The Union Cabinet has cleared all the hurdles in the way of Ku-band direct to home television. The GoM had met earlier this week and this morning before finalising the modalities of opening up DTH. The Cabinet took this decision at a meeting which has just concluded at Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee‘s residence.
The lifting of the December 1996 ban has been a difficult political decision to make for several governments. I&B minister Sushma Swaraj with support from former I&B minister and current law minister, Arun Jaitley, however have managed to push it through.

Details of the clearance are awaited, but CNBC India has reported that the government has decided to open up DTH to as many players as possible.

Urdu Television Network which has been beaming a test signal for the past three months is making its debut on 1 November. UTN is promoted by Khalid Bhaimia, an eminent Pakistani banker, with interests in television production.
The channel has signed up with Zee Telefilms since 2 October on the distribution and marketing front. Zee will be distributing the channel in India and west Asia. In consideration of that carriage, Zee TV has agreed to extend its marketing and Management expertise particularly in the area of content and packaging to UTN on commercial terms. The benefit for Zee TV: it gets another niche channel catering to a well-heeled Urdu speaking audience, which helps make its digital bouquet look a lot more attractive.

‘We are looking at the future DTH and DTO scenario, where having a right bouquet of channel will help us to garner more revenue," says Monica Srivastava, who heads UTN‘s marketing along with Zee Sports. She adds that the channel is getting a good response from advertisers. ‘Already a few FMCGs, and soft drink manufacturers have agreed to advertise on the channel."

Deputy Chief Executive Satish Menon - who heads the channel - reveals that "as of now we only have agreement under which UTN will be content provider and we will be looking after distribution and marketing. There is no revenue sharing, We are working out the same." The 24 hour channel will initially be free-to-air and in be delivered in an analogue mode off AsiaSat 3S.

At startup UTN, has four hours of original programming: two hours each from India and Pakistan. "The content is going to be different. I assure viewers," says Almas Shah, programming controller. "The Urdu will not be heavy but normal which can be understood by the masses. We are looking at a huge audience not only from India and Pakistan but also west Asia UK, USA, Canada, Australia."

UTN has already gathered programming for three months. Zee is helping in content aggregation. Shah says UTN‘s positioning is as an entertainment channel. One movie will be shown per day with a huge chunk of the library coming from Pakistan.

Says Shah: "We have got a very good response for our trial run, even though it was a repeat telecast." She has no fears of the channel being labeled as a Muslim channel and any related controversy since content is being sourced from Pakistan. "There will be no mention of politics, current affairs or religion. UTN will have the final authority as far as the profile of the channel is concerned. So it is not at all a Muslim channel but a pure Urdu entertainment channel," she says.

But competition is creeping up in the form of at least another three Urdu channels: one from Eenadu, Lashkara and the long-in-gestation Falak TV. Now it is left to be seen whether Zee TV and UTN will take advantage of the first movers‘ advantage.

Content provider Nimbus Communications is making its moves - quietly but surely. The company says it will launch its long-talked about channel on the entertainment business, the Showbiz channel, on 23 December via Thaicom-3.
Modi Entertainment Network will be the distribution agent for the digital encrypted channel. The proposed 24 hour pay service will charge cable ops Rs 4 per subscriber per month. Nimbus also plans a woman‘s channel expected to launch at the end of the first quarter of 2001, reveals Nimbus chairman, Harish Thawani.

According to him, his company is amongst the front runners to bag the Sri Lanka cricket rights which are currently under review. Besides, Nimbus says it will produce and distribute a range of Hindi and regional movies. Directors Aziz Mirza and Sudheer Misra have been signed, as well as "some of the bigger stars," says Thawani.

Besides, Hindi, Nimbus plans to produce films in Marathi, Kannada and Oriya languages. Nimbus Communications, which decided against an IPO earlier this year, had received Rs 432 million as part of a private placement with Transatlantic Corp. The company is awaiting "a period of stability in the stockmarket" to launch its IPO seeking another Rs 1,800 million. Nimbus prospectus has been approved by SEBI.

US-based Crown Media Holdings, parent of Crown Media International, is in talks with the Modi Entertainment Network (MEN) to set up an Indian joint venture for kid‘s channel, Kermit. Crown is exploring whether a relationship of this kind will help increase its distribution and advertising revenue.
Kermit has been distributed by MEN in India over the past year or so and more than 5,000 IRDs have been placed with cable operators to enable them to receive the encrypted service. The channel charges cable operators a carriage fee of around Re 1 per subscriber. Indian cable ops have also paid up advances for the IRDs.

Elsewhere in Asia, Crown has taken the decision to relaunch Kermit as a day part service on Hallmark, which is also being recast and reintroduced with a snazzier look and better packaging. Kermit will cease to be telecast as a separate 24 hour feed over Asia from 1 November.