Hopefully media planners and marketers will not use that statistic to push Sony Entertainment into a corner and hammer down its commercial rates. It will be to their detriment. Reason: the statistic doesn't look right and borders on the margin of error. Besides the figures are going to change.

Star Plus has turned into a pay TV channel as of November 1 and is being promoted as part of a package consisting of Star Movies and Star World to cable operators. The cost to them: Rs 10.25 or lower for the three depending on their subscriber bases. If theytake Star Plus along with the other two, the cost is turning out to be Rs 2 for it. If they drop one of the other two, the cost is Rs 4. Should cable operators choose to opt out of the package and take the channels individually, the cost for each of these is higher.

Cable operators obviously are opting for the package. But going by past experience there's going to be some attrition. An estimate is that Star Plus post-transformation to a subscription channel is likely to be tuned in less than 10 million homes, as some cable operators are likely to stop carrying it. One cannot forget that AXXN Action Channel has just been launched and will gradually be rolling out nationally. A pay-TV movie channel it too will be seeking to take a few rupees from cable TV operators. Sony Entertainment Television's cable TV distribution team is handling the marketing. A fall in homes tuned is something that Star Plus programmers will have to try and curtail. Hence, new programmes will have to replace old. One of these Aaj KiBaat, Rajat Sharma's synopsis and analysis of daily events, is likely to prove a draw. This apart, a couple of big budget series are also slated to come on. However, despite all this, it's likely that Star Plus will be tuned in less than 10 million homes.

Sony Entertainment, on the other hand, is likely to grow in strength as it is a free-to-air channel and it is innovating constantly. One cannot forget that it has a deep-pocketed parent also. Hence, by the next time ORG-Marg does its baseline study, it will get its rightful position as the No 2 private Hindi satellite TV channel. That's if the statistics are not made to lie.

Tata Salt marketers do a good deed: You've got to hand it to the marketers of Tata Salt. They took upon themselves the onus of informing consumers that there is no shortage of salt in the country when fear that it was so was catching on. In a full page ad in the Indian Express, it told consumers that salt is available at Rs 6 a kg and that they should not panic and pay morethan the price printed on the pack. It cautioned them not to give into antisocial elements. The ad ends with the baseline: "Tata Chemicals Ltd. The company that cares." Surely, the ad will have won it some admirers and fans. Wonder what the marketers at Levers were doing and if they really do care!

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The writer can be reached at wanvari@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in or television@hotmail.com