Nimbus had entered into a deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in February 2006 for the telecast rights to all matches featuring the Indian team till March 2010.

Many Indian fans, however, were not able to watch India’s series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka earlier this year and following their demands, the government brought out the ordinance asking the sports channel to share its telecast with the Prasar Bharati, which controls Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), albeit with a seven-minute delay.

The channel has pointed out that the arrangement is eating into its revenues as the Doordarshan’s footprint also includes places outside India. (more…)

Music directors Vishal and Shekhar will be the judges for the second round of auditions of Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007.

Veteran composer Bappi Lahiri, as well as music directors Himesh Reshammiya and Ismail Darbar will also be the judges on the show this year, along with Vishal and Shekhar, the channel says.

The auditions will be held in Mumbai on 19 March 2007. The contestants will get an opportunity to perform in the presence of Vishal - Shekhar, who will take their pick of the finalists from the West zone. (more…)

Jade Goody’s plan to have her photograph taken in a sari was ‘flatly rejected’ by a leading British Asian magazine, it was revealed today.

The 25-year-old, who outraged thousands of viewers when she picked on Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty during the latest run of Celebrity Big Brother, had hoped to wear the sari in an interview with Asiana magazine in a bid to recover her reputation, but the magazine vetoed the idea.

Shihab Salim, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, said: ‘The option of doing a photoshoot with her in a sari was flatly rejected. (more…)

Doordarshan will telecast live all the nine matches in which India is slated to play in the ICC World Cup beginning in March 13, apart from telecast of the Opening match and the semi-finals and final on April 28.

Doordarshan will also telecast a curtain raiser before and after each match, titled Fourth Umpire.

The Opening tie on March 13 between host West Indies and Pakistan will be telecast from Jamaica in a deferred telecast of one hour. The first match featuring India against Bangladesh will be telecast from Trinidad and Tobago on March 17. (more…)

Ali Ejaz the Pakistani director is all set to direct the first ever India-Pakistan television serial, “Dil Aur Fasley” which will be aired on Indian television channel Sahara One. Sareeta from Sahara One is the co-director of the play. Preetam Kaur the Indian folk singer will sing the titian song of the serial, and Shahid Askari is the assistant director.

The Nimbus Communications now plans to float three sports channels at an investment of Rs 350 crore. The company has raised Rs 135 crore on Friday from Deutsche Bank in the form of bonds, which is exchangeable into impartiality after a year at a market value of approximately Rs 200 per share. Deutsche Bank will hold a 10 per cent stake in Nimbus Communication. The company will exploit its internal accruals of Rs 80 crore for financial support in new projects.

First channel will be launching in October, and it will be a cricket channel. Money raised by Nimbus Communications will be used in creating the infrastructure for the new channels and for the purchase of upcoming telecast rights. The second channel will be forthcoming in April 2007, which will a sports entertainment channel. The third channel, to be launched in September 2007 and will be enthusiastic to be a news channel. The channels will increase its paw marks across Asia to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, West Asia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. For the Pakistan territory, Nimbus has approved Pakistan-based GEO TV.