India‘s most significant global convention of the entertainment industry, Ficci Frames 2001, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, begins today at Hotel Regent, in Mumbai‘s western suburb of Bandra.

The two-day event will see major players from the entertainment industry, right from business leaders, representatives of the government‘s decision making bodies, stars, broadcasters, cable TV industry, and the advertising sectors out in force. They will be participating in the discussions, and workshops at the convention.

Its main idea: converge cinema, television, audio, cable, together and focus to bring about an upgradation of quality, content and professional management of the entertainment industry, similar to that seen in Hollywood.

Nearly 116 representatives of the various segments of entertainment from all over India will be present. Among those attending: Sushma Swaraj, union minister for information and broadcasting, Pawan Chopra, secretary, ministry of I&B, Anil Baijal, CEO Prasar Bharati; V Chandrasekaran, chairman and CEO Pentamedia Graphics Ltd; Amit Khanna, CEO Reliance Entertainment; Markand Adhikari, vice-chairman and managing director SABe TV; Shabana Azmi, MP; Ronnie Screwvala, chairman and MD UTV; Lalit Modi of Modi Entertainment; director Shyam Benegal, and film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

Top-notch representatives of the entertainment world will also speak on issues and hold discussion panels. For instance Discovery chief Kiran Karnik, SET‘s Kunal Dasgupta, Bhuvan Lall, executive director IBF will be speaking on the regulatory framework of broadcasting.

Munesh Khanna, country had, corporate finance, Arthur Anderson, will make a presentation on the present status and future of the entertainment industry. Bonds contracts, insurance, and debt financing in the entertainment industry will also be brought up for discussion.

A lot is being promised, right from a glimpse into the business of story telling by Mahesh Bhatt to the art of content creation by Ekta Kapoor, creative head of Balaji Telefilms. Meanwhile, Ravina Raj Kohli, CEO HFCL Nine Broadcasting, will be talking on the business of commissioning programmes by TV networks and distinguished movie-maker Ramesh Sippy will speak on the relevance of big screen entertainment for the small screen.

Continuing CNN‘s restructuring exercise, Bruce Dover has been named managing editor CNN Asia Pacific, it was announced today by Ian Macintosh, senior vice president, CNN International, Asia Pacific. Dover will be responsible for CNN‘s television, website and integrated production in the region.

Dover will lead CNN‘s production and editorial teams based at its Hong Kong regional news headquarters. Reporting to Ian Macintosh, he will be responsible for integration of CNN‘s editorial output across all platforms and networks, according to a company release.

"Dover brings to this new position an impressive mix of editorial, managerial and business experience," says Macintosh. "Since joining CNN.com last year he has provided superior leadership, focus and innovation, ensuring the successful creation and launch of CNN.com/Asia. He is ideally qualified to drive the integration of our newsgathering, production and online operations in Hong Kong."

CNN‘s Hong Kong regional news hub consists of 85 staff who produce more than 31 hours a week of programming including six prime-time regional programmes broadcast live daily, plus CNN‘s first web site to be produced out of Asia, the newly launched CNN.com/Asia. The Hong Kong production facility is also the newsgathering headquarters for CNN‘s nine bureaus operating in the region, including the recently opened Sydney bureau.

Dover joined CNN in August 2000 from News Interactive, the Australian online division of News Corporation, where he was the executive general manager since October 1998. Previous to this he was vice president in China for News Corporation, based in Beijing. Concurrently, he was the founding chief executive of PDN Xinren Pty Limited, a joint venture with the People‘s Daily newspaper, which developed the first foreign joint venture Internet site, www.chinabyte.com.

Dover began his career as a political reporter for the Brisbane Telegraph newspaper. In 1986 he won The Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award for his coverage in Asia.

Commenting on the new initiative, Discovery MD Kiran Karnik says: "We are delighted to add a Hindi audio to selected programmes. This will provide an opportunity to our present audience to enjoy the best of Animal Planet‘s spectacular and high-quality programmes in a language that many of them may prefer."

Launched in 1999, the channel already reaches 7.5 million homes, according to a company press release.

Intelsat yesterday launched a new brand identity, the centre point of which is a new visual identity that includes three panels that intersect to form the letter "i" in the middle, representing how Intelsat is a bridge that helps its customers

Intelsat CEO Conny Kullman, speaking at the Satellite 2001 conference in Washington DC yesterday, commented: "Our key challenge in developing this brand was to show how our resources and technology in the sky make people‘s lives on earth better - how we create opportunities for our customers by connecting the world. We also wanted our new brand identity to reflect collaboration, innovation, flexibility and partnering, as these are the drivers that we believe will be key in our future. We are aligning our business practices and priorities with the marketplace, and we believe that this new brand projects Intelsat as a modern, customer-centric company, geared for the future."

At the same time, Intelsat also announced that it had redesigned its web site to conform to the new brand look and feel.

Intelsat offers Internet, broadcast, telephony and corporate network solutions around the globe through 19 satellites. Telecommunications companies and broadcasters in more than 200 countries and territories are connected to Intelsat.

In India, Intelsat is represented by government telecom gateway Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited.