Cricket fever's long tail continues as a new four team contest kicks off with two matches on 4 June in Bangalore.

The Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) has, for the first time, created a platform where film fraternities of the South and Bollywood will battle each other to be one up on each other through cricket. The matches that will be played are unlike the many cricket matches that have a mix of both cricketers as well as film actors; the four CCL teams comprise male members from Mumbai, Tamil, Telugu and the Kannada filmdoms.

The four teams are Mumbai Heroes with Salman Khan as captain, and Suneil Shetty as vice captian from Bollywood; Tamil Rhinos with Surya as captain and Abbas as vice captain from Kollywood; Telugu Warriors with Venkatesh as captain and Vishnu as vice captain from Andhra Pradesh; and the Karnataka Bulldozers with Sudeep as captain and Dhruv as vice captain from Sandalwood.

Fearing that the Enforcement Directorate probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam may ask the ministry of information and broadcasting to cancel the licences of Kalaignar TV, its management has obtained license to launch a new channel the moment Kalaignar TV goes off the air.

With promoter Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi, and managing director Sharat Babu cooling their heels in Tihar Jail on charges of hatching the 2G scam and money laundering, Kalaignar TV, owned by the Karunanidhi family, has gone into a major fire-fighting exercise.

The Karunanidhi family has made arrangements to launch the new channel with the name Murasu. "Yes, the ministry has given them the license to start new TV channels under the brand name Murasu. It is for the management to decide when to launch the channels," said Atya Nand, under-secretary (broadcasting), ministry of Information and Broadcasting, told DNA. Atya Nand heads the section issuing licences to prospective television broadcasters.

Ten months after Star Plus revamped itself, Subhash Chandra-owned Zee Network has lined up a major brand recast that includes a new logo, tagline and signature tune. Zee's new look will be unveiled on June 19, persons familiar with the development said.

The makoever would be reflected across the ZEE bouquet of channels though the focus will remain on flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Zee TV.

The network will hold on-ground events coupled with on-air promos to drive home the message. The on-ground exrecise, in particular, will be massive in scale, and will be held across several cities with the motive to mobilise viewers in unveiling its logo in Mumbai, company officials said when contacted. Zee is present in 167 countries.

In what would be a global first, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is gearing up to auction slots on its free-to-air DTH arm, DD Direct Plus, to private broadcasters. At a base price of R1-1.5 crore per channel and with over 250 channels in queue to join DD Direct Plus, experts reckon that Prasar Bharati could generate R360-400 crore in the first year itself.

The move is in line with the government's vision of allocating scarce natural resources via a transparent auctioning mechanism.

DD Direct Plus has a subscriber base of around 8-9 million subscribers, including the remote hilly areas and the north-eastern states. Auctions of TV channel slots will replace the carriage fee regime.

The six existing private DTH operators in the country charge a carriage fee of R1.5-2.5 crore per channel.