Zee bags cricket telecast deal
Chennai: Zee Telefilms on Sunday has clinched a $308-million cricket telecast deal from the BCCI which will cover both international and domestic cricket played in India. Zee beat the ESPN-Star Sports combine to win the deal which is for four years starting next month.

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Jagmohan Dalmiya, announced that Zee had been awarded the contract subject to certain conditions.

The key condition is that it has to deposit $20 million with BCCI within the next three days. The Zee Telefilms Chairman, Subhash Chandra, said the condition would be met.

The two bidders, ESPN-Star Sports and Zee, both offered BCCI $308 million in the last round of negotiations on Sunday. Dalmiya said Zee had been awarded the deal because it had bid higher at an earlier stage.

Zee's earlier bid was $260 million, while ESPN-Star Sports offered $230 million. Chandra said the company had increased its offer in Sunday's negotiations because BCCI had raised the number of days of international cricket over the next four years.
BCCI made a firm commitment of 144 days of international cricket over the next four years, against the earlier offer of 108 days. BCCI has also indicated that the number of days of international cricket could finally be increased to 160.

Zee's main revenue streams from the deal would be advertising, domestic subscription and syndication of rights to other channels. Zee is to soon start talks with Doordarshan for terrestrial distribution.

By way of response to its losing out to the deal the ESPN-Star Sports team on Sunday said that BCCI's decision to award cricket telecast rights to Zee Telefilms was unacceptable.

In a press release, Rik Dovey, Managing Director of ESPN-Star Sports, said: "BCCI had changed the entire process of bidding in violation of rules set by themselves." The release further said that, "ESPN-Star will review its position."
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RBI extends time for urban co-ops on Gold and small loans
Mumbai: Urban co-operative banks (UCBs) have been given time up to March 31,2007, to follow the 90-day loan impairment norms, for gold loans and small loans up to Rs 1 lakh. In a circular to the chiefs of all UCBs, the RBI has said that until then, they will be governed by the 180-day norm as before.

Earlier, the banks were informed that the 90-day norm would be applicable to gold loans and small loans up to Rs 1 lakh with effect from the financial year ending March 31, 2005. The RBI's decision follows requests from banks and Federation and Association of UCBs for reconsideration of the applicability of the norms.
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