B4U Television Network‘s Sound of Music has taken the runner-up slot in the category Best Programme Title Sequence at the First Asian Television Technical & Creative Awards 2001 held in Singapore on 20 June. It shows an Indian village community and their comical attempts at milking the communal cow to set the tone for a programme on the importance of music.

In the Best of Show category, B4U‘s collection of promos for a documentary series called Making Movies was the first runner-up. The promos rely on the comical use of everyday events and common occurrences to create awareness and interest in different episodes.

The credit for these goes to B4U Television Network‘s Creative and Editorial Head Kalyansunderam, and head of on-air promos and producer Rajesh Krishnan, a company release says.

The awards form a new addition to the Asian Television Awards, which has been running a regional awards programme since its inception in 1996. The event celebrates the best in Asian programming and performance. More that 1,000 entries from 13 countries in Asia are received for this awards show. But it is the first time that the technical and creative talents of Asia have been recognized. It is in recognition of all directors, producers, editors, animators, cinematographers, and other industry peers who work behind the scenes to bring out the best in Asian entertainment.

AXN, the action channel from Sony Entertainment Television, is deep focusing on India in a big way. As part of that effort, "action babe" Gena Lee Nolin, former Baywatch actress and now focal character in Sheena - Queen of the Jungle, was in Mumbai to promote the action adventure drama.

Nolin‘s trip to Asia is a part of promotional push in a month of action for AXN viewers. This month the channel launched two new "action babes" series VIP and Sheena. In Sheena, Nolin play the roles of the protector of Jungle, while in VIP a comedy action series featuring Pamela Anderson.

AXN, which has completed three years on air in India and claims an audience of 18 million viewers, is aggressively pushing to increase these numbers by introducing more new shows in the coming months. One such is Crime Scene Investigation which has already gained popularity in the US.

AXN has also acquired the rights to premiere Ang Lee‘s Oscar winning movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. We have acquired the rights for four airings of the movie; the first airing will be premiered on television on AXN at the end the year, Gregory Ho, VP (marketing) AXN Asia, said. "This will be the movie‘s first premier on television across the region," said Ho, adding that this move was an indication of how committed the channel was to India.

The idea of bringing in glamorous faces like Nolin‘s into India was all part of this promotional effort, Ho said. Nolin was there to field questions at press briefing in south Mumbai‘s Taj Hotel on 25 June. The first-run syndicated Sheena series is developed and executive produced by Douglas Schwartz (Baywatch) and Steven L. Sears (Xena: Warrior Princess). The series is a production of Columbia TriStar Television and is distributed internationally by Columbia TriStar International Television, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company.

The Board of Directors of ETC Networks Limited have decided to have a meeting on June 30, 2001 to consider the audited financial report for the year ending March 31, 2001.

ETC Networks Limited runs two channels- etc and etc Channel Punjabi.

etc is a music based entertainment channel with music dominating 85 per cent of the programming content. etc is beamed from Thaicom -3 and is a free to air analog channel. etc is available in more then 25 million cable & satellite households, a company release said.

etc Channel Punjabi is a free to air Punjabi family entertainment channel compromising of serials, religious programmes, music and feature films. It is available through analogue transmission signals. It is beamed on Thaicom-3. Besides a strong and very large presence in Punjab, it has enabled etc Channel Punjabi to penetrate deeper into rest of the country, and other international markets, the release said.