BSNL may club broadband services with One India plan

In what could be a bonanza for net surfers and die-hard talkers, BSNL is looking at bundling broadband services with its popular One India scheme that offers STD at Re 1 per minute.

At fixed rentals of Rs 340 per month, users will not only get to call across India for just Re 1 per minute, but can also surf at high speeds of 2 Mbps. BSNL has managed to mop up over 1 crore subscribers from its One India plan, launched in February last year.

“By offering broadband with One India at an extra charge of Rs 160 per month, BSNL is looking at earning additional annual revenues of Rs 160 crore. New users signing up for One India will also take up broadband. This is likely to take BSNL’s annual broadband revenues to over Rs 600 crore,”

BSNL charges a monthly rental of Rs 180 for the One India plan. “This will be increased to Rs 280 and an additional Rs 60 per month will be rental for modem. The final decision is likely to be announced by May this year,” the source added. BSNL is betting big on broadband to push fixed line subscriber base and revenues. Its broadband user base is 9 lakh, annual revenues of Rs 400 crore.

Bharti to launch the Direct To Home (DTH) services

Bharti Airtel Limited has floated a wholly owned subsidiary, Bharti Telemedia, for its direct-to-home (DTH) services.

The plan is to launch DTH this calendar year, but this will depend on whether the telecom major manages to get transponder space from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

Bharti also hopes to launch its IPTV services in the first quarter of the next fiscal, a source in the company says. UTStarcom is the digital service vendor for Bharti's IPTV including the headend and the digital set-top boxes (STBs).

Compaq to power Shah Rukh’s performance in KBC 3

Audiences across India are eagerly waiting to see what kind of a host Shah Rukh Khan will be when the much-awaited KBC 3 premieres on January 22. While Big B had Lenovo to assist him while asking ‘Lock kiya jaye’ to the contestant in his deep baritone, SRK will have the Compaq screen in front of him as he quizzes the contestants.

Compaq has entered into an agreement with STAR India to be part of SRK KBC-3 quiz show. During KBC 2, Lenovo was the integrated computer brand on the show and the company had paid around Rs 2-2.5 crore for the integrated promotion of its PCs. However, with Khan being the brand ambassador of Compaq, Lenovo decided to withdraw from the show.

Source: exchange4media.com

WorldSpace to greet railway passengers

Shatabdi and Rajdhani passengers may soon be treated to the sounds of satellite radio station WorldSpace. According to railway ministry sources, an initial round of talks with WorldSpace radio has already happened and a trial run could begin on select Shatabdis and Rajdhanis soon.

WorldSpace Radio owns and operates its own satellites and provides radio content in Asia and Africa. In India, it broadcasts over 100 channels with more than 40 being in Indian languages.

Source: business-standard.com

Animax, Sify Gamedrome all set with first Animax Grand Gaming Challenge 2007

Animax, in association with Sify Gamedrome, is bringing the first annual ‘Animax Grand Gaming Challenge 2007’. The gaming tournament will be conducted across 66 cities and will have gamers competing for a bevy of prizes in several online game categories such as sports, racing, and strategy on-line and first person shooter.

Animax Grand Gaming Challenge is a pan-India gaming event that will feature top of the line popular games such as Counter Strike, FIFA, NFS UG2, Defense of The Ancients and Gunz Online. Registrations have begun from January 10.

The Animax Grand Gaming Challenge aims to provide a platform to youth, taking the passion of today’s gamers one step forward to a competitive platform. The event aims to be the equivalent of the Oscars of the gaming world with trophies and loads of prizes for winners across all categories. Participants can enter the Challenge by registering at any of the Sify Gamedromes or Sify iWays spread across 66 cities by entering the ‘password of the day’, which will be flashed on air on Animax or via SMSing the password to 2525.

Source: exchange4media.com

TV18 Group to launch two channels by this year, web property may go for public offer too

After announcing its GBN IPO, the TV18 Group has lined up some more ambitious plans for the year. As part of its growth strategy the Group plans to add at least two more channels to its offerings and sees big potential in the regional space.

Confirming this to exchange4media, Raghav Bahl, Managing Director, Television Eighteen India Ltd, said that the news and infotainment space would be the core focus area of the Group. “We will not look at entertainment broadcasting at all. We will stick close to our core competency,” he affirmed.

Echoing the same thought, Sameer Manchanda, Joint Managing Director, Global Broadcast News (GBN), said, “We want to maximise revenue and launch more channels in the long term.” He, however, also laid stress on growing Hindi news channel, IBN 7, and increasing its market share.

PSLV-C7 launched

SRIHARIKOTA : Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C7 (PSLV) has been launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.24 am.

The 44.5 metre tall 295 tonne PSLV-C7 is carrying four satellites, out of which 2 are Indian, 1 Indonesian and 1 Argentinean. It was a perfect launch with all parameters working perfectly.

The PSLV-C7 is carrying the 680 kg Indian remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2, the 550 kg Space Capsule Recovery Equipment (SRE-1), Indonesia's LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's six kg Nan satellite and PEHUENSAT-1.

The Indian satellite is a sophisticated mapping satellite with the ability to spot objects less than one metre apart. The USP of the mission however is the Capsule Recovery Experiment. The idea is to send a satellite to space and bring it back safely to a designated spot.

Its success is a shot in the arm for ISRO's (Indian Space Research Organisation) futuristic manned space mission projects. The success of this mission will also help ISRO erase bitter memories of a failed launch in July last year.

Saregama to launch entertainment portal

MUMBAI: As part of its restructuring strategy, India’s oldest music company Saregama is increasing its digital presence. The RPG Group firm is launching an entertainment portal where it will make available music, movies and a whole host of other products.

Consumers can download music through the portal and movies will be added on. “We will have a subscription and ad revenue model as well. The portal is likely to be called saregama.com. The aim is to make the portal the digital supermarket of entertainment,” says RPG Enterprises - Entertainment Sector president and CEO Subroto Chattopadhyay.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

Star World presents a bouquet of new shows this january

MUMBAI: 2007 starts off with a bang with an exciting new line-up for the Star World audience. Get set to go on a roller-coaster ride as Star World lines up a series of new shows, new specials and new seasons lined-up for your ultimate entertainment!!! This January, from the most anticipated drama series Heroes to the sultry new show Falcon Beach; the 2007 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards to the new seasons of American Idol, Frasier and Apprentice you can experience the best of English entertainment in your living room!

A simple premise, compelling characters, incredible special effects and an enthralling story … The U.S. season premiere of this exciting drama series was network television’s highest-rated 9 p.m. drama premiere since Desperate Housewives in 2004… Heroes, the most anticipated series for 2007, is about to explode onto Star World as it premiers on January 24th at 9 p.m.

Every summer, the sleepy New England town of Falcon Beach ignites, and the surf and sand aren’t the only things heating up. When the townies and the rich kids who summer at Falcon Beach collide, the sparks fly. The rest of the year, they live in different worlds, but come summer they share a strip of beach where anything can happen. That’s the thing about Falcon Beach. Anything is possible. But somebody’s bound to get burned. This exciting new show begins on Tuesday, January 2nd at 8p.m.

Source: indiantelevision.com