Former Star TV India chief Rathikant Basu-promoted Broadcast Worldwide and Sahara TV sign a joint venture deal to launch a Direct to Home / Direct to Operator satellite TV service in India. Sahara DTH will acquire 49 per cent stake in Broadcast Worldwide, according to a press release sent on e-mail by Basu.
This is a story which would have hit page one of any newspaper any day. Unfortunately, Basu denied it. "It is mischievous as somebody is sending out the press release under a fictitious e-mail account. I don‘t even know the Sahara people," he clarified.

The hullabaloo started on June 1 when the chief executives of broadcasting/media companies in India received an e-mail purportedly from Basu, through a hotmail account, inviting them for a party on the occasion of the recent launch of Tara Punjabi on June 2.

Attached with this invitation over e-mail was a press release which announced the Broadcast Worldwide and Sahara TV joint venture. The details were immaculate and in the realms of being a possibility, including Star India‘s Urmilla Gupta quitting to join Basu‘s company, the same way as she had quit Doordarshan to head the DTH division of Star India.

We reproduce here the e-mail from Basu which, he says, is fictitious. Only, the names of the recepients have been deleted to safeguard their identity.

From: Rathikant Basu [mailto:rathikant_basu@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 9:49 AM
To:XYZ
Cc:XYZ
Subject: TARA

Rathikant Basu Cordially invites you to be part of the celebrations as Broadcast Worldwide launches TARA - The Punjabi Channel On Friday, June 2, 2000 at The Darbar Hall, Taj Palace, New Delhi, 7 pm onwards.

RSVP - Seema 98112 22578

Attached - Press Release BROADCAST WORLDWIDE

Press Release

BROADCAST WORLDWIDE AND SAHARA TV SIGN JV

Dated 1 June 2000, Mumbai,

Broadcast Worldwide and Sahara TV signed a Joint Venture deal today launch a Direct to Home / Direct to Operator satellite TV service in India.

According to the MOU Sahara DTH will acquire 49 per cent stake in Broadcast Worldwide.

Commenting on the deal, Mr. Rathikant Basu, Chairman and CEO of Broadcast Worldwide said, "This deal is a beginning of a long term partnership with Sahara and will provide a digital platform to several niche channels in the direct to home market".

Mr. Mahesh Prasad, CEO & Advisor, Sahara TV said, "We are impressed by the entrepreneurial skills and broadcast industry experience of Mr. Basu and look forward to an alliance with Broadcast Worldwide in the digital era."

Mrs. Urmilla Gupta, Executive Director Of Star TV DTH will be joining Sahara DTH as Executive Director and CEO from first week of July 2000. Mrs. Shukla Das, has been appointed as Director of Programming at Sahara DTH. Star TV DTH division personnel including Ms. Saloni Singh, Mr.Vishal Chowdhury, Mr.Sanjay Pathak, Ms. Riti Jarg and Mr. Jayant Shah will also be joining Sahara DTH which will be headquarted in Noida near Delhi.

SEEMA - 98112 22578
SAHARA DTH - BROADCAST WORLDWIDE
C4 SECTOR XI NOIDA 201 301
PH 914 550737, 914 542227 .

At first it was Television 18, Cinevista Communications and Sri Adhikari Brothers. Now its the turn of two more television companies to go in for a listing.
This time round, entering the market are CEE (I) TV and Telephoto Entertainment Ltd.

CEE (I) TV is a company which deals with the production and telecasting of TV serials and movies, production and marketing of audio albums, marketing of audio cassettes, and production and distribution of feature films. CEE is mainly target at the South Indian audience and has a library of 1000 hours of television software and 912 feature films for overseas satellite rights. It also has strategic tie-ups with Kelly Broadcasting Systems in the US and B4U South in US, Canada, Europe and Middle East. The company has planned to offer 26.65 lakh shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 10 with a total IPO of Rs 53.3 million.

Also joining the action is Chennai-based Telephoto Entertainments Ltd. This television content provider has planned an IPO of 27,50,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each at par, aggregating Rs 27.5 million. The issue will open on 19 June and close on 24 June. Telephoto Entertainments has a library of 500 episodes and is currently showing 25 episodes per week in the Sun network.

However, another television software company, Nimbus Communications which was slated to hit the market in June has now decided to put off its IPO and postpone it to a future date. Instead the company has gone in for a private placement of Rs 12.3 billion.

These days literally everyone is jumping onto the Internet bandwagon. And the latest to do so are none other than television channels.

Sony Entertainment Television, the Indian unit of Japan‘s Sony Corporation is on the verge of buying two Internet portals. This is all a part of Sony‘s plan to make it big in the Internet business in India.

In an interview to Reuters, Sony CEO Kunal Dasgupta said that the acquisition of the portals would help Sony access dedicated Internet communities such as youth, cricket fans, and a number of users hooked on music and films. The acquisitions which were expected to be announced later this month would help the Sony Group‘s plan to develop a central, or main, portal next year that encompasses all its activities in India and provide other services like e-mail, news updates and e-commerce.

Sony Entertainment Television recently joined Applitech Solution Ltd to start a youth portal called freshlimesoda.com in which Sony would hold 33 per cent in the venture and help in the content provision and marketing.

Also cashing in on the Net boom are none other than Sony‘s competitors like Zee Telefilms and News Television India Ltd. News Television already has a youth oriented web site in the form of www.vindia.com an extension of its Channel [V] brand.

And with zeenext always present......the race is really hotting up.