Siva has an option on three Ku-band transponders on the recently launched ST-1 satellite, owned jointly by Singapore Telecom and Taiwan firm Chunghwa Telecom. He is believed to be interested in offering syllabus-based education. "My direct-to-home education TV project plan will cover home schooling and supplementary training for 200 million kids in India. 60 TV channels will be beamed offering education," he says. Students will receive digital set top boxes costing Rs 9,000 each free.

The company implementing the education direct to home TV project -- SivaSat TV Comm Ltd will transmit the syllabus-based educational programming for free for universities. Producers or programmers will provide the programmes and SivaSat is expected to transmit them at no cost.

The uplinking will initially be from Singapore but will be shifted to Tamil Nadu in the first or second quarter on next year. Siva hopes the government will lift its ban on Ku-band transmission specifically for this project as it will be free for students. Siva is also dreaming of introducing the Internet via satellite to districts in remote India.

A new company DishNet Ltd has been set up for the purpose and he expects the service to reach out to 60 lakh customers in the country. The cost: Rs 300 a month with one hour compulsorily being used every day. Siva is at present tying up the hardware with various firms for the project: Compaq (for servers), Portel (for online billing) and Ericsson (for access switches).

Siva says that DisNet will also provide wireless Internet services in the country within the next 18 months using GSM high speed circuit data (HSCD) technology. But the service that he is most kicked up about is direct education to home television. "It's my way of giving back something to the country that gave so much to me," says Siva, who's now based in Fremont (California, US) and runs a software firm called Sterling Infotech Ltd.

The project will likely cost him Rs 200-odd crore but it will be well worth it, he says. "I'm not in this education venture for money," he reveals. "I'm aiming for something else: satisfaction."

O&M's golden jubilee celebrations

A golden jubilee is worth celebrating, right? And Ogilvy & Mather India has been doing it in some style starting with a party all over the world on September 17. All O&M-ites (current employees and even ex-employees) were invited to bashes featuring games, food, beer, and even dancing at all its offices in the country.

But what stands out in mind is the billboard ads the agency ran to coincide with its festivities. The billboard ads had one or two-lines of copy - the handiwork of associate creative director Bobby Pawar. And they were extremely tongue-in-cheek. One of them said: "Ogilvy & Mother..Oglivy & Mathur..Ogily & Mhatre.. fifty years of being mispronounced." Another said: "Fifty years of trying to make logos smaller." The third ad made a shameless pitch for business: "Now that we are fifty we could do with a hair dye brand. The fourth ad was even more cheeky when it said: ".000005% of an agency commission. Hey it's our 50th birthday!"

If this were to be applied and were Levers to demand the giveaway the agency has promised in the ad, it would be entitled to receive about Rs 5,8000; Pidilite, another client, would get a few hundred rupees.

It was the fifth ad - "Since the boss is woman, we're inclined to say we're only 26" - which got the maximum laughs. O&M India boss Ranjan Kapur got several calls asking him if the agency had got a new female head. "I had to tell them no. I explained to them that I haven't gone in for a sex change and neither does the woman in the ad refer to my wife who's normally perceived to be man's boss. The boss we are referring to is Shelly Lazarus, our worldwide boss," says the buoyant Kapur. "Hey, the ads gave many a people some laughs. They were fun."

Cable war spreads tentacles

The last two weeks have been painful for the cable and satellite television business with two senior cable TV professionals - Ram Punjabi, a director with InCableNet and Siticable's Andhra Pradesh head P Ramakrishna - being felled by bullets. The police have come up with no leads in the Ram Punjabi case though Zee TV in a press release has hurled allegations at a business rival and at the failing law and order situation in Vijayawada.

What is alarming about the murders is that earlier skirmishes and murders were restricted to rivalry between lower rung employees in large cable TV companies and small cable TV firms. Now it appears as if this is spreading to even senior management in large cable TV firms which was earlier unimaginable.

What makes it even more disturbing is the suspicion that the underworld has spread its extortion tentacles to the television business, having exhausted other options such as real estate, jewellery, and films. (One theory is that Ram Punjabi was killed because he refused to cough up money that the underworld demanded to let him live. Another theory is that an old personal rivalry or an earlier personal run-in with the underworld lead to his death.

A third theory is that rival cable TV companies frightened by the fallout of the installation of fibre optics by InCableNet placed a price on Punjabi's head and had him killed to slow down the Hinduja-run network.

And that is not particularly good new for the media business. What's to prevent underworld elements from taking aim at the head of a television channel or a television production house or an advertising agency or a publisher from a large newspaper house and demanding huge sums from them?

Especially as all these businesses are perceived to be glamourous with a great amount of cash flow. It would be wise if all those associated with these businesses would provide adequate protection to senior management. Before it's too late.

The writer can be reached at wanvari@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in or television@hotmail.com