complex in Hyderabad.

ETV has been building its programming content for the Urdu channel for more than one-and-a-half years now. The target audience will not only be the Urdu-speaking audiences in India but also the Gulf countries. The Urdu spoken on the channel will not be pure Urdu (which not many people understand) but that spoken by common people so as to give it a broader viewership, company officials say.

Khaas Baat (Urdu News)

The Channel will have a fair mix of entertainment and information with hourly news updates, telefilms, family dramas, daily soaps, devotional and musical programmes. The USP of the channel will be fresh and original programming rather than dubbed or outsourced programmes, say officials. Special efforts have been taken to strengthen the news section. Khaas Baat, a news capsule specially designed to cover Urdu speaking areas. ETV has tied up with Reuters Television, CNN International and Transworld International so as to ensure comprehensive coverage of international news and current affairs, according to a company release.

Adakaar is a weekly acting competition hosted by well known actor Nirmal Pandey. And for those die-hard fans of Urdu poetry, Mushaira, a monthly mega event of lyrical excitement, will quench their thirst.

To develop the channel‘s indentity, films will not be shown in the initial period. Instead telefilms are being produced that will be telecast exclusively on the channel. Game shows, talk shows and song-based programmes like Mehfil, Gazal Sara, Qawwali are also going to be an intrinsic part of the programming.

The majority of the programming is being done in-house though there are some programmes which are on commissioned basis. The network‘s headquarters is in Hyderabad.

On the ad rate front, the figures being quoted would appear a tad optimistic and it remains to be seen whether the channel will be able to get buyers for its time slots. Spot rate for prime time (7pm to 10pm) has been kept at Rs 20,000 as per the rate card. Industry sources say as of now no advertiser has been confirmed though talks are going on.

A still from the serial Tumhara Intezar Hai

Even on the distribution front, the channel is likely to face a long haul. According to industry sources, cable connectivity is going to be a major issue the channel will face. In this direction, channel executives have been contacting cable operators in Mumbai and also distributing set top boxes.

That apart, looking at the past record of the group and the amount of homework done by ETV Urdu as far as its programming goes, the channel is certainly expected to make a difference in today‘s cluttered scenario.

ETV already has Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and Kannada channels. Next in the pipeline from the ETV stable are Gujarati and Oriya channels.

Technical Specification :

ETV Urdu:
Satellite - APR-I (INSAT-2E) at 83.5 degree East
Downlink frequency - 4005 MHz
Downlink Polarisartion - Vertical
Symbol rate - 27000 Kg Symbol/sec
FEC - 3/4
Downlink EIRP - 38 dbW
Signal type Digital,MPEG 2/clear
Free-To-Air.

To promote its new blockbuster movie ‘Planet Of the Apes‘ 20th Century Fox has tied up with popular music network MTV International as its only global media partner.

Fox will take advantage of the network‘s 31 localised channels and 17 websites spread across Asia, Europe, Russia, America and Latin America, an MTV release says.

The movie opened in America in July and is gradually being released all over the world. It has been directed by Tim Burton (Batman) who gives his unique touch to a classic story.

Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter star. As part of the promotion MTV will show a half-hour special called "Making the movie: Planet of the Apes". The stars will talk about their experiences making the film and viewers will also get a glimpse about the history of the films franchise. There is also a competition on the MTV channels and websites. Forty lucky winners from around the world will get a trip to Africa where they will see apes living not in a zoo but in their natural habitat. In this way Fox hopes to connect not only with older viewers who saw the original version when they were young but also the new generation who regularly watch the music channel.

Speaking about the initiative, Harvey Ganot president MTV Networks advertising sales worldwide said: "MTV is the only multimedia youth brand that offers clients the ultimate in flexibility to tailor campaigns locally, regionally or globally, making it the real choice for companies looking for an integrated approach reaching young adults on-air, online and on the ground."

This is the first time both the companies have worked together on a film project that stretches across the world and they expect that their joint efforts will result in more awareness about the film among movie buffs. Other movies that MTV has previously been involved in include the Tom Cruise starrer ‘Mission Impossible II‘ where it tied up with Paramount Pictures and the James Bond Movie ‘The World Is Not Enough‘ where it partnered MGM.