Mike,

Thanks for your reply. I was asked by a Developer Engineer to post it here -
but i did want a solution for an asp.net webform datagrid.

Anyway, I have been given a solution. For the benefit of anyone else wishing
to know, it is doen like so:

Private Sub DataGrid1_ItemDataBound _
       (ByVal sender As Object, _
       ByVal e As _
       System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventArgs) _
       Handles DataGrid1.ItemDataBound
       If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Header Then
           Dim dgItemHeader As New DataGridItem _
           (0, 0, ListItemType.Header)

           e.Item.Attributes.Add("style", "background:#C0D3E9")

           Dim fcell As TableCell
           Dim i As Integer
           For i = 0 To 3
               fcell = New TableCell
               fcell.ColumnSpan = 3

               Select Case i
                   Case 0
                       fcell.ColumnSpan = 2
                       fcell.Text = ""
                   Case 1
                       fcell.Text = "Press"
                   Case 2
                       fcell.Text = "Radio"
                   Case 3
                       fcell.Text = "Tv"
               End Select
               fcell.HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Center
               dgItemHeader.Cells.Add(fcell)
           Next i

           DataGrid1.Controls(0).Controls.AddAt(0, dgItemHeader)
       End If
   End Sub

This code creates an extra header on top of the default one and adds 1 cell
which spans 2 columns and adds 3 other cells which span 3 columns each.

Regards,

KS