MUMBAI: English GEC Star World has announced that for the first time it will air an international show before its global launch.

?Missing?, an espionage drama, kicks off on 12 March at 9 pm. The series will launch simultaneously on both Star World and Star Movies.

The show stars Ashley Judd, Sean Bean and Cliff Curtis.

The show revolves around Becca Winstone, played by Judd, who is in search of her missing son. It soon becomes clear that this isn?t any ordinary woman, but a former CIA agent who will stop at nothing to bring her son home alive. There are exotic locations and thrilling twists in ?Missing?.

Star India GM, senior VP, English channels Saurabh Yagnik said, "It has been our constant endeavor to bring new Hollywood shows to India to match their date and time in the US. As leaders in the category, we are proud to host the world television premiere of Hollywood?s biggest show Missing in India, four days before the US. This initiative is bound to reaffirm our commitment to our viewers and boost Star World?s perception as the ultimate destination for fresh Hollywood shows."

The broadcaster is using the digital medium for marketing activities.

MUMBAI: For founder-promoter Harish Thawani, fresh trouble is brewing. TheOneAlliance, the brand of the joint venture company between Multi Screen Media (MSM) and Discovery, has terminated the distribution contract of Neo Sports Broadcast?s two sports channels.

Already weakened by the scrapping of BCCI?s rights to India cricket, Neo Sports Broadcast will suffer a huge revenue loss. Sources familiar with the deal said Sony Entertainment Television India (now called MSM) had agreed to pay a minimum guarantee of Rs 2.7 billion net for the three-year distribution of Neo Cricket and Neo Sports.In 2009, Nimbus had renewed through to 2014 its contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for Rs 20 billion. After the exit of Colors and the other Viacome18 channels MTV, Vh1 and Nick in mid-2010, Sony found an opportunity and signed up Neo Sports Broadcast?s channels.

For Neo Sports Broadcast, which was tossed out by Star India on review of the high price it had agreed to pay for distribution of the two channels, TheOneAlliance?s decision to end the contract has come as a huge setback. Neo had set up its own distribution team but could not kick in substantial pay revenues. TheOneAlliance came as a blessing as the MG (minimum guarantee) price was high and Neo also kept the digital part of the distribution business.

"We terminated the contract with Neo Broadcast on 3 January. We had specifically mentioned in the contract that the deal would be valid if Neo had the BCCI rights. We have communicated to them about the scrapping of the contract," MSM Discovery president Rajesh Kaul told Indiantelevision.com, without disclosing the size of the contract.

Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasanna Krishnan declined to comment on the issue.

The BCCI cancelled the deal after Nimbus repeatedly defaulted on payments. India?s cricket board, which has time till mid this year when India plays a home series, is expected to come out with fresh tenders for the remaining tenure of the contract. Nimbus, however, is saved by the courts so far as the BCCI has not been able to encash the Rs 20 billion bank guarantee.

The termination of the contracts with BCCI and TheOneAlliance means that Neo will find bargaining hard if it wants to sell its broadcasting buiness. Indication is that Sony wouldn?t weigh the option of buying out Neo.

"After deciding to end the distribution contract, it is highly unlikely that Sony will look at buying Neo. The Times of India Group may be a contender. Or even Mukesh Ambani via Network18. These are entities who could be looking at entering the sports broadcasting market. But the big debate could be valuation," said a media analyst.

Nimbus Communications had filed, late 2010, the draft offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise Rs 3.50 billion via an initial public offering (IPO). Out of the issue proceedings, the company intended to use Rs 1.29 billion for launching of new channels (Neo Cinema and Neo Zindagi) and Rs 132.45 million towards the geographic expansion of Neo Cricket. It also stated that it would use Rs 1.16 billion to obtain bank guarantee and provide security deposit for sports rights. It further intended to use Rs 349.87 million and Rs 500 million of the net issue proceedings for upgradation of Neo infrastructure and acquisition of new broadcasting rights respectively.

For the fiscal ended 31 March 2010, Nimbus Communications had posted an income of Rs 7.33 billion from sales and services, while net loss stood at Rs 1.42 billion. As of March 2010, Nimbus had accumulated loss of Rs 4.98 billion.

"Nimbus is in a tight corner so far as its proposed IPO goes. The stock market has tumbled and it is no season for fresh IPOs," said an analyst at a local broking firm.

So how will the exit of Neo impact MSM? MSM?s gameplan could be to bid aggressively for the BCCI rights and launch a sports channel with the lucrative Indian Premium League (IPL) forming the fulcrum. They already have rights to New Zealand Cricket, FA Cup and NBA.

Some multi-system operators (MSOs) said on condition of anonymity that the payout to TheOneAlliance would fall a bit as they would be left without the sports channels. "But they would be better off as the MG they were paying to Neo was on the higher side. Without the BCCI rights, it doesn?t make sense for them to continue. They will save on the payout while incurring a smaller loss in revenues," said the chief executive of a leading MSO.

Counters Kaul. "All our channels are doing exceedingly well. And with the impending IPL in April-May, the strength of our bouquet will not be impacted with the Neo exit."

MSM will have time to stitch together a strategy with or without a sports channel as the IPL telecast rights will be a big driver for subscription revenues till May-end. "They can get the BCCI rights and launch a sports channel. Alternately, they can add more channels and strengthen their third bouquet," said a media analyst.

(With inputs from ASHWIN PINTO)

NEW DELHI: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Uday Kumar Varma said today that the Government‘s roadmap for digitisation will be met with Parliament clearing the Cable Networks Bill.

He also lauded the steps taken by the news and general entertainment channels towards content regulation.

Varma was addressing the second annual symposium on ‘Media and New Technology - New Technologies, New Challenges: Indian Media Issues in Global Perspective‘ which concluded today.
 
The meet was hosted by Star India and was in continuation with last year‘s tradition, exploring international and comparative perspectives on media regulation as it affects current debates and the future role of information in society.

The other panel discussions involving media experts from both from India and abroad shed lot of light on the evolution of media in India and the need for a broader approach rather than a narrow-heavy handed approach. The speakers included Wikileaks Former Legal Advisor Mark Stephens; Al Jazeera Head of Legal Affairs Osama Abu-Dehays; NYU Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, Arvind Rajagopal; Aspen Institute Communications & Society Fellow Blair Levin; The Hindu editor Siddharth Varadarajan; Alternative Law Forum- Bangalore Siddharth Narrain; The Times of India Senior Editor Manoj Mitta; TheHoot.com founder Sevanti Ninan; and Center for Global Communication Studies, University of Pennsylvania director Monroe Price.

The meet, an initiative of Oxford University‘s Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, in cooperation with its academic partners - the National Law University-Delhi, the National University of Juridical Sciences-Kolkata, and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, brought together the diverse views of academics, bureaucrats, policymakers, industry leaders, civil society and legal experts to discuss such issues as law and responsibilities of self-regulation of media entities, regulation of the Internet, and emerging technologies in the context of freedom of information, privacy, and freedom of expression.

Star India EVP and General Counsel - Legal and Regulatory Affairs Deepak Jacob said: "The PCMLP will now prepare a report which will be circulated to all the stakeholders in the Indian media sector."

This Symposium follows the 2011 Price Media Law Moot Court Competition - South Asia Rounds that took place on December 15-18 at the National Law University - Delhi.

The Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (PCMLP) at the University of Oxford‘s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is a research and policy programme that brings together scholars, policymakers and practitioners to study contemporary issues in global media law and policy. PCMLP has a particular interest in understanding media and governance in various environments through a comparative perspective emphasizing the importance of the culture and values of all the actors, both local and international.

PCMLP was founded in 1996 by Professor Monroe E Price and Stefaan Verhulst with a grant from the Markle Foundation and the cooperation of the Howard M Squadron Programme in Law, Media, and Society at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

NEW DELHI: The broadcasting industry today made a strong plea to the government to notify the self-regulatory mechanisms of the news broadcasters as well as the general entertainment TV channels - the News Broadcasters Standards Authority and the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council.

This was reiterated by various broadcasters including Indian Broadcasting Foundation president and Star India CEO Uday Shankar and News Broadcasters Association president and NDTV vice chairman KVL Narayan Rao.

Addressing a session on Content in the one-day ‘CEOs in Broadcasting‘ meet organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and later addressing a press meet, Shankar said that notification will enable the two bodies to also exercise self-regulation with regard to channels which were not members of these two bodies. He pointed out that the Advertising Code drawn up by the Advertising Standards Council of India had been notified under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act and therefore it had official sanction.
 
He said the TV industry had never opposed regulation, but had always held the view that the regulator should be an independent body and not the government. "We wanted neutral qualified people and not controlled people from the government". He and Rao were satisfied that the government had supported self-regulation and given it a chance to work.

Shankar said we cannot curb creativity, but have to prevent "dirt" from coming in. He said the BCCC had already proved to be very effective in this regard as channels had complied with the verdict of the Council headed by Justice AP Shah.

Referring to the quality of talent on the channels, Shankar said that with high carriage fee and other expenses, channels were left with little money to get high quality talent.

Rao said the NBSA had been in existence for over three years now and had worked very well, with channels generally complying with the directives of Justice JS Verma. He said the NBSA was not just a complaints body but unit for improving standards. Around 3000 complaints had been dealt with satisfactorily so far in an exemplary fashion, even with penalties being imposed.

Actor Shabana Azmi, who is a member of the BCCC, said that the Council had been working very satisfactorily so far and broadcasters also took it seriously. She said the members had also gained experience in understanding the responsibility of being part of a self-regulatory body.

She said it was interesting that the Government tended to forward to BCCC complaints relating to kissing scenes or scenes of that kind, while the complaints received from the public tended to relate to excessive violence.

Centre for Media Studies director PN Vasanti, who had been instrumental in drawing up the Content Code on behalf of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in 2007, said a monitoring body working with the CMS had come across over 3000 violations.

She wanted the two self-regulatory bodies to create greater public awareness by putting all their verdicts on the websites. She also felt that the two bodies had to work with the government - ‘there are no two ways about it‘.

NBA Secretary General Annie Joseph said that the Electronic Media Monitoring Cell of the Ministry had also begun forwarding complaints to the NBSA.

NewsX Editor-in-Chief Jehangir Pocha wanted clarification on what is news and what constitutes views and said standards should be drawn up for this.

Broadcast Editors Association and NDTV‘s Pankaj Pachauri said self-regulation should not ‘merely work, but should be seen to be working‘. He wanted the bodies to increase the reach to non-members.

Times TV Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla said there was need to be more public about the action taken by the bodies.

Speaking at the press meet, CII Media and Entertainment Committee chairman Amit Khanna described digitisation as a huge step forward and said the byword would now be pay TV and channels would not be driven merely by advertising and the race for TRPs.

He pointed out that the government also stood to earn Rs 60 billion additional revenue with the coming in of digitisation. Piracy would also become difficult, he added.

He supported the stand of the two regulatory bodies for a statutory status.

Answering a question, he said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would decide the basic tariffs after digitisation, but this would be done after issuing a consultation paper and eliciting the views of stakeholders.

Den MD Sameer Manchanda expressed satisfaction that I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma had committed that the sunset dates would be met.