Happenings from around the World

REALITY TV FOR 'IDOL MAID'

In order to be innovative, television programmes are going from strange to bizarre. A proposed reality TV show in Indonesia has irked women's rights activists as well. Here is why.

A TV station plans to hold a contest where 20 participants will compete in front of millions of viewers to win the job of a domestic helper to soap opera star Ari Wibowo. It's surprising to note that the auditions for the show drew 9,000 contestants from around the country.

The response, many said, was surprising considering the prize isn't a recording or an acting contract. The reward entails a year-long, 9 am to 5 pm job as the domestic help with a monthly salary of roughly $1,000.

Media reports say that women's rights activists find the entire concept exploitative. Most maids in Indonesia earn less than 500,000 rupiah a month and work very long hours.

Thousands of college graduates also flocked to the audition. Critics say that this clearly reflect that there is a paucity of well-paying jobs in the region.

CHINA OUSTS FOREIGN MEDIA

In a reversal of its own media policy, China has gone back to keeping foreign investment in the sector under control. Last month, a government website in the country declared that television channels and radio stations could not forge foreign alliances for their businesses.

Foreign companies have been banned from taking up blocks of time on local channels. These channels are prohibited from forming foreign JVs even for sourcing programmes.

The announcement comes as a surprise for foreign broadcasters in China as the media policy was liberalised just last year. News Corp has a Chinese language channel in the country which is broadcast within a restricted area, while Viacom runs Nickelodeon in partnership with a local company. It is still not clear how the business of the two foreign broadcasters will be affected.

The government, apparently, is not too keen to give Chinese media companies the freedom to form foreign ties. The fear is that foreign culture may be a bad influence on Chinese broadcasting. Some months ago, the government had banned the use of English words on television.

FIGHTING FOR ZORRO

A major fight over the character of Zorro has emerged in Hollywood just before the sequel to the original Sony-TriStar film The Mask of Zorro is due for release. It is learnt that the Hollywood studio Sony-TriStar has been sued by a film company that wants to make its own Zorro film.

The company, Sobini Films and its subsidiary Maroda Inc. have apparently filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles earlier this month. The company says that it has made an appeal to the court pleading that Sony-TriStar does not have exclusive rights "" neither copyright nor trademark "" to the character Zorro. The company's lawyer has also pleaded that Sony cannot copyright Zorro's look "" black cape, mask, hat et al.

AID FOR ROVING TV BUFFS

If you think you know all about the latest concepts in television viewing, think again. The "time shift" concept is passe. A Silicon-Valley start-up, Sling Media, has kicked off the concept of "place shifting" with the launch of a Slingbox .

The gadget priced at $250, is a "personal broadcaster" that can beam all the television programmes reaching your TV at home on to an Internet-connected PC anywhere in the world.

Essentially, the gadget allows you to watch all the shows that your TiVo or any other digital video recorder may be recording while you are away. You could be sitting thousands of kilometres away or in your porch at home "" but you still have remote control to your TV.

That, in fact, is being seen as a major drawback too, simply because you can control or change what the rest of the family is watching at home in your absence.