ITV

Category: Regulators

  • TRAI seeks ideas on spectrum trading, services via satellite, M&A etc. by 11 April

    MUMBAI: Indian telecom regulator TRAI has sought inputs from stakeholders on “Ease of Doing Telecom Business in India”.

    Promoting “ease of doing business” is amongst the priority work items for unhindered growth of the telecom sector. A number of steps have already been taken for ease of doing business. Steps like adoption of market based spectrum management such as assignment of spectrum through auction, permitting spectrum trading, spectrum sharing and liberalisation of administratively assigned spectrum, Unified Licensing regime, Merger and Acquisition guidelines, Virtual Network Operation etc. have been guided by the principles of “ease of doing business”.

    The stakeholders have been requested to provide inputs with detailed explanation and justification by 11 April 2017. On receipt of the inputs, TRAI will analyse them and if required, take further necessary action for simplification of processes.

    Further, the Authority is of the opinion that various processes that  a telecom licensee is required to go through, should be simplified and combined to the extent possible to economise on efforts on part of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) as well as the Government. Therefore, it is important to identify the bottlenecks, obstacles or hindrances that are making it difficult to do telecom business in India and thus, require regulatory intervention. 

    Some of these processes could be:

    Related to Unified Licence

    * Acquiring Unified Licence, Compliance of various general / commercial /
    technical / financial / operating / commercial conditions.

    * Adding new authorisations in the UL

    * Surrendering any authorisation within the scope of UL or surrender of UL.

    * Compliance of roll-out obligations

    * Payment of Licence Fee, FBG/PBG and the release of bank guarantee, whenever due.

    * Any other issue

    Spectrum Allotment and use

    * Assignment of spectrum to the successful bidder by WPC

    * SACFA Clearance Process

    * Spectrum Trading approval process settlement of dues etc.

    * Spectrum Sharing process 

    * Liberalisation of spectrum process

    * Any other issue

    Provision of telecom services using Satellite media 

    * Clearances from INSAT Network Operations Control
    Center (NOCC)

    * Obtaining SACFA clearance and clearance from other
    authorities

    * Any other issue

    Merger and Acquisition Policy

    In addition, there can be processes in other areas which may be requiring simplification. In view of the above, the stakeholders are requested to identify such areas of concern and review the existing processes and suggest mechanisms that ease the business activity.

  • Ensure full use of funds for schemes, house panel tells MIB

    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) needs to “make earnest efforts to bring improvement in their overall performance and ensure full utilization of funds provided for various schemes”, a Parliamentary Committee has said.

    The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, which also examines issues relating to MIB has said that it “would like to be specifically apprised of the improvement effected as a result of policy shift in allocation of funds in the current year”.

    The committee which examined the demands for grants for the year 2017-18 noted that this was particularly important “considering the fact that the Ministry is mandated to have a wide outreach to various sections of society”.

    It noted that as far as utilisation for the year 2016-17 is concerned, the actual expenditure of the Ministry stands at Rs 539.04 billion till 6 February 2017 as against the revised estimates of Rs 860 billion. Thus, the committee noted that, while on the one hand, the Ministry is unable to utilise the budgetary allocations, it has cited want of funds as reason for slow pace of implementation of the Plan schemes.

    The Budget (2017-18) of the Ministry shows that an amount of Rs 440.9 billion has been allocated to the Ministry that is 5.96 per cent higher than the last year’s budget allocation of Rs 408.363 billion.

    With the abolition of plan and non-plan classification from financial year 2017-18, the allocation has been made under revenue and capital section, which is further classified into three categories, namely, (a) establishment expenditure of the Centre, (b) central sector schemes and (c) other central expenditure, including those in central public sector enterprises and autonomous bodies.

    Out of the budgetary allocation of Rs 440.9 billion during the year 2017-18, Rs 495.74 billion has been earmarked for establishment expenditure of the centre; Rs 840 billion is for central sector schemes and Rs 307.326 billion is for other central expenditure, including those in central public sector enterprises and autonomous bodies.

    There is a change in the Internal and Extra Budgetary Resource (IEBR) for new development scheme of Prasar Bharati approved by the erstwhile Planning Commission (now revamped as Niti Ayog) for the Twelfth Plan Period (2012-2017).

    The sectoral allocation of the Ministry shows that Rs 4.53 billion has been allocated to the broadcasting sector of which Rs 4.3 billion is meant for Prasar Bharati. An allocation of Rs 1.8 billion has been made to information sector, which is less than the RE allocation of Rs. 2.5638 billion made in the last year.

    This year the government intends to spend a total amount of Rs 2.07 billion on film sector, up from Rs 1.4148 billion last year. There are three schemes for which the allocation has been increased substantially:

    1: The budgetary allocation has been increased from Rs 70 million in budget estimates 2016-17 to Rs 220 million in BE 2017-18, under the sub-scheme “infrastructure development in Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India” of the scheme “infrastructure development programme relating to film sector”.

    2: The budgetary allocation has been increased from Rs 51 million in BE 2016-17 to Rs 600 million in BE 2017-18 under the scheme of setting up a Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and VFX (Main Secretariat)” and

    3: The budgetary allocation has been increased from Rs 300 million in BE 2016-17 to Rs 500 million in BE 2017-18 under the Scheme of “National Film Heritage Mission” to restore and preserve India’s rich cinematic resources.

  • Green telecom: TRAI again extends time for ideas

    NEW DELHI: In addition to an extension earlier, stakeholders wanting to give suggestions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority’s efforts towards the effect of telecom on climate change and green house gas emissions have been asked to send in their views by 3 April 2017. Stressing that no further extension would be given, TRAI has said the counter-comments can be sent by 17 April 2017.

    The Consultation Paper on Approach towards Sustainable Telecommunications in mid-January this year with a date of responses set for 13 February 2017 which was extended to 14 March. The paper issued following a request from the Department of Telecom raised 14 questions.

    TRAI had issued a paper on similar issues in 2012 and the DoT had in fact given directions on that basis, but new issues have cropped up with emerging technologies.

    India has the second largest and fastest growing mobile telephone market in the world. Power and energy consumption for telecom network operations is by far the most important significant contributor of carbon emissions in the telecom industry.

    Hence, it is important for the telecom operators to shift to energy efficient technologies and alternate sources of energy. Moreover, Going Green has also become a business necessity for telecom operators with energy costs becoming as large as 25% of total network operations costs. A typical communications company spends nearly 1% of its revenues on energy which for large operators may amount to several million rupees.

    Also read:

    Shift to energy-efficient tech; TRAI seeks ideas by 27 Feb

  • Guest Column: TRAI’s radical tariff & interconnect norms will usher in major changes

    At the onset one must appreciate the efforts put in by the TRAI in coming out with path-breaking orders involving tariff, services inter-connection and quality of services. The effort of the regulator is clearly to increase choice in the hands of consumers to pay for what they want to watch.

    The TRAI guidelines are aimed at encouraging moving away from a push-based model to a pull-based one where demand and supply will be the deciding factors. Still, it’s a known fact that consumers themselves find it difficult to pick and chose, preferring packages instead. But time will tell how the Indian consumer behaves this time around. But if the industry and the government/regulator work together, a lot can be made possible. However, there are some actions that need to be acted upon urgently. In my opinion, they are the following:

    1. TRAI guidelines pre-suppose that all distribution platform operators (DPOs) have the built in capability to create packages and also bill on a la carte basis. While it might be possible for the bigger DPOs who have invested in the backend to have this capability, I am less confident of smaller DPOs. Unfortunately, for many of them digitalization was just converting analog signals to digital. Such DPOs selected weak support players resulting in inadequate capabilities in the backend, which is the heart of digitalization (packaging and bundling). For them to make adequate changes will also mean making huge investment and technology upgrade. One way to make this possible quickly and in a cost efficient way is to implement infrastructure sharing at every level keeping advancing technology in mind. And, to make this aspect possible, it’s necessary to make licensing norms amendments in the statutory regulations relating to cable TV, HITS, and DTH.

    2. As of today, the balance of negotiating power is clearly in the hands of broadcasters and, while the TRAI orders are quite exhaustive in terms of various provisions, lets us not underestimate the capability/ingenuity/creativity of the broadcasters. I personally do not think any broadcaster will absorb the DPO margins. As broadcasters have an in-built minimum return they expect from their channels, in all probability, they will add this margin to the channels’ prices. The regulator should consider setting up a mechanism by which it can review and intervene in a time-bound manner.

    3. DPOs must move away from their analog mindsets and embrace digitalization and its implications by being more honest and transparent in their dealings with broadcasters and other stakeholders.

    4. While TRAI has outlined the terms and conditions of providing TV channels to DPOs, it has been observed that commercial negotiations are fairly simpler than the legal terms and conditions. In my view, this is a result of legacy mistrust between a broadcaster and an MSO. I would, therefore, suggest that a model interconnect be prepared by TRAI, which must be the document entered into by the said parties till the industry settles down to this new environment and mutual trust develops.

    5. Broadcasters and DPOs must work together to jointly grow the business. At the end of the day, both will benefit only if the consumer pays. I think a working group comprising representatives from various industry organizations like the IBF, NBA, AIDCF, DTH Association and TRAI/MIB should be constituted along with some independent experts to facilitate the process. This should be a small group that could make valuable suggestions. Trust and transparency will need to be the hallmark for the industry to move forward and litigations must be kept out as far as possible.

    6. The government should provide more clarity on taxation issues; especially in view of the new GST regime set to be rolled out from later this year. Simultaneously, the government must seriously consider giving `industry status’ to the broadcast sector.

    7. As far as the tariff order is concerned, DPOs have an opportunity, with the different margin structures, to set their houses in order. They need to invest in the backend, introduce VAS (value added services) and look at having some unique content.

    8. From the tariff point of view broadcasters have a challenge on their hands as they know there is a price cap with restrictions on packaging (sports channels). They should seriously consider promoting events on short-term basis as there is no minimum period for subscription. We all know consumers by and large watch 12 to 15 channels. It will be interesting to see how competing broadcasters price channels in specific genres as consumers in the short-term are likely to cap their spends on TV entertainment.

    9. DPOs in smaller towns should consider forming co-operatives to work together, while at the same time retaining their individual identities.

    As a result of fresh TRAI orders, I hope there will be more discipline and transparency in the industry, which could also see mergers within platforms as this is a time to consolidate. The Indian broadcast and cable sector is on the cusp of major changes. Those who embrace change, will flourish, while the rest will slowly perish.

    public://tony_0.jpg (The author, an Indian media industry veteran, is the former CEO-Media, Hinduja Group. The views expressed here are personal, and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to them.)

     

  • Ashok Parmar appointed MIB joint secretary

    NEW DELHI: Ashok K R Parmar is taking over as joint secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry in place of Mihir Kumar Singh. 

    Parmar, a 1992 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, will take charge for a period of five years from the date of assumption of the position. 

    Singh, a 1993 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, will take charge as the special secretary in the department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries on lateral shift basis. He will assume charge for a period of five-year central deputation tenure up to 21 January 2020 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

    Singh is taking charge from Adhithela J V Prasad, a 1986 batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre.

    Earlier, in a separate development, Prasar Bharati chairman Surya Prakash wrote to the government to expedite the selection of a new CEO and member (personnel) in the pubcaster. Prakash told the indiantelevision.com that he had sought from the government to ensure the vacancies are filled soon to facilitate decision-making. A high-level committee headed by India’s vice-president Hamid Ansari is needed to meet as stipulated in the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 to select a new CEO and other members. Meanwhile, member (finance) Rajeev Singh was scheduled to take over as the interim chief executive officer of the pubcaster from 6 February. He succeeds Suresh C Panda who was the member (personnel) and is due to retire on 4 February.

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    K. Sanjay Murthy new MIB jt secy broadcasting 

  • SC terms ‘anti-competitve’ barring of TV channels airing dubbed serial

    MUMBAI: In Competition Commission of India versus Co-ordination Committee of Artists And Technicians of WB Film and television, the apex court of India has held that, preventing channels from airing the tele-serial Mahabharat dubbed in Bengali is an ‘anti-competitive’ activity, and the protection under the garb of language goes against the interest of competition.

    The CCI (Competition Commission of India), acting on a complaint that the Committee of Artists and Technicians of West Bengal Film, Eastern India Motion Picture Association (EIMPA) and Television Investors (Coordination Committee), demanded to halt the airing of the dubbed serial on some TV channels, held that this activity was ‘anti-competitive’. 

    The Competition Appellate Tribunal however set aside the order and conclusion of the CCI, stating that the EIMPA and the coordination committee were not an “enterprise.” The CCI then approached the Supreme Court.

    In its judgement, the SC observed: This appeal raises an interesting and important question of law touching upon the width and scope of jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India (for short, the ‘CCI’) under Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002. Sajjan Kumar Khaitan is the proprietor of M/s. Hart Video having his establishment in Kolkata. He is in the business of distributing video cinematographic TV serials and telecasting regional serials in the States of Eastern India, which includes West Bengal.

    BRTV, Mumbai, which is the producer of  T.V.   programmes,  had  produced  T.V.  Serial   named ‘Mahabharat’, original version whereof was in Hindi.  BRTV entrusted the sole and exclusive rights of ‘Mahabharat’ to Magnum T.V. Serials to dub the Hindi version of the said serial in Bangla with further rights to exploit its Satellite, Pay TV, DTH, IPTV, Video, Cable TV and internet rights till Septembe, 2016.  Magnum TV, in turn, appointed Hart Video as the sub-assigner to dub the said serial ‘Mahabharat’ in Bangla language, which it did. Thereafter, for the purposes of telecasting the said dubbed serial, an agreement was executed for the time slot, on revenue sharing basis, with Bengal Media Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata, which is the owner of ‘Channel 10’, as well as with Calcutta Television Network Private Ltd., Kolkata, which is the owner of CTVN+ Channel. These two channels were given hard disks of four episodes of the serial on 2 February, 2011 and 12 February, 2011.An advertisement was placed in daily newspapers on 19 February, 2011, informing the public at large that the serial ‘Mahabharat’ would be telecast in Bangla on Channel 10 at 10.00 a.m. in the morning and on CTVN+ at 10.00 p.m. every Sunday.

    Certain producers in eastern India formed an association called Eastern India Motion Picture Association (for short, ‘EIMPA’).  Likewise, the artists and technicians of film and television industry in West Bengal have formed an association known as ‘Committee of Artists and Technicians of West Bengal Film and Television Investors (‘Coordination Committee’).

    Telecasting of serial ‘Mahabharat’ in Bangla after dubbing it in the said language from the original produced Hindi language was not palatable to EIMPA or the Coordination Committee.  In their perception, serials produced in other languages and shown on the T.V. Channels after dubbing them in Bangla would affect the producers of that origin and, in turn, would also adversely affect the artists and technicians working in West Bengal. The apprehension was that it may deter production of such serials in Bangla because of the entry of serials produced in other languages and shown to the public by dubbing the same in their language. 
    Because of this reason, on 18 February, 2011 CTVN+ received a letter from the Coordination Committee to stop the telecast of the dubbed serial ‘Mahabharat’.   Letter dated 1 March, 2011 to the similar effect was written by EIMPA to CTVN+. Identical demands were made to this Channel by the Coordination Committee as well.

    It was alleged that for the last 13 years there was a convention and practice adopted in the said region not to dub any programme from other languages in Bangla and telecast them in West Bengal. A threat was also extended to CTVN+ as well as Channel 10 that in case the telecast   is  not  stopped,  their  channels  would  face non-cooperation from these two bodies, i.e., EIMPA and the Coordination Committee.

    The CCI, after receiving the aforesaid information from Sajjan Khaitan (Hart Video), formed a prima facie opinion that acts on the part of EIMPA and Coordination Committee were anti-competitive. Accordingly, matter was assigned to the Director General (DG) for detailed investigation who found Hart Video information to be factually correct.

    Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002 reads as under :

    Anti-competitive agreements: 

    No enterprise or association of enterprises or person or association of persons shall enter into any  agreement in respect of production, supply, distribution, storage, acquisition or control of goods or provision of services, which causes or is likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.

    Any agreement entered into in contravention of the provisions contained in subsection (1) shall be void.

    Any agreement entered into between enterprises or associations of enterprises or persons or associations of persons or between any person and enterprise or practice carried on, or decision taken by, any association of enterprises or association of persons, including cartels, engaged in identical or similar trade of goods or provision of services, which—
    (a)   directly or indirectly determines purchase or sale prices;
    (b)  limits or controls production, supply, markets, technical development, investment or provision of services;
    (c)   shares the market or source of production or provision of services by way of allocation of geographical area of market, or type of goods or
       services, or number of customers in the market or  any other similar way;
    (d)   directly or indirectly results in bid rigging or collusive bidding, shall be presumed to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition:

    The CCI thus rightly observed that the protection in the name of the language goes against the interest of the competition, depriving the consumers of exercising their choice. Acts of Coordination Committee definitely caused harm to consumers by depriving them from watching the dubbed serial on TV channel; albeit for a brief period. It also hindered competition in the market by barring dubbed TV serials from exhibition on TV channels in the State of West Bengal. It amounted to creating barriers to the entry of new content in the said dubbed TV serial. Such act and conduct also limited the supply of serial dubbed in Bangla, which amounts to violation of the provision of Section 3(3)(b) of the Act. Resultantly, the instant appeal of CCI stands allowed.

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  • MIB taking up EMMC contractual workers issues on top priority

    MUMBAI: Several hundreds contractual workers of the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC), which falls under the ministry of information and broadcasting yesterday protested in New Delhi. They were demanding increase in the duration of their contract period as well as wage hike.

    However, a ministry official said the demands raised by EMMC employees were “not new, and they are being taken up with top priority” by the ministry.

    In a memorandum to the information and broadcasting minister Venkaiah Naidu, the employees demanded raise in their salaries alleging that they had not got any hike in the last three years while the Central government employees were getting wages as per 7th Pay Commission recommendations. They also claimed that a majority of them had working there for around 7-8 years.

    The protesters, demonstrating outside the Shastri Bhawan, said that they were employed on contractual basis for three months. For the last three times, they claimed, that they were assessed on the basis of a written test while, earlier it was done on the basis of work. The employees said the workers in similar media organisations such as Doordarshan News were employed on a year’s contract, and were judged on the basis of work.

  • MIB: Check permission of ads using emblems & important names, Paytm, Jio apologise

    MUMBAI: The Department of Consumer Affairs sought clarification from Paytm and Reliance Jio regarding use of the photograph of the prime minister in their respective full page advertisement contravening the ‘prior permission’ stipulation in such cases under ‘The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950’.

    Paytm and Reliance Jio apologised for their inadvertent mistake. Further, based on a request from the Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued an advisory to print medium to check-up the permission/authority from Competent Authority before issuing any advertisement wherein the Emblem and Names Specified under the act are mentioned.

    Section 3 of ‘The Emblems and Name (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950’ stipulates that ‘no person shall, except in such cases and under such conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Government, use, or continue to use, for the purpose of any trade, business, calling or profession or in the title of any patent, or in any trade mark or design, any name or emblem specified in the Schedule or any colourable imitation thereof without the previous permission of the Central Government or of such officer of Government as may be authorized in this behalf by the Central Government.’ A committee is in existence in Department of Consumer Affairs for inter-alia examining proposals regarding prior approval stipulation under ‘ the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950’.

    This information was given by the minister of state for consumer affairs, food & public distribution C.R. Chaudhary in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

  • Delhi govt TV ads ‘beyond responsibility’: CAG

    MUMBAI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s audit report on Friday said that advertisements released outside Delhi last year, constituting around 86 per cent of the total expenditure of Rs 33.4 crore, was “beyond the responsibility” of the Delhi government.

    The state government explained that the ads were issued outside Delhi because there was “immense potential to promote trade, tourism, and retail businesses…the achievements made in critical sectors such as health, education, etc were highlighted to attract best talent and businesses to the national capital.”

    CAG also grilled the state government for its plan to establish ‘Shabdarth’ as its in-house ad-agency, saying the aim was to reduce the cost of official publicity.

    The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, the CAG found, invested Rs 28.7 crore on ads outside the capital in a single campaign during its first year in office. The auditor also stated that some contents of the publicity material violated the Supreme Court’s guidelines on acceptable matter in such ads, the Times of India reported.

    Between 14 and 17 February, 2016, the Delhi government inserted advertorials in 26 national and 37 regional newspapers in 14 states. Nine television clips were sanctioned for broadcast on 89 channels, including regional ones, between 15 February and 1 March, while seven radio jingles were aired between 13 and 19 February.

    CAG, however, did not find the explanation tenable since the jingles and TV clips showed the achievements not as those of the government but “of a political party”. Besides, the advertisements were “not linked to GNCTD’s constitutional and legal obligations towards the citizenry of NCT of Delhi.”

    The audit report listed ads worth Rs 24.2 crore released in this period as not conforming to the apex court guidelines. While the television and print ads referred to the Delhi government as “AAP government” and “Kejriwal sarkar” or as “AAP”, some of those also carried pictures of Delhi ministers in violation of the SC guidelines.

    The government has argued that “Kejriwal sarkar” was simply “a nomenclature used by the public… to refer to Delhi government.”

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  • TRAI reducing TSP/ISPs & VSAT service-providers’ burden: Broadband Forum

    NEW DELHI: Expressing satisfaction that many of its demands had been met in the latest recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Broadband India Forum has said it is a small but significant step in the right direction to help reduce the burden of the TSP/ISPs as well as that of the VSAT service-providers thereby  paving the way for a more active engagement of the ISPs and TSPs offering Internet Access Services to increase broadband penetration in the country

    BIF president T V Ramachandran hoped that this would be the first of many such recommendations from the Regulator to expedite broadband penetration and the vision of the prime minister to fully realise the dream of ‘Digital India’.

    He said the recommendations for streamlining the procedure/process of allocation of satellite capacity and the frequency allocation subsequently by WPC for VSAT service providers and capping it to be provided in a time bound manner –within a span of  three months was indeed praiseworthy.

    He said further went on to mention that the idea of a single window clearance for all clearances/approvals/payments through a transparent online mechanism was a “wonderful and welcome idea in this age of digital payments and single point responsibility”.

    Ramachandran said BIF’s position stand vindicated on many of the points made by the Regulator stand vindicated. These include the given spectrum bands be charged administratively and on a link-by-link basis; P-AGR should not be prescribed either for ISP licenses or for Commercial VSAT Licenses; SUC calculation/determination should continue to be based on the existing formula instead of as a percentage of the AGR; and delayed payment in case of SUC should be charged on the basis of SBI PLR +2%.

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