ITV

Category: Regulators

  • TDSAT warns Digicable for pirating GTPL Hathway signals in Ahmedabad

    TDSAT warns Digicable for pirating GTPL Hathway signals in Ahmedabad

    NEW DELHI: Digicable Network (India) Ltd of Mumbai was today warned by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against piracy in Ahmedabad of the signals of GTPL Hathway Pvt Ltd of Gujarat.

     

    Disposing the petition with an order, TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and BB Srivastava also warned Digicable to be ready to face legal consequences if it persisted in such piracy.

     

    Digicable counsel Diggy Pathak sought to say that Digicable was attempting to expand in Ahmedabad and had carried the signals on a trial basis, something the Tribunal took strong exception to.

     

    GTPL counsel Jayant Mehta said that his client had informed all the concerned broadcasters and also referred to losses because of this piracy.

     

    The Tribunal also took note of submissions by Star India counsel Arjun Natarajan, counsel Kunal Tandon for both IndiaCast UTV Media Distribution and Multi Screen Media, Mumbai and Upender Thakur for Taj TV said they had begun internal inquiry after being informed of this piracy.

     

    At one stage during arguments, Justice Alam expressed annoyance about increasing piracy and wondered if the TDSAT should now set up an investigation wing as well.

  • TDSAT directs Taj TV to not disconnect Indusind signals in DAS & non-DAS areas

    TDSAT directs Taj TV to not disconnect Indusind signals in DAS & non-DAS areas

    NEW DELHI: Taj Television (India) Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai was today directed by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) not to give effect to the disconnection order in Digital Addressable System (DAS) and non-DAS areas against IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd if the latter makes payment according to formulas drawn up by the Tribunal as an interim arrangement.

     

    Under the order for DAS areas, Indusind counsel Vandana D. Jaisingh handed over to Taj TV counsel Tejveer Singh Bhatia four cheques amounting to Rs 5.42 crore. In addition, Indusind will pay Rs 10 crore by 2 November, Rs 5 crore by 9 November and Rs 10 crore by 30 November, 2015.

     

    Admitting both cases and posting them before the Registrar’s court on 18 December for completion of pleadings, the Tribunal made clear that the directions are towards earlier dues as far as DAS areas are concerned. 

     

    In addition, Indusind must make payments of the invoices raised by Taj TV for the months of October and November this year for DAS areas.

     

    TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava said the payments made in terms of this interim order will be without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.

     

    In the case relating to non-DAS areas, the Tribunal asked Indusind to make immediate payment of the outstanding dues up to 30 September subject to verification by reconciliation of accounts.

     

    Taj TV had issued the disconnection notice as it claimed that dues amounted to Rs 9.58 crore till 31 October but this was disputed by Indusind, which submitted that it had made already payment of Rs 2.26 crore and was entitled to pay for October by 15 November.

     

    However, Taj said the amount was arrived at after taking the amounting already paid into account.

     

    The Tribunal directed Indusind to go to the respondent’s Mumbai office on 3 November for this purpose.

     

    Following the reconciliation of accounts, the Tribunal said Indusind will pay the dues up to 30 September by6 November. The invoice for the month of October 2015 will be paid by 15 November.

     

    Bhatia accepted notice on behalf of Taj TV for both petitions and was asked to file the reply within three weeks from today (30 October). Rejoinder, if any, may be filed within two weeks thereafter.

     

    The agreement under which Indusind receives its signals from Taj TV came to end on 31 March but the latter continued to supply signals and Indusind continued to receive the signals and re-transmit them to its affiliates without any renewal of agreement and under the pretext that negotiations for the renewal of the agreement is going on between the two sides.  

     

    The matter finally came to a head when Taj TV gave disconnection notices for disconnection of its supply of signals to the petitioner. The disconnection notices are based on grounds of non-payment of dues and non-renewal of the interconnect agreement. In the notice, the dues are quantified at Rs 36.44 crore upto 30 September. The amount of dues mentioned in the disconnection notice relate only to the monthly subscription fees.

     

    Jaisingh disputed the amount mentioned in the disconnection notices. According to her, the admitted dues amount to Rs 24.85 crore. She contended that after the expiry of the agreement, the respondent is unauthorisedly raising invoices increasing the rate by more than 10 per cent from the rate mentioned in the previous agreement. 

     

    Bhatia said the invoices from April 2015 onwards had been raised strictly in terms of the provisions of the agreement. 

     

    The Tribunal felt that the submission of Bhatia “appears to be prima facie correct but we do not wish to make any conclusive pronouncement on that aspect of the matter at this stage.”

  • TRAI won’t withdraw call drops penalty, to carry another audit in Dec

    TRAI won’t withdraw call drops penalty, to carry another audit in Dec

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reiterated that the newly-introduced penalty for call drops slated to come into effect from January will not be withdrawn.

     

    In a meeting with the chief executive officers of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to apprise them about the findings of the drive tests conducted recently in Delhi and Mumbai, TRAI said an audit of networks in Mumbai and Delhi had shown showed unsatisfactory network quality.

     

    TRAI, which had carried out special independent drive tests for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services in the Mumbai and Delhi in June and July and then in September this year, will carry out fresh audits in December to review the situation. There were no significant improvement in the performance of the TSPs.

     

    The findings of these tests along with a consolidated analysis of the reports were uploaded on TRAI website.

     

    The service providers had stated in their meeting with TRAI that they had taken and continue to take a number of steps to improve the quality of network in these areas and that the quality of service had improved.

     

    In the meeting, the findings of the test drive were discussed and the service providers were requested to take action for further improvement of the network conditions.

     

    TRAI officials agreed to share with service providers and other stakeholders the independent drive tests carried In other major cities – Surat, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad.

     

    The service providers had stated that there are a number of other issues affecting quality of service of the network resulting in call drops. The Authority assured it would extend whatever help possible to the telecom service providers.

  • Prasar Bharati moves TDSAT against Mumbai based FM radio licensee

    Prasar Bharati moves TDSAT against Mumbai based FM radio licensee

    NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati has moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against Mumbai based FM radio licensee Pan India Network Infravest Pvt Ltd for not vacating its properties in different cities even after the end of the lease period.

     

    To this regard, Prasar Bharati has admitted eight petitions for hearing to TDSAT.

     

    The petitions have been filed by the pubcaster from Allahabad, Amritsar and other parts of Punjab, Jalgaon, Varanasi, Akola, Agra, and Nanded.

     

    TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava admitted the petition after hearing Government counsel Rajeev Sharma. No one appeared for Pan India Network Infravest.

     

    Pan India Network was directed to file a reply within three weeks and rejoinder by Prasar Bharati, if any, two weeks thereof.

     

    The case was listed for 15 December before the Registrar’s court for getting the pleadings completed. 

     

    FM operators were given some land by Prasar Bharati on its land in many cities for putting up transmitters etc under conditions set out in agreements with each of them.

  • MIB asks stakeholders for details of DAS public awareness campaigns

    MIB asks stakeholders for details of DAS public awareness campaigns

    NEW DELHI: All broadcasters, multi system operators (MSOs) and cable operators have been asked by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to send details of the public awareness campaign being carried out by them about the third phase of digital addressable system (DAS) and the need for having a set top box (STB) in every television home.

     

    The stakeholders have been asked by MIB Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) R Jaya to send this information within 15 days along with documentary proof.

     

    Stressing that every TV home has to have an STB, she said it was essential that MSOs and cable operators carry only digital encrypted signals after 31 December this year.

     

    At the outset, she said that since the cut-off date was very near, it was presumed that broadcasters, MSOs and LCOs had already done their bit.

     

    Under Section 44 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and the Rules framed there-under, the centre had notified phased implementation of DAS in the country by the cable operators.

     

    Phases I and ll of cable digitisation had been completed and Phase lll of digitisation, which will cover all the remaining urban areas in the country was scheduled for completion by 31 December this year, while rural areas would be covered in phase lV to be completed by 31 December, 2016.

     

    Jaya said that the public must be aware that they require a STB before the cutoff date and drew attention to the provision under Rule 12 of the Rules, which states, “Every Broadcaster, MSO and LCO shall create public awareness among, and provide information to, the subscribers in the notified areas from a period at least thirty days prior to the date such areas are notified either through advertisements in the print and electronic media or through such other means including leaflets, printing on the reverse of website, the receipts, personal visits, group meetings with subscribers or consumer groups. This should contain the salient features of DAS.”

  • Calculate FM migration fee on reserve price for cities with no bids: TDSAT

    NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry was today directed to take the reserve price as the bid amount for computation of the non-refundable One Time Migration Fee (NOTMF) for migrating from Phase II to Phase III of Radio FM in cities where no successful bids had come in the recent e-auction.

     

    According to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), all FM channels of Phase II in these cities, which had applied for migration to Phase III will pay this amount within three working days of receiving the computed figure.

     

    Stressing that this was only an interim measure, TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava made it clear that in case the petition failed, the applicants would have to payment the balance of the NOTMF with interest within the date specified by the Tribunal.

     

    Listing the matter for further hearing on 26 November, the Tribunal asked the Ministry represented by counsel Rajeev Sharma to file its reply by 13 November and the petitioner – Association of Radio Operators in India (AROI) represented by counsel Abhishek Malhotra – to file rejoinder – if any – by 20 November.

     

    The Tribunal had yesterday extended the last date of payment of 75 per cent balance of NOTMF till today.

     

    AROI has challenged the criteria for NOTMF for migrating from Phase II to Phase III of Radio FM.

     

    The primary plea of AROI is that the I&B Ministry is charging very high fee for smaller cities for NOTMF.

     

    During arguments, Malhotra said that the plea taken by the Ministry for the cities, which were put up for auction but failed to get successful bids was erroneous. The Ministry had reiterated the plea of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that the final prices for allocation of channels in such cities have not been determined.

     

    Malhotra said that existing Phase II FM operators in these cities who wanted to migrate had to be told the NOTMF they could pay for migration.

     

    Earlier in a letter to I&B secretary Sunil Arora, TRAI secretary Sudhir Gupta rejected the plea of AROI in this regard with regard to ten cities for which no bids had come in the recent e-auctions.

     

    Gupta said the AROI had in its representation “assumed zero percent increase in reserve prices for 10 group Z cities where auction was unsuccessful as no bids were received. This assumption of AROI is not tenable as the final prices for allocation of channels in such cities have not been determined.”

     

    He added that AROI had indicated another two concerns in respect of calculation of NOTMF by the Ministry. In the first case wherein example of Shimla is given by AROI, the methodology followed by MIB is in line with TRAI’s recommendations of 20 February, 2014, as this has been explained in an example given in a table of TRAI’s recommendations on “Migration of FM Radio Broadcasters from Phase-11 to Phase-III” dated 20 February, 2014.

     

    Accordingly, the request of AROI for review of NOTMF on this ground is not acceptable, Gupta said.

     

    The letter was in response to a letter from the Ministry of 8 October wherein the Ministry has sought TRAI’s comments on the methodology used by I&B Ministry for calculation of NOTMF for existing cities and to confirm whether it has done calculation of city wise NOTMF in accordance with the TRAI’s recommendations of 20 February, 2014.

     

    Gupta said TRAI had examined the methodology of calculation of NOTMF followed by the Ministry for group X, Y and Z cities. “The methodology followed by the Ministry for calculation of NOTMF is in accordance with TRAI’s recommendations dated 20 February, 2014.”

  • Fewer new MSO applicants held up for lack of security clearance by MHA

    Fewer new MSO applicants held up for lack of security clearance by MHA

    NEW DELHI: Imparting a pace of urgency in view of the approaching deadline for implementation of digital addressable system (DAS), the last three Open House meetings between the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and multi system operators (MSOs) showed greater positivity with most applicants being told their applications had been processed.

     

    This is contrary to the practice a few months earlier when MSOs were told in most meetings that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had not yet given security clearance to them.

     

    While there were some cases where such clearance is awaited, MSOs like DEN Discovery, DEN Premium, DEN Ambey, Den Enjoy, Mahvir DEN, GTPL and Good Media News were given other reasons for delay but were generally given an optimistic message.

     

    The MHA had some months earlier streamlined and relaxed national security clearance norms for certain sensitive sectors including the media sector.

     

    The Parliament had been informed by the Home Ministry that its new policy guidelines included doing away with national security clearance for MSOs in the media sector. 

     

    The guidelines are aimed at bringing about a healthy balance between meeting the imperatives of national security and facilitating the ease of doing business and promoting investment in the country.

     

    However MIB sources told Indiantelevision.com that the Ministry had still not received any note from the Home Ministry in this regard.

     

    Sources also said that a majority of the 203 MSOs who had been given provisional licences by 20 October are awaiting security clearance from the Home Ministry. 
  • AIR to host monthly Cultural Music Heritage Shows

    AIR to host monthly Cultural Music Heritage Shows

    NEW DELHI: All India Radio (AIR) will be organising monthly Cultural Music Heritage shows as part of safeguarding the country’s musical heritage featuring prominent artistes.

     

    The opening concert on 28 October will be by renowned santoor exponent Pandit Bhajan Sopori and his son Abhay Rustom Sopori. The concert will be telecast live on DD Bharati at 6.30 pm.

     

    Being organised by AIR’s national channel, the show will showcase the musical brilliance shared between generations of musicians.

     

    The show titled A Musical Legacy intends to highlight the musical skills passed from generation to generation amongst musicians.

     

    The concert to be held once a month will see rendition from talented duos like Padamshree Debu Choudhary and his son Pratik Choudhary, Pandit Manprasad and son Lalit Prasad, L.K.Pandit and Mita Pandit, Pandit Rajendar Prassana and Ritesh Prassana.

     

    The series, which forms a part of Prasar Bharati’s mission of ‘Bahujan Hitaya, Bahujan Sukhaya’ is a platform where the rich legacy of the artists would be showcased.

     

    “Radio has not only conserved the musical legacy but given dimensions to it to make it relevant with changing times,” said AIR DG F. Sheheryar.

  • TDSAT to hear AROI’s petition challenging radio migration fee methodology; payment date extended

    TDSAT to hear AROI’s petition challenging radio migration fee methodology; payment date extended

    NEW DELHI: The vacation bench of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today extended till tomorrow the deadline for payment of the balance of the non-refundable One Time Migration Fee (NOTMF) for migrating from Phase II to Phase III of Radio FM.

     

    The vacation bench of TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh, who gave the interim direction after preliminary hearing, are expected to hear tomorrow the petition by the Association of Radio Operators in India (AROI) challenging the criteria for NOTMF for migrating from Phase II to Phase III of Radio FM.

     

    The primary plea of AROI is that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is charging very high fee for smaller cities for NOTMF.

     

    Meanwhile in a letter to I&B Secretary Sunil Arora yesterday, TRAI secretary Sudhir Gupta rejected the plea of AROI with regard to ten cities for which no bids had come in the recent e-auctions.

     

    Gupta said the AROI had in its representation “assumed zero percent increase in reserve prices for 10 group Z cities where auction was unsuccessful as no bids were received. This assumption of AROI is not tenable as the final prices for allocation of channels in such cities have not been determined.”

     

    He said AROI had indicated another two concerns in respect of calculation of NOTMF by the Ministry. In the first case wherein example of Shimla is given by AROI, the methodology followed by the I&B Ministry is in line with TRAI’s recommendations of 20 February, 2014, as this has been explained in an example given in a table of TRAI’s recommendations on “Migration of FM Radio Broadcasters from Phase-11 to Phase-III” dated 20 February, 2014.

     

    Accordingly, the request of AROI for review of NOTMF on this ground is not acceptable, Gupta said.

     

    The letter was in response to a letter from the Ministry dated 8 October wherein the Ministry has sought TRAI’s comments on the methodology used by the I&B Ministry for calculation of NOTMF for existing cities and to confirm whether the I&B Ministry has done calculation of city wise NOTMF in accordance with the TRAI’s recommendations of 20 February, 2014.

     

    Gupta said TRAI had examined the methodology of calculation of NOTMF followed by the Ministry for group X, Y and Z cities. “The methodology followed by the Ministry for calculation of NOTMF is in accordance with TRAI’s recommendations dated 20 February 2014.”

     

    However, Gupta said, “TRAI has neither verified the arithmetic accuracy of city-wise NOTMF calculated by the I&B Ministry nor looked into the city-wise prices determined through the auction process.”

  • Number of MSOs for DAS areas touches 429 with 200 provisional licensees

    Number of MSOs for DAS areas touches 429 with 200 provisional licensees

    NEW DELHI: Even as two months remain for digital addressable system (DAS) Phase III deadline of 31 December, 2015, a total of 429 multi system operators (MSOs) had obtained licences for DAS as on 21 October.

     

    Of these, 226 MSOs have 10-year licences, whereas 203 have obtained provisional licences since the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has still not received any formal communication of the Home Ministry’s decision to do away with security clearances for MSOs.

     

    According to the last list issued on 30 September, the Ministry had registered a total of 400 MSOs including 173, which were provisional.

     

    Thus while there has been no increase in the number of permanent (10-year) licence holders, the number of provisional MSOs has gone up to 203.

     

    According to the list put on the I&B Ministry’s website, Kal Cables and Digi Cable Network Pvt Ltd of Mumbai remain on the cancellation list.

     

    Thirteen MSOs, which had earlier been granted permanent licences were permitted to change their areas of operation. 

     

    The only new entrant in the permanent licence holder is Nilgiri Cable TV Private Ltd for the third and fourth phase of DAS in Tamil Nadu.