Production house WSG Nimbus, which saw its three-year television, radio and sponsorship deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) terminated on Tuesday, today threatened to sue for damages.

BCCSL claims it was forced to foreclose the agreement due to constant delays in contractually agreed payments by Nimbus. BCCSL also obtained an ex parte court order in Colombo in support of this

Nimbus, in an official release denied it had breached the agreement in any respect. The release further states that Nimbus would be going in appeal to have the order set aside and would also seek redressal "from BCCSL for the losses, damage and injury to its reputation and business emanating from this unjustified action by the BCCSL in seeking to terminate the agreement."

In January 2000, Nimbus had signed an agreement with BCSSL which was to run till 31 December 2003. According to the BCSSL, Nimbus has defaulted on its payments before as well. Last year in January, just before the England team‘s tour to the Emerald Isles, Nimbus had defaulted on its payments and had been taken to court, is the board‘s contention. Nimbus then agreed to execute bank guarantees before a certain date prior to every tour by cricket teams to Sri Lanka.

As per the agreement, in case Nimbus were to default in issuing this guarantee, the agreement between BCSSL and Nimbus would cease to be in force. There is a three-test series set to begin on 14 November with the West Indies and Nimbus has yet to execute the bank guarantees, BCSSL says. The board approached the Sri Lankan attorney-general who advised them that the agreement with Nimbus ceased to exist as they had failed to honour the contract, is the charge made by BCSSL.

Trans World International (TWI) which narrowly lost out to Nimbus on the original deal, reported to be $ 27 million, are now seen as favourites to secure the rights in the event that the termination stands.

In a bid to recognize talent within (and maybe also kick in some much needed enthusiasm) the national broadcaster is holding its own ‘Doordarshan Awards 2000-2001‘ for excellence in different fields of television.

To be held at the Siri Fort auditorium in Delhi on 11 December 2001, the awards will cover excellence in thematic, aesthetic and technical quality of programming for television produced by the different Doordarshan Kendras (stations).

The awards ceremony, which promises to be a mega event showcasing the best DD has to offer, will be telecast live on the DD1 national network from 7 pm onwards on 11 December.

The DD Mumbai team headed by its director Mukesh Sharma will be looking after the ground event while live telecast will be handled by Doordarshan Delhi Kendra.

The awards will be judged by a committee headed by the controller of programmes, DD, Mandi House, New Delhi, with liaison work between all the Doordarshan networks being handled by Shehzadi Simon, DD Delhi.

Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has agreed to inaugurate the awards presentation ceremony with information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj as the other main VIP invitee, says Sharma.

According to Sharma: "DK Mumbai have sent in their nominations for 22 of the categories."

The various categories under which the Doordarshan awards 2000-2001 will be presented are:

D. Best Doordarshan Kendra

Paul FitzPatrick has taken over as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Crown Media Holdings, Inc. from 10 October.

Crown Media Holdings owns and operates pay television channels, prominent among them being the Hallmark Channel. FitzPatrick, who was chief operating officer of Crown Media United States, which operates Hallmark in the country, replaces Lana Corbi, who last month was named president and chief executive officer of Crown Media United States.

FitzPatrick will oversee the development and creation of new channels, business development, business affairs, human resources and network information systems world-wide on behalf of Crown Media Holdings. Based in New York, Mr. FitzPatrick will also retain the responsibility as head of distribution for the Hallmark Channel U.S., which he formally joined in 2000.

Australian born FitzPatrick was earlier COO of the Golf Channel, the first single sports genre cable network, where he was responsible for overseeing programming, production and network operations, distribution, marketing, advertising sales and information systems.

FitzPatrick has also been president and chief executive officer of NewsTalk Television, a company he founded in 1988 and launched in 1994. Certain assets of the channel were acquired by MSNBC in 1996.

Continuing its push to localise content for India, kids‘ channel Cartoon Network is looking at acquiring the television rights to more properties similar to its recent aquisitions of two animation films: Pandavas - The Five Warriors and Sinbad - Beyond The Veil of Mists. Produced by Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics Limited, the series had their Indian television premiere on Cartoon Network in September.

"We are in discussions with a number of animation producers in India but nothing has been finalised as yet," Jennifer Fletcher, senior V-P, ad sales, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, said.

Fletcher, who was in Mumbai for a meeting of Turner‘s ad sales team, spoke to indiantelevision.com on Tuesday. She said it was the localisation effort that dictated the increase in Hindi programming on the channel which currently stands at nine hours a day. For the southern markets, Cartoon Network provides two hours of programming in Tamil.

And emphasising how important India was to Cartoon Network, Fletcher pointed out that 50 per cent of the toon channel‘s advertising revenues across Asia came from India. Queried as what were the expectations on the ad sales front for the year, Soumitra Saha, VP ad sales, said that even after factoring in inflation, Cartoon Network expected to see a 10 per cent revenue growth this year. Though Saha refused to give any numbers, industry estimates indicate that ad revenues this year will be in the region of Rs 220 million.

Queried as to what the channel had lined up for Diwali, Saha said a Dream Diwali promotion was currently on which would give 250 kids the chance to meet their favourite toon characters, among other things.