ITV

Category: Regulators

  • TDSAT declines stay as SET, ESPN and ESS move against CAS pricing

    TDSAT declines stay as SET, ESPN and ESS move against CAS pricing

    MUMBAI: Acting on expected lines, broadcasters have finally taken legal recourse against the Rs 5 tariff that the sector regulator had set as the price for accessing pay channels in a CAS regime.

    Three separate petitions filed against the order of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) by Set Discovery Ltd, ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and ESPN Software India came up for hearing this morning before the apeals tribunal.
    However, the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which heard the case today, issued no directive to stay Trai’s order.

    A point of note is that of the three petitions that came up for hearing today, two of them were moved commonly by ESS and ESPN Software.

    TDSAT has set the matter for further argument and a possible order on 13 November. The pay broadcasters have challenged the two Trai notifications dated 24 August (on carriage fee) and 31 August (channel pricing).

    The channels have also challenged the revenue sharing model designed for industry stakeholders by Trai. The sector regulator had specified in the notification that the revenue generated from pay channels leaves the broadcaster with 45 per cent, while the multi system operators (MSOs) stays on with 30 per cent and the cable operators get 25 per cent.

    Interestingly, the two major MSOs; Hathway and Hinduja-owned IndusInd Media and Communications have intervened in the appeal in support of Trai’s decision on the CAS pricing.

    For the record, the 24 August notification had mentioned that the carriage fee is to be retained fully by MSOs and can operate throughout a CAS area without any restriction on area of operation.

    Subsequently, SitiCable Networks Ltd (now renamed WWIL) has also filed a petition at the tribunal appealing that the MSO must have a share in the basic tier services fee, which according to Trai notification must be retained fully by local cable operators.

    Earlier this year, a division bench of the Delhi High Court had passed an order directing the implementation of CAS with effect from 31 December in the south zones of the three metros; Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

  • MIB inaugrates PIB’s Audio Visual Unit

    MIB inaugrates PIB’s Audio Visual Unit

    MUMBAI: The Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, PR Dasmunsi inaugurated the Audio Visual Unit of the Press Information Bureau(PIB).

    Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said it has become important to meet people’s growing needs for information through 24 hour TV channels. He asserted that the audio visual cell will satiate the hunger of large sections of people concerned with information on day to day developments of the Nation.

    Describing this initiative as a “big jump” and “stage II revolution” in the efforts of PIB to cater to the requirements of electronic media, the Minister for I&B expressed hope that it would provide valuable feedback to the Government and meet the needs of TV channels who do not have necessary infrastructure.

    In his address, I&B secretary, SK Arora, welcomed the launch of the audio visual cell by observing that mediapersons could access authentic and accurate information about government’s activities, initiatives and policy pronouncements by visiting PIB’s website.

    He also announced that several lakh rare photographs of last 50 to 60 years available with the Photo Division in a digital form will be placed on the PIB’s website shortly. He expressed hope that this measure would further increase PIB’s popularity among the media.

    In her welcome address, PIB director general, Deepak Sandhu stated that the advent of television channels, especially regional and local channels have brought a new challenge to PIB for meeting the demand for visual content of Government information. AV Unit which was started by PIB in response, will disseminate important information in the audio-visual format including special interviews with senior ministers.

    The format which has been adopted to start with, is to web-stream the audio-visual content on the website in a preview format and downloadable format. The video clips will be confined to a maximum of two minutes so that there is no difficulty in downloading the contents. At a later stage, PIB hopes to distribute this audio-visual material in DVD format as well.

  • Motorola, PCCW launch mobile TV technical trial in Hong Kong

    Motorola, PCCW launch mobile TV technical trial in Hong Kong

    MUMBAI: MKobvile communications service provider Motorola has announced an agreement with Hong Kong’s telecom service provider PCCW.

    The two parties will conduct a six-month technical trial using Motorola’s end-to-end mobile TV system in Hong Kong.

    The trial will run till March 2007 within Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay district and will include Motorola DVB-H enabled mobile devices, network solutions and interactive services platform. During the course of the trial, PCCW will evaluate the technical capabilities and the operational performance of DVB-H in Hong Kong.

    Motorola Asia Pacific president Simon Leung says, “Mobile TV is the next generation of mobile video entertainment experiences and this trial is an important step forward in bringing this experience to consumers.

    “We are pleased to work together with PCCW to support their efforts and hope to see these services based on our solutions to become commercially available for Hong Kong subscribers soon after the technical trial.”

    Motorola says that it is committed to delivering the ultimate mobile video entertainment experiences to consumers — and part of that vision is mobile TV. By leveraging its expertise across mobile and video, it is bringing new mobile TV enabled handsets and solutions to our partners and wireless operator customers around the globe.

    Motorola says that it is actively driving development efforts in global mobile broadcast standards such as DVB-H and WiMAX and working with members of the cellular and mobile broadcast value chain to bring next generation services to market even faster for consumers.

  • SC dismisses anti-CAS petition

    SC dismisses anti-CAS petition

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed on technical grounds a petition filed against implementation of CAS in the three metros of Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai.

    The special leave petition (SLP) had been filed by United Cable Operators’ Welfare Association of India.

    After studying the petition, the Apex court today decided that the SLP did not merit a hearing on a number of grounds, according to information available with Indiantelevision.com.

    The petitioner, amongst several other reasons, had said that rollout of CAS would not be beneficial for consumers and should be deferred as DTH technology had already come in to the country.

    Interestingly, while it had argued in the court against the rollout of CAS, the petitioner has been party to almost all CAS-related meetings organised by the government since 2002.
    According to a Delhi High Court mandated arrangement, agreed upon by the government and the industry, CAS is slated to be rolled out in the south zones of Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai from 1 January 2007.

    The sector regulator has already paved the way for the implementation of CAS by deciding on the prices of pay and free to air channels in a CAS regime.

  • AIR to present live commentary of Sunfeast Open Tennis

    AIR to present live commentary of Sunfeast Open Tennis

    MUMBAI: All India Radio will broadcast live commentary of semifinals & final matches of the Sunfeast Open Tennis Championship being played in Kolkata.

    The Semifinals are slated to be played on Saturday and the final on Sunday. The tournament has evinced interest among Indian fans because of the participation of India’s Sania Mirza and the former world number one Martina Hingis, states an official release.

    The commentary will be broadcast alternately in English and Hindi. The commentators are lieutenant General Utkal Bhattacharya in English and Shivendra Chaturvedi in Hindi, the release informs.

    The commentary will be available on the national hook-up of All India Radio and the AIR FM Gold Channel in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

  • TDSAT directs Zee Sports to restore Incable feed

    TDSAT directs Zee Sports to restore Incable feed

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has directed Zee Turner Ltd to restore the feed of Zee Sports to Incablenet.

    Incablenet, on its part, will have to deposit a sum of Rs 2 million with the tribunal. The matter will come up for hearing again on 10 October.

    TDSAT has asked Incablenet to, meanwhile, negotiate with Zee Turner and try to conclude the subscription agreement by 10 October. If both the parties fail to conclude a mutually acceptable agreement by then, the tribunal will finally hear the matter and decide the issue.

    Zee Turner raised an apprehension that Incablenet may choose not to enter into an agreement after the DLF cricket tri-series which ends on 24 September. The MSO may get away by paying just a month’s subscription. “The TDSAT has asked us to raise the issue on 10 October, depending upon factual matrix,” says a Zee Turner spokesperson.

    Following TDSAT’s interim order today, Zee Sports will be available on Incablenet’s network in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Nashik and Baroda. For Bangalore, Incablenet already has an agreement with the sports channel.

    Incablenet had earlier moved the TDSAT, arguing that Zee Turner had not served 21-day notice before blacking out the signals of Zee Sports. Zee Turner, which distributes Zee Sports, had submitted its reply yesterday.

    Zee Sports, which has the exclusive rights to the DLF tri-series, has been asking several cable operators to enter into commercial agreements for carrying the pay channel on their networks. The sports channel is priced at Rs 10 a month per subscriber.

  • Trai launches ad campaign for CAS

    Trai launches ad campaign for CAS

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has set the ball rolling for CAS (conditional access system).

    Not resting just on fixing the maximum rate of individual channels at Rs 5 per subscriber, the regulator has come out with an ad campaign to inform that pay broadcasters would have to provide their pricing within the ceiling by 12 October.

    “The reporting to Trai of prices of pay channels within the ceiling by broadcasters should be by 12 October,” the statement said.

    Trai has set a similar deadline for multi-system operators (MSOs) to inform the regulator about the tariff packages on their set-top boxes (STBs). The conclusion of commercial agreements by service providers should be reported to Trai by 15 Octoiber, the campaign said.

    The regulator has marked 31 December as the date for implementation of Cas.

  • TDSAT dismisses Radio Mid Day plea for uniform frequency

    TDSAT dismisses Radio Mid Day plea for uniform frequency

    MUMBAI: Radio Mid Day’s hopes of retaining its well known 92.5 MHz frequency hit a wall today after the sector regulator TDSAT dismissed its plea against the government’s decision to withdraw it. 

    The “big” beneficiary of the tribunal’s decision is the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)-controlled Adlabs’ Big FM, which has been alloted the 92.7 MHz frequency, as part of its unified frequency regime, to broadcast from 44 radio stations across India. 

    Radio Mid-Day, which manages Radio One (formerly known as Go 92.5 FM), has been broadcasting in Mumbai for around four and a half years on 92.5 FM. This frequency band has grown to be the brand identification, according to Radio Mid Day.

    But, Tdsat observed, “The importance of brand name of the broadcaster cannot be underestimated, particularly, in view of the provision in the “channel identity” clause which talks of brand name of the broadcaster. Frequency is not part of the brand name of the petitioner. The petitioner got its brand name changed, which was not objected to by the government. Petitioner’s (Radio Mid Day) popularity is through its brand name. It cannot insist on having a particular frequency number.”

    Despite refusing to shift to 94.3 MHz, the brand Radio One is already broadcasting on this freqeuncy in Bangalore and Delhi. Tdsat pointed out that nobody makes any gain from the Radio Mid Day being shifted to another frequency. Rather it in the interest of Radio Mid Day that it will have same frequency i.e. 94.3 FM for all the cities for which it has broadcasting licence except Ahmedabad for which petitioner makes no grievance, highlights Tdsat.

    Interestingly, the adovcate fighting the case on behalf of Adlabs had mentioned that Radio Mid Day has to change its earlier allocated frequency in any case because of the non-availability of 92.5 MHz at all.

    This case has been fought over last two weeks. Radio Mid-Day had questioned the granting of 92.7 frequency to Big FM in Mumbai despite the norms of having a difference of at least 0.8 frequency between two stations. Radio Mid-Day had in fact first approached TDSAT seeking a uniform frequency for all its six radio stations across the country, but the government allotted different frequencies to it.

    The information and broadcasting ministry had earlier allocated 94.3 frequency to Mid Day Group for Radio One in Mumbai and other cities except in Ahemabad. But the Mumbai-based company refused to switch to the new frequency asserting that 92.5 FM has grown to be its brand identification.

    How Radio Mid-Day responds to this setback remains to be seen.

  • Trai sets 15 October as date for CAS awareness drive to kick off

    Trai sets 15 October as date for CAS awareness drive to kick off

    MUMBAI: The government’s CAS rollout plan is steadily unfolding. Further to its earlier order specifying standards of quality of service to be observed by the MSOs / cable operators in CAS notified areas, the sector regulator has directed when the public awareness campaign will kick off.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today issued a directive that the date for starting public awareness campaign by permitted MSOs in CAS notified areas will be not later than 15 October. The campaign will last for a period of 30 days. The general directive also provides for filing of a compliance report immediately after the start as well as the end of the campaign.

    The games are original concepts and are based on popular themes with titles such as Bollywood Squares, a hilarious take on Hollywood Squares, the American TV show. The other titles include Quick Et, a fast cricket game, Star Gaze, a Bollywood celebrity quiz game, Top the Class, a multi user game that can support over 500 users at any given point, adds the release.

    Trai had issued a regulation on 23 August specifying standards of quality of service to be observed by the MSOs/ Cable Operators in CAS notified areas of Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. This regulation had stated that multi system operators permitted to provide cable services in CAS notified areas would be required to conduct a public awareness campaign from a date to be specified by Trai.

    The full text of the general directive is available on Trai’s website www.trai.gov.in

  • Radio one launches quiz contest- Bollywood Badshah

    Radio one launches quiz contest- Bollywood Badshah

    MUMBAI: Radio One has announced the launch of a quiz contest based on Bollywood, titled Bollywood Badshah.

    “Bollywood Badshah is truly the definitive Bollywood quiz in the nation today. It was designed, packaged and produced for Radio. It is challenging, interesting and obviously very Bollywood and goes with the Radio One philosophy of celebrating the hits,” says Radio One VP(Programming and Brand) Vishnu Athreya.

    Popular TV personality Gaurav Kapoor will be hosting the show. “Gaurav is the perfect host for Bollywood Badshah. He is young, extremely talented, and filmy, completely fitting the shows personality and we are sure he will entertain the listener and participants alike,” says Athreya.

    The channel has roped in Sahara Filmy, Ruffles Lays, Shoppers Stop, Sony Handycam as sponsors of the show that will last for eight weeks.

    “Post the success of Malamaal Daily, we are hopeful to see huge participation in a programming promotion as such, especially since Bollywood is such an integral part of our listeners’ lives.” opines Radio One VP(Operations) Shariq Patel.

    The entry forms are not only available in all leading newspapers, one can also get the forms by logging on to the stations’ website, www.radioone.in.

    By sending a SMS ‘BB’ to 3650, participants can avail all terms and conditions to play the game. This year there is a prize for everyone, the participants, the semi finalists as well as the winner. The winner gets to go home with something real big, which may be a trip for two to a choice of their destination, informs an official release.