ITV

Category: Regulators

  • ENIL wins 17 FM channels; HT Media bags Delhi for Rs 169 crore

    ENIL wins 17 FM channels; HT Media bags Delhi for Rs 169 crore

    NEW DELHI: Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) appears to be the largest gainer in the first stage of the FM Radio Phase III e-auctions declared today with 17 channels in its kitty.

     

    HT Media was the bidder for the sole channel in Delhi, which it picked up for a whopping sum of Rs 169.16 crore. HT Media also bagged one of the two channels in Mumbai. The other went to Digital Radio (Mumbai) Broadcasting Pvt Ltd, which an affiliate of Sun TV Network.

     

    On the other hand, ENIL bagged the sole channel in Bengaluru along with two channels in Hyderabad, with one other channel in Hyderabad going to HT Media. ENIL also bagged the sole channel in Guwahati and one of the two in Jammu, the other going to Rajasthan Patrika.

     

    Rajasthan Patrika successfully bid for 14 channels, while Reliance Broadcast Network has got 14 channels and DB Corp Ltd has got 14 channels. Meanwhile, Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd has got 11 channels and HT Media has 10 channels.

     

    The others, who have successful bid are Digital Radio (Delhi) Broadcasting, Digital Radio (Mumbai) Broadcasting, Abhijeet Realtors and Infraventures Pvt Ltd, Renderlive Films and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Sarthak Films Pvt Ltd, Abir Buildcon Pvt Ltd, Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Co Pvt Ltd and Odisha Television Ltd. 

     

    Bhubaneswar – the city, which got the maximum number of bids, has been bagged by Sarthak Films Pvt Ltd.

     

    The auction was stopped on the 33rd day after just one round, with 97 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of about Rs 1156.9 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.8 crore.

     

    The results of 91 channels in 54 cities were declared today (16 September) by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. These results do not include the results of the bids by M/s Sun TV, South Asia FM and Kal Radio in compliance with the orders of the Madras High Court.

     

    The I&B ministry said the Centre had decided to file a special leave to appeal in the Supreme Court against the order of 26 July of the Delhi High Court in the petitions by Digital Radio (Mumbai) Broadcasting Ltd. & Digital Radio (Delhi) Broadcasting Ltd. respectively.

     

  • SC grants relief to MS Dhoni in case over portrayal as Lord Vishnu

    SC grants relief to MS Dhoni in case over portrayal as Lord Vishnu

    NEW DELHI: Ace cricketer M S Dhoni got a stay from the Supreme Court on criminal proceedings initiated against him for hurting religious sentiments for being portrayed as Lord Vishnu in a magazine cover. 

     

    The apex court bunched his petition with plea of TV Today group head Aroon Purie who had also moved the court in the same case. The court had earlier stayed proceeding against Purie also. He was named in complaint for being editor-in-chief of Business Today, which published Dhoni’s photo. 

     

    The Special Leave Petition was against an order of the Karnataka High Court, which had refused to quash the criminal proceedings pending against him before a trial court in Bengaluru that was slated for today.

     

    The cricketer pleaded that the complaint filed against him was frivolous and the criminal proceedings needed to be quashed as it was filed just to harass him in the case.

     

    The High Court had said, “A celebrity and a cricketer like Dhoni should know the consequences of hurting religious sentiments of people. He should have known the consequences of doing such ads. These celebrities are signing ads without any responsibility. Their aim is to earn easy money without considering the problems it may create.”

     

    The complaint, filed by social activist Jayakumar Hiremath, had alleged that Dhoni was seen on the cover of a business magazine as Lord Vishnu, holding several things, including a shoe in his hands.

     

    Taking cognisance of the complaint filed by Hiremath, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had registered a case against Dhoni under section 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) along with 34 of the IPC.

     

    Dhoni had moved the High Court when summons were issued by the Magistrate to appear before him.

  • TDSAT asks Sun Distribution to sign new interconnect agreement with Vision Digital Cable

    TDSAT asks Sun Distribution to sign new interconnect agreement with Vision Digital Cable

    NEW DELHI: Vision Digital Cable and Sun Distribution Services Pvt Ltd have been permitted by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (TDSAT) to execute a fresh interconnect agreement adding 273 subscribers to the existing 1612 subscribers of Vision Digital Cable.

     

    TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava also accepted the plea that 57 subscribers whose premises were found locked during a joint survey by the parties should be included in the list of subscribers.

     

    The joint survey, which had been carried out following orders of the Tribunal earlier, shows that Vision Digital has 216 subscribers, of which 168 are receiving signals apart from Vision Digital from some other local cable operator as well. Forty-eight subscribers out of 216 are receiving their signals solely from the petitioner. 

     

    The Tribunal made it clear that Vision Digital will not add to its number of subscribers without giving prior intimation to Sun Distribution and getting its consent in writing. 

     

    In case Vision Digital makes the request for any addition to its subscriber base, Sun Distribution must respond within two weeks from the date of receipt of the request, after making verification, if any, desired by it. 

     

    In case Sun Distribution does not accede to the request of Vision Digital for adding of subscribers to its existing base, it will give reasons for not accepting the request.

  • Government to link rural areas by optic fibre network for broadband growth

    Government to link rural areas by optic fibre network for broadband growth

    NEW DELHI: In a bid to promote broadband growth in the country, the government is planning to link all the gram panchayats and rural areas through optical fibre cable network.

     

    Addressing the 11th National Summit e-governance and Digital India inclusive growth through digital empowerment by ASSOCHAM, Bharat Net chairman & MD Aruna Sundarajan said that the country was entering into a new era of digital empowerment. “Our digital project is a giant leap to bridge the digital divide between urban and the rural India by linking all the gram panchayats in the country through the common platform of optical fibre cable. Our vision is to transform our country into a knowledge economy.”

     

    She said optical fibre is the most economical means of communication as it can carry higher bandwidth applications. “We will ensure high-speed broadband connectivity to all the gram panchayats. This is to be achieved by utilising the existing optical fibre network of public sector companies and extending it to village panchayats,” she added.

     

    The vision of Digital India aims to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The programme is implemented in phases from the current year till 2018. Digital India is transformational in nature and would ensure that Government services are available to citizens electronically. It would also bring in public accountability through mandated delivery of government’s services electronically, a Unique ID and e-Pramaan based on authentic and standard based interoperable and integrated government applications and data basis.

     

    Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman RS Sharma a second warning will be issued to telecom operators about call drops next month. He added opposition to setting up telecom towers in residential areas was based on apprehensions that were baseless. He said the TRAI, telecom operators and government together should promote an awareness campaign on this if service quality has to improve.

     

    Pointing out that quality was a two-way street, Bharti Enterprises vice chairman Akhil Gupta said that Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had written to state chief ministers to provide sites for setting up telecom infrastructure. However, he wanted the State Electricity Boards to take up the electricity supply to telecom towers on a priority basis.

     

    Deloitte India senior director Santosh Anoo said, “Focused execution using innovative partnership models will expedite the realisation of the Digital India vision. The best of breed localised solutions with focus on total cost of ownership will build on the great start and deliver viable business models.”

  • TDSAT orders INX News to pay Manthan’s Rs 96 lakh outstanding due

    TDSAT orders INX News to pay Manthan’s Rs 96 lakh outstanding due

    NEW DELHI: INX Media Pvt Ltd has been directed by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (TDSAT) to pay to Kolkata’s Manthan Broadband Services Pvt Ltd outstanding dues of Rs 95.76 lakh.

     

    According to the judgment by TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava, INX will have to pay the amount after deducting TDS, if any, deposited by it with the income tax authorities for which it will provide the TDS certificates.

     

    The amount is to be paid within six weeks from the date of the order. The sum so payable will also carry interest at the rate of eight per cent from 17 May 2013, which is the date of filling of the petition and till the same is paid to Manthan.

     

    The cost of litigation was assessed as Rs 25,000.

     

    According to Manthan, Fifth Avenue Media of Mumbai acting on behalf of INX News had agreed to pay a sum of Rs 1.15 crore for the placement of the channel for the period 1 June, 2011 to 31 May, 2012. Though the channel was placed as per the agreement, INX News made a payment of Rs 31.07 lakh only and has not made any further payment to Manthan.

     

    The Tribunal said after considering the facts of the case, rival submissions and evidence on record as well as the law in this regard, it was convinced that Fifth Avenue Media was acting on behalf of INX News and there was an agreement between the parties for placement of the INX News channel on the network of Manthan.

     

    The Tribunal was informed that it had been agreed that Manthan would be paid this amount in advance in three equal instalments.

     

    However, INX News had denied any such agreement or that it had approached Manthan through Fifth Avenue Media.

     

    Nevertheless, Manthan had produced evidence before the Tribunal, which noted that though the initial e-mails exchanged were between Gurmeet Singh representing Manthan and Gaurav Kohli of Fifth Avenue Media, an e-mail was written by INX News’ Anuj on 29 June, 2011 to Kohli enclosing a soft copy of the distribution agreement for Manthan. The same was forwarded by Kohli to Singh on 30 June, 2011, with a copy to Anuj.

  • DAS: TRAI seeks details of disputed cases pending in Bombay HC from MSOs & LCOs

    DAS: TRAI seeks details of disputed cases pending in Bombay HC from MSOs & LCOs

    NEW DELHI: All local cable operators (LCOs) and multi system operators (MSOs) who have any pending problems relating to inter connect agreements for Digital Addressable System (DAS) have been asked to inform the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

     

    In a proforma issued today, TRAI asked LCOs and MSOs in the matters pending before the Bombay High Court to give details of the problems they are facing and for which they want the intervention of the Authority.

     

    The directive by TRAI follows an order of the High Court of 1 September that TRAI should resolve such disputes within four weeks.

     

    TRAI made it clear that all MSOs and LCOs should respond by 14 September.

     

    MSOs and LCOs can address their responses to Deputy Advisor (B&CS) G S Kesarvani preferably via e-mail at das@trai.gov.in.

  • NBA apprises new I&B secretary Sunil Arora with revenue models of news b’casters

    NBA apprises new I&B secretary Sunil Arora with revenue models of news b’casters

    NEW DELHI: The newly appointed Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Sunil Arora was today apprised of various issues relating to news broadcasters in a wide-ranging discussion with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA). 

     

    NBA president Rajat Sharma told indiantelevision.com that all issues including the ad cap were discussed with Arora.

     

    The meeting comes soon after the adjournment of the ad cap case to 23 September by Delhi High Court.

     

    This is the first meeting of the new secretary who took over on 31 August, 2015.

     

    Issues relating to carriage with multi system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) and revenue models for growth of the industry were also discussed. 

     

    The delegation led by Sharma comprised NDTV’s Narayan Rao, Ashok Venkatramani of ABP News, Anuradha Prasad of News 24, Ashish Bagga of India Today, A P Parigi of Network 18 and NBA secretary general Annie Joseph.

     

    Special secretary J.S. Mathur was also present in the meeting. 

     

    The delegation also apprised the secretary about the initiatives taken by the broadcasting industry in the direction of self-regulation which includes working of News Broadcasters Standards Authority (NBSA), an independent authority set up by NBA and the two tier mechanism of complaints redressal relating to news channel followed by them. 

  • SC agrees to hear review pleas against its order relating to pictures of politicians on govt. ads

    SC agrees to hear review pleas against its order relating to pictures of politicians on govt. ads

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on 14 September a batch of petitions filed by various states seeking a review of the decision of the apex court relating to photos of politicians on government advertisements.

     

    The Court had earlier given a direction on a public interest petition that only photographs of the Prime Minister, President and Chief Justice of India can be published in official media advertisements and not those of chief ministers. But the personal approval of these three authorities will be necessary before publication.

     

    Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Prafulla C. Pant which had passed the original directions on 13 May said the review petitions will be heard in open court.

     

    Prior to the order, the judges perused the petitions of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Assam in the chamber.

     

    The four states filed the review petitions challenging the 13 May direction as being discriminatory and erroneous since it has permitted the photograph of the Prime Minister but not the chief ministers who too are elected representatives of the people.

    The states pointed out that the expert panel had recommended display of photos of CMs/governors as well but the Court had restrained the states from displaying photos of CMs/governors.

     

    The petitions said: “There is nothing wrong if the publication issued by the government highlighting the achievements of the government contains photographs of the chief minister and the other ministers if they have made contribution to the achievements of the state government. The judgment is completely silent regarding the exclusion of the chief minister who is the head of the state government. If the photograph of the Prime Minister is permitted on the publication/advertisement then the photographs of the chief minister must have also been permitted by this court.”

     

    The May order had come on public interest litigations (PIL) filed by the NGOs Common Cause represented by counsel Meera Bhatia and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan pleading it to frame guidelines.

     

    Holding that taxpayers’ money cannot be spent to build “personality cults” of political leaders, the Court had restrained ruling parties from publishing photographs of political leaders or prominent persons in government-funded advertisements.

     

    The Court said such photos divert attention from the policies of the government, unnecessarily associate an individual with a government project, and pave the way for cultivating a “personality cult”.

     

    The observations of the Court were based on examination of the findings of a Committee led by Bangalore’s National Law University Director N.S. Madhava Menon set up in May last year which had submitted its report in October.

     

    The Committee was set up by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry pursuant to an order of 23 April last year. Other members were former Lok Sabha Secretary General T K Vishwanathan, and senior advocate Ranjit Kumar. Bimal Julka, Secretary in the Ministry, was the member Secretary of the Committee.  

  • FM radio Phase III frequency allocation to bidders completed in three rounds

    FM radio Phase III frequency allocation to bidders completed in three rounds

    NEW DELHI: The frequency allocation of successful bidders in the FM radio Phase III was completed in three rounds of half-hour each today, following the closure of the channel allocation stage yesterday (8 September) after 125 rounds of bidding spread over 32 days.

     

    There was no time gap between two consecutive rounds. The e-auction commenced on 27 July and was completed today (9 September) with the frequency allocation stage.

     

    During the frequency allocation stage, provisional winning bidders were allowed to select FM frequency for the winning channels from the frequencies already identified in the respective city and as mentioned in the Notice Inviting Applications of 2 March read with subsequent amendments.

     

    Frequency selection preference was based upon the rank of the bidders – that is, Rank 1 bidder had the first preference to choose from the frequencies already identified.

     

    At the closure of the e-auction, 97 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of about Rs 1156.9 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.8 crore. Thus, the summation of provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price by Rs 697.05 crore or 151.58 per cent.

     

    The overall cumulative provisional winning price exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch – Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 606.72 crore or 110.27 per cent.

     

    The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry will announce the names of successful bidders at a later stage. According to the ministry, the current auction is indicative of the future growth of the private FM radio sector.

     

    This is the first time that private FM channels have been offered through Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) e-auction. This auction design has enabled bidders to take informed decisions while placing bids and consider alternatives dynamically.

     

    Out of 15 channels in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states, 12 channels got provisional winners with the city of Guwahati getting provisional winning price more than ten times its reserve price. 

     

    The first batch of private FM Radio Phase III channels comprised 135 channels in 69 cities that had already got FM in Phase II. However, there were no bidders for 13 cities namely Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.

     

    The entire process of FM Phase-III roll out including the e-auctions was overseen by an Independent External Monitor in consultation with the Central Vigilance Commission.

  • TDSAT gives Sun Distribution nod to cut Digicable signals in case of non-payment

    TDSAT gives Sun Distribution nod to cut Digicable signals in case of non-payment

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (TDSAT) has given Chennai’s Sun Distribution Services permission to disconnect the signals to Digicable Network (India), Andhra Pradesh if it fails to pay the Rs 26 lakh of monthly installment and monthly licence fee for August within a week.

     

    The order by TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava was given after being informed that Digicable had paid the fee upto July in accordance with an earlier order of the Tribunal.

     

    The amount of Rs 26 lakh comprises the monthly installment of Rs 19 lakh and the monthly license fees of Rs 7 lakh.

     

    However, the Tribunal made it clear that as and when Digicable clears the dues and makes up-to-date payment of monthly installment as well as monthly licence fee in terms of the interim order passed on 6 May, Sun Distribution should resume the supply of its signals to the respondent.

     

    The Tribunal noted that Digicable had made the payments up to July “with great difficulty and after seeking repeated adjournments.”

     

    Digicable had told the Tribunal that it would pay the monthly licence fee by 15 September and instalment by September. 

     

    The Tribunal said, “From the conduct of the respondent, as would appear from the previous orders passed in this case, we are satisfied that it does not deserve any further indulgence of the kind” sought by Digicable.