In what is claimed to be a unique concept for the media and entertainment sector, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising on 7 and 8 August the Enter Media 2001 conference. The conference will be the culmination of an online interactive initiative beginning end June whose aim is to identify the key issues which the industry needs to address.

The organisers hope that the issues that Enter Media 2001 cover will help in charting a future course for the industry to achieve global standards.

To delienate the key issues, message boards on a Enter Media 2001/CII website will be specially created. These message boards - to be gathered from industry executives and the public at large - will represent a "market snapshot" across each of the industry verticals. The idea is to define constraints and highlight possible solutions, according to the chairman of the task force set up to organise the conference, Biren Ghose, CEO of UTV Interactive.

Others on the taskforce include Shyam Benegal (Films), Pritish Nandy (CEO Pritish Nandy Communication), Abhik Mitra (Music), Sumantra Dutta (Star India Ltd, Radio), Vijay Mukhi (Technology), Pallavi Jha (CII Chairperson - Maharashtra), Rana Kapoor / Vijay Jain (Banking), Rajesh Jog (Venture Capital) and SK Chakraborty (Industrial Development Bank of India). The venue of the conference is the ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton in Mumbai‘s western suburb of Andheri.

Daily sports news programming during prime time is not proving as difficult as some feared for ESPN-Star Sports (ESS). Sportsline on Star Sports and the Hindi-language SportsCenter have both found audiences despite being pitted against daily soaps, a company release states.

Following on the success of SportsCenter, which debuted in March in India, the programme will be launched in Mandarin and English across the rest of Asia and China starting August.

Nearly 30 million people have tuned in to Star Sports to watch Sportsline since its launch last September, while close on 10 million watched ESPN‘s Hindi-language SportsCenter in just its first nine weeks of broadcast, the release says.

According to ESS managing director Rik Dovey, these figures are encouraging. "The 10 PM time slot is tough with our bulletins up against the top local serials and soap operas, so we are pleased to be carving out an audience for our programmes.

Sportsline, India‘s first live half-hour sports news programme, offers viewers international sports news from an Indian perspective, together with comprehensive coverage of domestic sporting events.

Sportsline has proved a good example of interactivity too as large numbers of Indian viewers log onto the company‘s website, espnstar.com, to participate in "Your Shout", an online extension of the programme. More than 10,000 people have responded to the weekly poll that invites viewers to vote on issues raised in the on-air programme.

SportsCenter on ESPN has performed well too since it debuted in India in March this year, presented in Hindi by Darain Shahidi. Within nine weeks of the India launch, 24 per cent of the cable audience had tuned in to SportsCenter. Again, the figures for upscale males were prominent, with 26 per cent of this universe having watched the programme. The information has been collated from market research agency ORG-Marg‘s Intam data, the release says.

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) will formally launch the Casbaa Satellite Group on 18 June in Singapore with a one-day conference featuring a keynote address from Douglas Kahn, president and CEO of PanAmSat, as well as the participation of senior executives from SES Astra, Boeing Space, Americom Asia-Pacifc, Shinawatra Satellite, AsiaSat, STAR Group, New Skies Satellite, AOL Time Warner and Binariang Satellite.

Among the papers that will be presented at the conference include: "Ten Years Ahead - Next Generation Satcoms" (speaker Randy Brinkley, president, Boeing Satellite Systems); "Broadband via Satellite - Prospects & Perils For Asia" (speaker Christopher Slaughter director Asia Pacific Communications Yankee Group);

"Financing In The New Era: Strategic Alliances, Partnerships, Mergers & Acquisitions."

With the Iridium crash and potential failure for a large, multi-billion dollar market for handheld mobile satellite telephony, investors are becoming increasingly cautious.
* What is the current state of satellite financing in Asia?
* What is the financial outlook for broadband systems?
* What are the various means to obtain financing?

"Broadband Content Over Satellite."

A key element in the future of the communications industry lies in rich media with ‘infotainment‘ applications and services coming online all the time. Many now believe that the network itself is far less important than the information or content carried over the network.
* How will telecom operators, communications service providers, ISPs, content providers, broadcasters and media define themselves within this new economy?
* To what extent will the new communications economy be based around content?
* What are the market implications? Satellite News Gathering (SNG)? * Where are the threats and opportunities?

"Fast Forward To The Future: Strategic Intelligence Now!"

Content is king but does not yet reign supreme. Content markets are developing rapidly, with traditional providers going online, new entrants and specialist distributors emerging and media players merging into the telecoms industry.
* Will the convergence between telecoms, ISPs , broadcast and media continue?
* If content is to be the new currency, how will it be valued and leveraged as a strategic weapon?
* Who are the players in the content value-chain?
* What is the role of content access in forging industry partnerships?