Forecast Fun

The prosecutors in the Martha Stewart Case used testimony from an FBI agent who lied under oath to secure a conviction. The prosecutors knowingly and willfully allowed the FBI agent to tell a lie while he was a witness in the courtroom. This is fascinating indeed as they could not convict Martha Stewart for insider trading, so instead tried to get her on a lying technicality to the investigators. So in essence the government lied to convict a Billionaire Tax Paying employer who built her business on blood sweat and tears from scratch on a charge of lying. How can we as Americans actually ever believe in Justice in this country when we cannot even trust our own government to tell the truth? In other words does “Truth, Justice and the American Way” still exist in America? Did it ever? Does the government always lie under oath?

The government owes Martha Stewart 1 Billion Dollars. This ought to be a lesson to the FBI and the stupid, vindictive, lying, ignorant prosecutors in the States Attorneys General offices and DOJ. These FBI agents need to stop making stuff up, stop playing games for grandstanding reasons. Stop pretending to understand business or free enterprise. These prosecutors are mean spirited who are a plague against the economy and can do much more damage to the economy than any International Terrorist could. I would like to see even one of them walk a single days in Martha Stewart’s shoes. It is a pathetic embarrassment to the American people that the FBI will not convict this agent for lying under oath. How can we stand for this abuse of power? Doesn’t this just sound like a bureaucratic jealousy trip to pretend that it is okay to attack an Entrepreneur by lying under oath? Martha Stewart deserves that check, when can we expect it? And don’t tell the American People it is in the mail, we are tired of the lies from the government. Long Live Martha Stewart; shame on the government.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Today, as a lot of firms and directors are looking at internet video websites as places to publish content to draw their potential customers, it is imperative to know the main values of using internet video promotion channels. Get the most value from your online video content through Vidify’s quality video distribution partnerships.

Here are a few basic items you should be familiar with before you begin to post promotional videos on online video websites.

At all times make an effort to use corporate videos that provide meaningful info to your customers - Lots of business people mistakenly assume you can merely place any kind of advertisement on a video website, but nothing could be any closer from reality. Each & every video ought to deliver some value added info to the target market, or otherwise start topic of talk.

Carry out some market research on the video channels previous to you uploading your 1st video - it is a good suggestion to spend some substantial time typing your market’s essential keywords into MSN, in order to discover what other promotional videos are presently online. Next make sure you have written down the profile names of the most key businesses in your area. Maybe afterwards you can make a joint venture or have some sort of cooperation with these companies.

Take into account that each video website has a community built into it - You ought to value the other members & it is recommended that you add positive notes about your rivals’ videos. Primarily you must be a member of the society, offering opinion, ideas etc. And only then must you think of being a video marketer & start to promote your own videos and merchandise.

Commit yourself to producing several promotional videos - You must have an obvious strategy for developing and circulating numerous professional videos. If not, your organisation’s page on the video websites will give the notion of being bare if it merely has one video to see. Thus, spend extra time planning the creation of a succession of short format professional videos, rather than only one considerably long video.

Internet video marketing is one of the most efficient & fastest ways of marketing your firm right now.

Blue Tooth is technology that is reshaping the definition of what it means to be wireless. Unlike Wi Fi, Blue Tooth uses radio waves to wirelessly connect devices within short range of each other. The devices may either be within 10 meters or up to 100 meters of each other to remain networked. One of the benefits of Blue Tooth is that it is a low powered source as well as inexpensive.

Blue Tooth is already pre installed in many devices as some of its proponents include Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intel, and Nokia. By using a Blue Tooth adapter in your computer (ranging in cost from $20.00-$100.00 U.S.) you can easily start your own network using devices never before dreamed compatible. Once your software has been installed, you will be able to locate equipment that is Blue Tooth compatible and begin your own network. Devices such as mobile phones, computers, desktops and notebooks, printers, digital cameras, PDAs, and MP3 players can all be networked, and this doesn’t just include your items. You can network with friends or coworkers and share files, print pictures and documents easily and efficiently.

The story behind the name Blue Tooth is just as intriguing as the nature of the technology. The story tells of a tenth century King of Denmark, King Harold Bluetooth, who practiced a reign of peaceful negotiations and treaties. He was a master of bringing opposing parties together to have them “talk” to each other. Thus the meaning of Blue Tooth technology that brings devices from different companies (many with opposing pasts) to “talk” to each other.

It appears that Blue Tooth will be one of the prominent features in future products. As the world needs to pull the plug for greater corporate production and efficiency, wireless capabilities are essential. Blue Tooth offers tremendous benefits to those in the work place, home office, and for those who are looking for greater convenience and flexibility in their daily lives.

Modern marvels abound as you see Blue Tooth appearing in all sorts of products. From cars that are preinstalled with wireless phone capabilities, and sunglasses that play your favorite Itunes, Blue Tooth is already shaping the way we communicate and find our entertainment. Medical technology has been using Blue Tooth and once you are Blue Tooth enabled, you can use your computer in an airport without needing to plug in. Blue Tooth is the technology that is steering the course to the future of our wireless world.

Bluetooth Technology - find out all the information you need to keep up with this exciting technology

Okay, you are super busy or you are down to your last email before heading home. Maybe it’s first thing in the morning, you have a full in box to read and handle, all before your meeting starts in 10 minutes. It’s easy to be in a rush and dismiss the little things, however…

…have you ever thought how your email looked from a receiver’s viewpoint? Of course you have, every day, haven’t you? It is so easy in our fast-paced lives to let the little things go.

When you receive a poorly formatted email and you don’t know where each paragraph starts or finishes — the thoughts are scattered and jumbled — here’s the reader’s self chatter in action: “What the heck, it’ll take me hours to decipher this. I don’t have time for this. Can’t X be respectful? I’ll just pretend I didn’t get it and maybe their follow-up email will be clearer.” Click and delete. Of course, you have never done this — chuckle.

By chance, your next email receiver is nicer and doesn’t delete and pretend. They just move onto the next email and leave yours for the “someday in the future” stack. And maybe it will or will not ever be answered. Their response may even miss your point entirely or only provide feedback to half of the items that need addressing.

If you have difficulty getting quick responses or any response at all, the receiver could be sending you a silent message. They could feel that you are wasting their time or do want to educate you on common email courtesies.

Recently, after receiving ten emails in one day from separate independent professionals, with their personal pronouns “i’s” in lower case besides other items. I asked them to enlighten me about their lax protocols. I received a wave of negative responses. In order to keep this a family-available article, here are a few responses cleaned up: “i don’t have time, too many emails.” A few others added, “i do it to everyone.” I particularly loved the “to” in the last two emails — I do it “to” everyone.

A human resource director client shared with me that every day she deletes ten or twelve applications, about 12% of the total number she receives daily, that omit common email courtesies. A majority come from individuals with higher degrees. I chuckled at the irony. She didn’t and just heavily sighed. She found it even more serious on the number of emails she received from recruiters that also lacked these simple courtesies.

“Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff” is a book I read a few years ago if I recall correctly. Normally I wouldn’t care much about the small stuff either. However, coherent communication, whether verbal or written, still represents who we are and shows respect. Using history as an indicator, communication started and stopped wars.

Recently, I attended a speaking engagement with Michelle Singletary, author, “7 Money Mantras,” and columnist, The Color of Money, for the Washington Post. In the presentation, she mentioned several times, “You had better sweat the small stuff.” Of course, her reference was to money. Yet, it was an important point. It takes pennies to develop into dollars, dollars to add up to ten, and so on up the monetary ladder. Doesn’t it hold true that if we leave out the small common courtesies and respect in emails, will it not block the dollars — directly or indirectly?

When thinking over the given benefits for taking care of the “small stuff” in emails, here are three powerful mantras:

* A professional email attracts a professional response.

* When you respect other people’s time, they usually will respect yours.

* When communication is thought through and clear, the chances increase significantly that the response will be returned in the same manner. Stinkin’ thinking attracts the same.

10 Simple Courtesies, gathered from reading 2,000 emails, and feedback from the human resource director:

1. Focus on one topic per email. Keep the email simple so the receiver can focus in fast and easy. This improves the chance of a faster response, maybe any response. If you write to someone regularly, ask what he or she prefers.

2. An appropriate subject line will help reduce accidental deletion. It will also help locate that specific email faster if needed. When forwarding or responding, change the subject line to reflect your response. You can also add your first name in the subject line as an added identifier. I like to start mine with: “Personal note from Catherine” or follow after the subject with: “From Catherine.” If you are dealing with deadlines add: “Please respond by.”

3. Keep each paragraph to one thought even if the paragraph turns out to be one fragmented sentence. You will want to limit email paragraphs to six sentences. A natural way of reading from a computer screen is with a scan-read process. Screen reading dries out the eyes and reduces blinking causing eyestrain.

4. Add subheader titles into the email when more than three paragraphs are in the email or more than three paragraphs follow the subheader. You can add subheaders as you type or while rereading. This keeps the eyes moving fast and easy. It also allows the mind to shift from topic to topic without developing cobwebs.

5. Re-read your email no matter how long or short. We always think faster than our fingers can type. Thus, what is typed isn’t always what was swarming around in our mind.

6. Does the subject flow or was it choppy? Flow in an email isn’t the same as flow from one chapter in a book to another. Flow allows the reader to easily transition and comprehend the material. If choppy, the reader might daydream or take a break and formulate a different answer that might not fit the material, creating additional emails on your part to clarify. Frequent places to check for flow in your material are where you start or stop a message or submessage.

7. Is there any type of priority or order needed to follow so that the receiver follows along with the material? Are there steps or information that build on the previous message? Before you can pour a glass of milk you might want buy the milk — chuckle. When we are extremely familiar with how to do something, it’s easy to write past something, a common mishap by IT experts. Do you know the receiver and their level of knowledge or experience on the topic? My favorite saying is, “When in doubt, write it out.”

8. For goodness sake, turn on the spell check feature on. If you want to write pronouns in small letters, at least let spell check catch them for you.

9. Who are you? You would think that this one was common sense, at least I did. Yet, every week I receive 10-15 emails asking me a general question without telling me who they are or giving me some background. They are huge, open- ended questions that would take me years to answer. This falls into the lack of respect category.

10. What do you need or want? Forwarding an email that doesn’t ask for what you need makes the receiver try to guess. Not cool. Speak up, don’t be shy. If you take rejection personally, hire a life coach to work on this with you. Statements don’t automatically ask anything. Questions do. My dad had a saying, “Squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you can’t ask, squeak somewhere else. I can’t guess what type of oil you need.” A little harsh yet it makes its point. Go ahead and ask, and no this isn’t a reflection on you.

We all believe we have good communication skills. There could be some real surprises when you start practicing these 10 Simple Courtesies. Take your time, slow down in order to speed up. Tackle it slowly so that the lessons stick. You will be glad you did. The next email you send might be to your next boss, client, or forwarded to the President. You never know. It happened to me and it could happen to you.

Catherine Franz is a Marketing & Writing Coach, niches, product development, Internet marketing, nonfiction writing and training. Additional Articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

Choosing moving companies can be challenging enough, moving with a family might be even more challenging. There are a lot of changes occurring for you and your family. That’s why it is crucial to spend some time helping your children deal with the switches happening around them. The advice laid out below will help make your move go more easily.

Dealing With Childcare

• It is likely you will be offered much uneven advice whether you should keep your kids with you on moving day or arrange child care.
• Remember that you are the best judge of what’s right for your youngsters.

Settling In

Understand that there may be a grieving period for kids after a big move; it may last a few weeks, maybe even a couple of months. Here are a few easy things you can do to make moving easier for your youngsters.

• Enquire and explore your new region together. Look for new and exciting things.
• Visit your child’s new school with them ahead of time and walk about the new school together to assist them to find their bearings.
• Come with your kids on their route to school until they are comfortable traveling on their own.
• Check out after-school activities where your children can make new friends with similar interests.
• Don’t forget to remind them to keep in touch with old friends.

Being Alert to Early Warning Signs

A big change is always very difficult for a youngster. Even the most well adjusted youngster can have difficulty dealing with moving.

Be vigilant, it’s important to pick up on small warning signs that your child may need special help managing with his or her new environs.

Here are some signals to be alert to

• Disengaged behavior
• Loss of appetite
• Problems sleeping, or regular nightmares
• Outbursts of anger or tears
• Reluctance to stray far from the house or family
• Difficulty making new friends

Additional Moving Resources

• Google Knol advice on picking movers
• Squidoo Lens on preparing for your move
• NY Times article on avoiding moving scams

Assuming you have not figured out betting room betting, do please read on — The most common definition of a gaming establishment is a house that accomodates games. At such a place, visitors will be encouraged to play handling the slot machines or trying out some other gambling pastimes. Gambling house games habitually include logically determined probabilities informing them which promise the gambling saloon secures an advantage versus the gamesters.

Numerous gambling house games can sway you into getting obsessed rapidly. You have the stereotypical 1-armed-bandit, an electronic contraption with three or more gears that gyrate if a crank connected to it is pulled. This appliance as a rule will compensate punters referring to a row of emblems observable on the lit panel of the instrument. Unfortunately, betting house games encourage the appearance of having the upper hand, hoodwinking the gambling enthusiast — the punter is presented choice, but in reality these cannot truly eliminate the customer’s long term handicap. This is due to the betting room not paying up the full amount as hoped for. This technique is typically seen at work in well known casino games such as five-card stud, craps, roulette or blackjack.

Texas hold’em is undeniably a highly trendy casino game. The visitors, holding partially concealed cards, place bets in the pot that is paid out to the prevailing gamer carrying the highest hand. (Of course, the bluff may well prevail too.) Resembling blind poker, blackjack is also a highly trendy casino pastime. Most of its repute is grounded in its peculiar mix of chance and expertise and choice making, as well as a trick dubbed card counting. This is an approach by which gamesters will turn the winning odds of the card game to their advantage both by betting & systematic actions established on the cards deployed.

“Craps” is the name of yet another well-known gambling hall wagering game based on the roll of 2 dice. Gamesters have to bet their stakes on the score of one roll, or on a string of cycles of 2 dice. Dissimilar to blackjack, there’s absolutely no reliable long term winner tactics punters can profit by to bend the odds. Roulette is a well-known pastime - a croupier revolves a roulette wheel enclosing a set of 37 (classical roulette) or precisely 38 (American or Vegas roulette) distinctively tagged chambers in which the pellet will settle, announcing the winning number Now if a player bets on a particular number which actually makes it, in other words they’ve got a lucky hand, the promised payout is 35:1, the initial bet proper will be given back. Indeed in totality it is increased by thirty six.

You should always be very alert under all circumstances as all of betting house games may well be very dependency building. Uncounted lives are known to have been wrecked in the course of gambling + whereas it can be fun, do please struggle to not get carried away.

Hot Pepper Casinos

Chamonix French Alps sits at the base of the wonderful Mount Blanc in the Alps and is recognized as the mountaineering and extreme skiing epi centre of the European Alps. The resort has long been known as a veritable area for extreme sports in both summer and winter seasons. The town was host to the 1st Winter games in 1924 - moreover it is also a domain of outstanding views offering much to the adventurous skier and tourist.

Differing from most modern skiing areas Chamonix town is not a modern snowboarding town and has largely been saved from the concrete resorts that blights so much of the European Alps. It is fortunate to have not only a world renowned ski domain but a classic and busy resort centre.

The town is big enough to ensure there is enough for the holiday maker to do. However you choose to enjoy your vacation there is something to suit everyone. There is a large sports complex, cross country skiing, husky sledding and local market; and lots of shops, cafes and clubs, Chamonix Mount Blanc offers a mix of activities, old town atmosphere and going out, that only a handful snowboarding domains can match. Why not reserve your snowboarding break at once.

In Dec 2008 eLottery added the Spanish lottery to it’s product range, giving participants globally a immensely improved opportunity of sharing in this huge Spanish lotto prize fund.

If its the first time you have come across the Spanish Lotto, allow me to highlight simply how important this lotto is to the big majority of the Spanish population. The Spanish lottery has been a public obsession in Spain for a long time with tremendous interest generated by the Christmas lottery draw every year. Its a fact that ninety-eight% of the population play this Spanish National lottery each and every Christmas.

There are a couple of basic reasons why lots of Spanish subjects join in the Christmas Elgordo lotto draw.

Firstly, there is the inducement of the biggest lotto prize fund of any worldwide lotto game - 2.20 Billion Euros! Secondly, there are more than 13 thousand money prizes to be won. Finally, the probability of collecting a cash prize on the Christmas lotto draw is a highly feasible - one in six.

With the amount of interest that is afforded to the Christmas El Gordo lottery draw, a great deal of people are unaware that there are five additional Spanish Lotto draws every year as well. These lotto games happen in May, July, January and November and March. Despite the fact that these 5 lotto games don’t feature the tremendous prize fund of the Christmas lotto draw, they are big nevertheless, ranging from seventy eight million Euros to six hundred and sixty six million Euros. Plus, these lotto games offer virtually 3 times as many prizes as the Christmas lotto draw plus betting odds of picking up a cash prize of an staggering 1 in 3.

The Spanish Christmas Lottery functions in an unusual way to nearly all other worldwide drawings. A full lotto ticket ‘billete’ is really dear, costing 200 Euros. However, these lotto tickets are divided up into 10 ‘decimos’ (tenths) costing 20 Euros each.

When buying your lottery tickets you have the choice of buying 1 decimo, a complete lottery ticket, or a share of a ticket. If you don’t purchase the whole ticket, somebody else will purchase the rest of your lottery ticket. E.g., if you purchase two decimos, someone else purchases three decimos and someone else purchases five and your lotto ticket wins 1000 Euros, and then you will receive two hundred Euros, three hundred Euros and five hundred Euros respectively. Owing to the expense of buying a whole lotto ticket, it is not unusual for households and acquaintances to incorporate their lottery money and each buy a separate ‘decimo’ (tenth).

A Barrister’s bookcase is a traditional shelf that is believed to have originated in England. Its differentiating feature is a flawless glass front. This glass front is hinged at the side allowing a person to easily admittance ledgers and other legal documents simply by opening the glass door. A barrister bookcase is ideal for a thousand things. Barrister bookcases were frequently used by lawyers since it was necessary for them to keep on moving. Now, they are also very useful, particularly if one is invariably moving. The doors make this the case. This prevents them from having to be emptied on moving

More about these oak bookcases

Barrister bookcases also have the advantage of helping to protect the collectibles from debris and other foreign impurities. They offer great protection. Apart from dust, it is also possible to offer protection from sun by adding UV treated glasss. sunlight impacting the books This will maintain the books colour from fading

The bookcases, despite their many merits, often are quite pricy. Fortunately, there unqiueness has caused some makers to start making replica editions. Some progressive versions are also available at very reasonable prices. Many versions have simple appearances and can be made to fit a particular theme. They can also be trimmed and made into customized storage units cheaply.They can be stacked together allowing them to be easily used to create very interesting unit arrangements. Some can be used to create ping pong tables, kitchen tables or even breakfast tables.

More Here book cases

News programmes have suddenly become hot property and are vying for attention with other popular programmes telecast in different channels. All major television broadcasters are including at least one news channel to their bouquet. The biggest headache for launching a satellite channel is programme software for round the clock. In this juncture, newsgathering is a major task for the 24-hour news channels. To cater this task, the emerging electronic channels have always made an attempt to cover all the incidents irrespective of position, location and time. These channels not only revolutionized the concept of news on Indian television but also changed the news formats. Before 1990s, Doordarshan had monopolized newscast on Indian television and also turned the news programs into a dowdy exercise. Now the private channels made the news an essential commodity like food, cloth and shelter. The strong point of all today’s news bulletins is their topicality, objectivity, glossy editing and high-quality visuals. News has traveled a long way from the DD era. From Local events to International events, breaking news to news analysis, television soap to page3 news, every happening comes under purview of news. In this article, we have covered some significant changes in news broadcasting in India before and after the Gulf War.

Indian Television - Flash Back

Television in India is undergoing significant changes in the current liberalized environment. To understand these changes, one needs to have some brief idea of the road covered by the television channels so far. The journey started as an experimental basis with a financial grant from UNESCO in 15th September 1959. The makeshift studio at Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi was chosen for location of the experiment. The experiment started with one-hour program, broadcast twice a week, on community health, citizen rights, education and traffic sense etc. As far as news is concerned, it was launched exactly six years after the inception of television broadcasting. Daily one-hour program with a news bulletin was served to the Indian viewers. But one major drawback of television was that you could not enjoy the original colour of the objects because of black and white transmission. First multi-color programme was the Prime Minister’s address to the nation from Red Fort in Delhi on India’s 35th Independence Day. In the same day, DD National channel was launched. The aim of launching the National channel is nurturing national integration, and inculcating a sense of pride in Indians. Indian viewers also enjoyed the colored version of the Asian Games hosted by New Delhi in their drawing room. The coverage of major events and different occasions lend a big hand behind the infiltration of television signals to the nook and corners of the subcontinent. Indian Government had taken all possible steps to expand the television broadcasting demographically and geographically. In 1983 television signals were available to just 28% of the population, this had doubled by the end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the population had access to television signals. In 1984, DD Metro channel was added to provide an exclusive entertainment for the urban viewers. In the beginning, this channel was confined to metropolitan cities.
As a public broadcaster, Doordarshan presented the news in naturalized manner. All controversial issues were pushed under the carpet. The ruling government had a strong hold on the television broadcasting. Doordarshan news bulletins were unable to provide the international news to the national viewers. Objectivity had been the first casualty as news was invariably slanted to suit the party in power. The news was liberated from the confines of the DD newsroom and gained in objectivity and credibility when New Delhi Television (NDTV) produced ‘The World This Week’ in 1988. Everyone was waiting for the Friday night to watch ‘The World This Week’. This was the only India-based programme, which looked out at the rest of the world. The World This Week was the best current affairs programme on the international scenario and carried good stuff of news, which the regular DD news was failed to carry out. This program is ranked as one of the country’s finest and most popular television shows. In 1989, NDTV produces India’s first live televised coverage of the country’s general elections. The critical and commercial success of the coverage sets a new standard for Indian television. After the Gulf War the media panorama has changed forever.

Golf War - The Catalyst

Post-1990 satellite television in India has become transnational in nature. It coincided with the entry of multinational companies in the Indian markets under the Government policy of privatization. International satellite television was introduced in India by CNN through its coverage of the Gulf War in 1991. In August 1991, Richard Li launched Star Plus, the first satellite channel beamed the signal to Indian subcontinent. Subhash Chandra’s Zee TV appeared in October 1992. It is India’s first privately owned Hindi channel to cater the interest of Indian viewers. This ignition followed by Sony and a little later by domestic channels such as Eenadu, Asianet and Sun TV. Entertainment programs had begun to occupy center stage in the organization’s programming strategies and advertising had come to be main source of funding. Doordarshan’s earlier mandate to aid in the process of social and economic development had clearly been diluted. Doordarshan had faced a stiff competition in news and public affairs programming with international channels like BBC and CNN. Doordarshan planned to sell some slots for news programme under sponsored category. In February 1995, NDTV becomes the country’s first private producer of the national news ‘News Tonight’, which aired on the country’s government-owned Doordarshan set a new landmark for Indian television because of its on-the-spot reporting with pertinent visuals. In the same year, TV Today Network occupied a 20 minutes slot in DD Metro channel and aired a Hindi and current affairs programme ‘Aaj Tak’. This programme became popular for its comprehensive coverage and unique style presentation by Late S. P. Singh. Still we remembered the sign-up message “Ye Thi Khabar Aaj Tak, Intizar. Kijiye Kal Tak”. Large number of viewers across India had been watching Aaj Tak as a daily habit because of its innovative style of news presentation. Besides that Nalini Singh’s five-minute fast paced, condensed daily news capsule Ankhon Dekhi, TV Today Network’s Business Aaj Tak and Newstrack was aired on the Metro channel of Doordarshan. This is the period when satellite channels concentrated on entertainment programmes for their respective channels. Doordarshan was still ruled the most wanted area ‘news’.

Major Players

Doordarshan’s monopoly was broken in 1992, when private television channels infiltrated into the Indian boundaries and entertain the viewers as much as possible. In the beginning of 1990s, the private channels offered only entertainment programmes. The entertainment programs include family drama, comedy serials, children programmes, cartoons, movies, talk shows, recipe shows, musical concerts, non-fiction programmes etc. Private entertainment channels added some infortainment programmes to their Fixed Point Charts (FPC). Keeping the demand of infotainment programmes in mind, the media houses started to produce news magazines, entertainment magazines and news programmes for different channels. India’s premier business and consumer news broadcaster and a leading media content provider, Television Eighteen India Limited (TV18) started India’s first ever entertainment magazine ‘The India Show’ on Star Plus in 1993. This emerging media powerhouse provided prime time television content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and Discovery. After The India Show, TV18 produced a weekly business news program India Business Report for BBC World. Indian viewers had very limited options (like public service broadcaster Doordarshan, BBC and CNN) for watching the television news. For televised news, the viewers had to watch Dordarshan and some international news channels like BBC or CNN. In this race to provide more news, more information, Zee Television jumped into the battlefield by launching the news channel Zee News in 1995. This News and current affairs channel revolutionized the way news was delivered to the viewers. Since its inception Zee News has endeavoured to be the fastest to provide news, working towards a single goal of Sabse Pahle (Always First). The other round-the-clock news channel, the Murdoch-owned Star TV beamed its exclusively 24-hour news channels, Star News in 1998. Star made a contract of five year with Prannoy Roy-owned NDTV (New Delhi Television Company) to provide news content for this news channel.
The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war between India and Pakistan gained more publicity and attracted more viewers towards the electronic channel. This televised conflict also sets a news benchmark for wartime journalism. During the Kargil war, common citizens witnessed how their brave Jawans fought despite in hostile conditions and watched the war front live by the exclusively news channels, Star-TV and Zee-News. The live coverage of the battlefield helped to create a euphoria of patriotism among the Indian masses, which later facilitated into collecting huge funds for the welfare of the families of Kargil martyrs. Every news programme draws the attention of large number of viewers but Kargil war attracts private broadcasters to invest more money in the broadcasting business by launching a news channel. In November 1999, TV18 entered into a 49:51 joint venture with CNBC Asia to launch CNBC India. TV18 is the sole program provider to CNBC India, and produces 12 hours of local content per day on this 24-hour satellite channel.
After the huge success of news programme ‘Aaj Tak’, TV Today group launched a 24-hour Hindi news channel with the same name ‘Aaj Tak’, in December 2000, which covers India with insight, courage and plenty of local flavour. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak emerged as India’s number one news channel and was awarded Best News Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards. Some mega events apart from regular interesting items (such as Kandhahar hijack, September 11 attacks, Afghanistan war, attack on Parliament, Iraq war, Godhra carnage and riots) have driven up the viewership. As time passed, NDTV’s five years contract with Star group for outsourcing of news and related programming expired on March 2003. With the expiry NDTV forayed into broadcasting business by simultaneously launching two 24-hour news channels; NDTV 24X7 - English news channel and NDTV India - Hindi news channel, which targets the Indian diaspora across the world. News crazy Indians received more news at faster speed from different channels. Any unusual happening can be caught by the television camera anywhere form Rastrapati Bhawan to bedroom. The power of TV journalism was become more visible by the major sting operations like Operation West End and Shakti Kapoor Case. This style of investigative journalism has brought about a change in the way we look at news, amidst new notions of editorial freedom. The world’s largest family ‘Sahara India Parivar’ launched a 24-hour national Hindi news channel, Sahara Samay, in March 28, 2003. It is the first ever city-centric satellite news channels covering 31 cities in India with their own city news bulletins. Keeping the demand of news in mind, the Union cabinet approved the proposal to convert the DD Metro to DD news in a meeting held on 3 October 2003. Consequent to these decisions, DD-News channel was launched on 3 November 2003. You might have noticed that the news channels are language specific. But DD’s news channel contains the round the clock news bulletins in Hindi/ English are also telecast twice a day on the National Network of DD National.
‘Aap Ki Adalat’ fame Rajat Sharma, Sohaib Ilyasi, the man behind the highly successful ‘India’s Most Wanted’ and Taun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka roped together and launched a free-to-air Hindi news and current affairs channel India TV on May 20, 2004. Indian viewers had more expectations from this channel. The much-awaited news channel hopes to set itself apart from the existing ones by setting new benchmarks of responsible journalism. Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Rajat Sharma, chairman, India TV, said, “We aim to change the way broadcast news reporting is being conducted in the country. India TV will set new benchmarks by maintaining international standards of responsible and credible news reporting. We will stay away from graphic depictions of violence and sensationalism of news. We will uphold the viewer’s right to correct information and their right to truth and verity. India TV is not just a news channel, it is a movement.” NDTV as a pioneer in Indian television news, set to create a fresh revolution in high-quality business news with the launch of NDTV Profit. NDTV launched this 24-hour business channel on January 17th, 2005.
There is no saturation point in launching of news channel, just booming like sky as the limit. Entertainment channel to infotainment channel, infotainment channel to news channel, news channels to business channel and Business channel to lots more. Now the satellite channels become more topicality with international standard. When we are talking about topicality, CNBC TV18, the only business channel, continues to be the medium of choice for India’s decision makers, affluent audiences across the country since 1999. It has set the pace for the growth in number of television channels by launching a 24-hour consumer channel in Hindi called ‘ Awaaz’. This news channel focusses on empowering consumers on decision-making related to investment, saving and spending. All the programmes are catering to consumers across different walks of life, which included personal finance; variety of markets including commodity, stocks, savings etc.; small businesses; education & career guidance; and verticals like health, shopping etc.
Another news channel was finally launched into the already cluttered news space in Indian television. Jagran TV Pvt Limited’s news channel, Channel 7 up-linked to the air on 27 March 2005. The channel has been set up to cater to the vast Hindi-speaking audiences, already being targeted by a slew of news channels. Channel 7 developed every programme with a bid to cater to all types of audiences and not just pre-dominantly male audiences who get attracted towards news channels.

Regional Leaders

To cater the interest among the Indians, Doordarshan televises programmes in Hindi and associate Official languages. It has launched a number of Regional Language Satellite Channels (DD - 4 to DD - 11 and DD - 13) and telecast programmes in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Kashmiri, Oriya and Tamil. The Regional channels relayed by all terrestrial transmitters in the state and additional programmes in the Regional Language in prime time and non-prime time available only through cable operators. The Doordarshan regional satellite channels telecast major news programme with some entertainment programmes.
If you think about the private regional channels, they have followed the path of the Big brother (i.e Doordarshan). They are neither completely entertainment channel nor exclusively news channel. They are following the middle path and claiming themselves an infotainment channels. The private channels televise through the state dominant languages. Rising advertising revenues and increasing numbers of viewers have provided the impetus for many big players to enter into the business. Some regional media leaders like ETV, Sun TV, Asianet have a strong grip over the regional market. Some major players tried their luck in different states. Zee television has three regional channels; Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi and Zee Bangla. Star Network entered into Tamilnadu by launching Star Vijay, one of the most popular entertainment channels in India broadcasting in Tamil. Besides that ETV Network is a part of the well-established Ramoji Group, has created 12 dedicated infotainment regional channels. ETV network is the source of rich entertainment of eight different languages. Those are: Telugu, Bangla, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu; and Hindi to viewers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Every ETV Network channel focuses exclusively on its audience’s unique cultural identity, its aspirations and its distinct socio-political character. Let us think about the south Indian language Telugu, there are around twelve satellite channels are roaming around the sky with different taste and different flavour. These channels include three news channels, one song-based channels and rest are infotainment channels. When we confine ourselves into news, three channels (ETV2, TV 9 and Teja News) exclusively devoted to news programmes.
Sahara India Pariwar is proud to have five news channels as the bouquet of Sahara Samay. These channels are: Sahara Samay NCR, Sahara Samay Mumbai, Sahara Samay Bihar & Jharkhand, Sahara Samay Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, and Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh & Uttranchal. Sahara Samay has already managed to gain a loyal audience in India through a bouquet of National & Regional News Channels since its launch. These channels are youthful and vibrant channels targeting students and women, besides that hardcore news stuff. The regional news channels covers the entire spectrum of genre with specific programs on lifestyle, fashion, food, shopping, health and fitness, sports, education, career and city issues, besides giving user-friendly information on traffic updates, city events, train and air timings, etc. Now national news channels cannot confine its boundary to national level. They cannot ignore the regional news because of the stiff competition form the regional cannels. Regional news channels are entering into the competition with a strong will power and also with an aim to portrait regional issues in national and international level.

Conclusion

Now the television industry becomes more specific. In this competitive market, channels are targeting specific viewers. News channels attract more viewers beyond their target by producing interactive and interesting programmes. Every channel needs to do an extensive research on different concepts and different themes to attract more viewers and in the same time more advertisers. After all, advertisements are the bread and butter for the channels. With increased consumer preference for news programmes, television news channels have grown faster than other niche channels. News channels are booming just like sky as the limit. Those days are not far away, when we will get satellite news channel for every major city in India. Staying in abroad, we can update ourselves about all the happening of our hometown. Now news is not restricted to political happenings. It will be extended its limit to every unwanted and hided corners of the society. At last we can reach in the conclusion that anything, which is strange or disgusting, is news. There are no rigid rules, which defines news.

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The author is a media researcher in Journalism Department of ICFAI University. He has five years experience in electronic media in the field of Public Relations and Media Relations. His qualifications include a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, had special paper Advertising and Public Relations.