Sony Entertainment Television CEO Kunal Dasgupta is in a fiery mood. Just back from power packed meetings with senior Sony Pictures Entertainment executives in Los Angeles, Dasgupta had one question on his mind. "What‘s happened to the deal hawking off DD-2 to another company for 10 years?"

He says if the government is open to giving away more of DD Metro to any other company, he‘d like Sony have a go at it. "If they‘re going to give away terrestrial, Sony Entertainment will take away the entire terrestrial frequency," he elaborated. "We want to get SET onto DD."

With Sony now throwing its hat into the DD-2 sellout game, one will have to wait and watch for responses from Star, Zee TV, Sahara and B4U. Can we hear Sun TV‘s Kalanithi Maran also beating the same drum?

Kerry Packer and Channel Nine India boss Ravina Raj Kohli may be in for a spat if Dasgupta and the rest of the television executives mean business.

Leading Malayalam language channel Asianet is putting together plans to provide a fresh of life to its Kannada language channel Kaveri, which has been struggling to stay afloat ever since its launch in June 2000.

"We still have faith in Kaveri‘s potential but we have a lot of work on our hands," Asianet COO Mohan Nair said on Tuesday. "In the immediate term, we are trying to increase the programming content," Nair said.

Asianet and Zee telefilms each have a 50 per cent stake in Kaveri which has faced viewer recognition problems from the outset. A reason given is the fallout from the 108-day kidnapping drama of popular Kannada film star Rajkumar who was released on 15 November. During the kidnap period there was a virtual shutdown of the Kannada film industry, which led to a severe shortfall vis-a-vis fresh programming.

"Kaveri needs some dedicated nurturing because the market out there is till untapped and I see it as a challenge," Nair said. "We are planning a virtual relaunch. Just wait and watch," he added.

Zee Telefilms‘ best bet against new entrants in the Hindi news arena, Zee News, is working towards adopting major restructuring strategies to improve the channel‘s programme quality.

Satish Menon, who recently took the reins of Zee News, confirmed that a major revamp was under way. "We are working toward getting good people and improving the existing functioning of the channel and it is a continous process. We‘ll be working towards improving the content from all aspects," Menon says.

Zee has allied with American company Novocom to completely overhaul the graphics and design to make it more attractive. Menon was, however, tightlipped about the additional investment involved in sprucing up the channel. "I wouldn‘t want to talk in terms of investments. It is too early to talk about these," he said.

Zee is at present facing a stiff test from Aaj Tak, the 24-hour news channel launched on 31 December 2000 by media group India Today. Earlier, being the only major Hindi news channel, Zee News had a vice like grip on the TRP charts.

As per some recent news reports, a month after Aaj Tak‘s launch, the channel‘s viewer growth shot up nearly five times. The reports were based on a survey conducted by AC Nielsen. At the same time, the viewership of Zee and Star remained unchanged, the reports said.

With all the major players in the television industry about to turn fully pay channels, the viewership stakes can only get higher. Everyone will have to fight that much harder just to stand still.