Zee may send notice to Star Plus on Hindi programming

Mumbai, March 26: Zee Telefilms will send a legal notice to Star Plus if the channel did not discontinue its 24-hour Hindi programming. ...

Mumbai, March 26: Zee Telefilms will send a legal notice to Star Plus if the channel did not discontinue its 24-hour Hindi programming. quot;If the amendments are not made, we will take Star TV to court,quot; Zee Network chairman Subhas Chandra said during an informal chat after the company8217;s extra-ordinary general meeting EGM on Friday.

Chandra also said that Zee Telefilms would hold at least 51 per cent stake in the proposed sports channel. Earlier, speaking to shareholders at the EGM, Chandra announced that the company had been sanctioned in-principle term loans and credit facilities of Rs 110 crore by ICICI and other banking institutions for the proposed new activities including digitalisation and introduction of eight regional channels. The interest rate will be 12 per cent and the effective cost to the company will be 13 per cent, Chandra said.

The purpose of the EGM was to approve Zee Telefilms8217; transformation from a media-software exporter to a global media conglomerate. Zee plans to get into totalmedia activities like Internet, newspaper, satellite, e-commerce, and uplinking.

quot;Technological convergence has brought entertainment, communication and media into a single fold. Advancement in technology has merged these fields together through miracles of digitalisation and compression. From analog satellite broadcasting, Zee is moving to digital, direct-to-operator and direct-to-home broadcasting, apart from launching Internet services,quot; Chandra said.

At the EGM, Zee proposed to increase the authorised share capital of the company from Rs 50 crore to Rs 75 crore to meet the growing expansion of the comapny8217;s business. Chandra said that the company had no intentions of issuing fresh capital in the immediate future, but added that in view of the ambitious projects, such an increase was being sought to safeguard them from any fund shortfall. quot;The company had been funding all new projects through internal accruals. But for raising debt in future at competitive rates, the company intends to leverage its networth and borrow from banks and financial institutions,quot; he added. Zee plans to integrate its overseas investments with the parent company to achieve efficiencies of scale, Chandra said.