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Category: TRAI

  • Tiranga TV gets MIB show cause notice for airing Pakistani army press conference

    Tiranga TV gets MIB show cause notice for airing Pakistani army press conference

    MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has warned Tiranga TV for violating the programming code of the Cable TV Networks Act by telecasting prohibitive content. The notice says that Tiranga TV telecast a media briefing of Pakistan army spokesperson major general Asif Ghafoor on Pulwama terror attack between 3.41- 4.02 on 22 February 2019.

    The ministry says that for the entire duration, there was no clarification or intervention from the channel on the correctness of the claims being made. Because of this, it violated two rules:

    Rule 6[1] (e): No programme should be carried in the cable service which is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promote anti-national attitudes

    Rule 6[1] (h): No programme should be carried in the cable service which contains anything affecting the integrity of the nation

    In a 14 February directive, the MIB warned all private TV channels to strictly adhere to programming guidelines, which came in the wake of the J&K attack. Channels were told not to show content that is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promotes anti-national attitudes and/or contains anything affecting the integrity of the nation and ensure that no such content is telecast which is violative of the codes. This was even passed around to channels by NBA, NBSA and IBF.

    By telecasting the news piece, the MIB says that Tiranga TV is in violation of the code and also this advisory. The channel has been given seven days to respond with a reason why action should not be taken against it.

    In response, Veecon Media and Broadcasting (which runs Tiranga TV) president Deepak Choudhry said, “We were surprised to receive the notice from the I&B ministry. Like all Indians, we are outraged by the terror attack in Pulwama and stand firmly with the armed forces. Our programming has focused on how Pakistan must pay for its patronage of terrorism. The press conference of the Pakistan army spokesman was only carried as part of overall news coverage. We do not subscribe to his views at all and many of our special programs explicitly countered his views. That said, we wonder if we are being targeted. There are channels that have done big interviews with Pervez Musharraf who was responsible for Kargil as well as Shiekh Rashid a known India baiter. These channels have not received any notice. In our channel we have not been calling Pakistani guests for these discussions at all.”

    Tiranga TV is backed by Congress leader Kapil Sibal and was recently given the permission by the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal to change its name from Harvest TV to Tiranga TV.

    As per reports, 12 other channels have also received such notices including ABP News, Surya Samachar, Zee Hindustan, TOTAL TV, ABP Majha, News18 Lokmat, Jai Maharashtra, News18 Gujarati, News24, News Nation, Sandesh News and News18 India. 

  • Broadcasters split over TRAI’s directive to BARC on TV viewership data

    Broadcasters split over TRAI’s directive to BARC on TV viewership data

    MUMBAI: The latest episode in the ongoing tariff order implementation saga saw industry watchdog and regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), direct TV ratings monitoring body – Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) – to publish ratings and TV viewership data from the week ending 8 February on its website with immediate effect. BARC, which was set up as an industry-funded body, citing the implementation of the new framework, has been releasing the data only to its subscribers. Earlier, the audience measurement firm published the weekly data on its website every Thursday.

    Indiantelevision.com spoke to several broadcasters, none of who wanted to be identified, about the latest development to gain perspective.

    “ISA has already advised that you should not use this data for planning. If there is a transition happening it will reflect in the data. Advertisers need to figure out how they want to maximise their investment in the market place. In my point of view, it (weekly data) should be used as a broad indicator. I’m in the favour of it being published,” the CEO of a news network said.

    “This is the transition period and they (BARC) are not publishing on the site but data is available between all the stakeholders, agencies, clients and broadcaster. In my opinion, the people who are not paying for the data should not get the data,” said another CEO of a news network.

    Recently, TRAI extended the deadline for consumers to select television channels under its new tariff regime till 31 March. Subscribers that don’t opt for new channels would be moved to ‘Best Fit Plans’, which would be developed as per usage pattern, language and channel popularity, the sector regulator said in its statement.

    “There are two ways to look at it—if the ratings are being published given the level of disruption, advertisers and marketers would want to know what is going on at the ground level. Implementation takes time and some markets may have done more implementation than other markets. So, if the data is viewed in that light then it is fine but if it’s not then it starts becoming a bit of an issue because people will plan based out of an erratic pattern and obviously no one wants that,” argued a business head of a major network.

    The Indian Society of Advertisers' (ISA) executive council had advised its members to not use the BARC data for media buying, planning and evaluation perspective during the transition period, which it feels will stretch up to six weeks.

    “If people view the interim data correctly and look at it and understand what it is over a period of time, then it is fine. But if they make decisions by viewing one week or two week data, then that’s when mistakes will be made. This is why there were two thoughts whether to publish the data or not. But on the other hand, it is good because people will see the progress of whether a channel is up or down. I think people should use this and make plans for the medium to long term,” he further added.

    The sector regulator had asked BARC to furnish compliance by 25 February 2019, "failing which, appropriate action would be initiated" under relevant sections of the TRAI Act.

    “According to me, BARC should publish the data. There’s no logic for them to not publish the viewership data. The only thing here is that consumers may be misguided because of the fluctuating viewership ratings of the channels,” opined the promoter of a regional network.

    According to TRAI, BARC has ignored its previous directives of publishing ratings and viewership data for television channels.

    Several industry watchers told Indiantelevision.com that it was in fact the broadcasters that weren’t keen on weekly data being published on the BARC website.

    “Yes, nobody was in favour of the data being published initially. Now that the system has somewhat stabilised, we are better equipped to tackle potential issues. TRAI’s directive is on expected lines,” said a senior executive of a major broadcast network.

    TRAI held a meeting on Friday with distribution platform operators (DPOs) where it was informed that almost all cable consumers have either made their channel preferences or moved to ‘best fit plan’ under the new tariff regime.

    The meeting was attended by multi-system operators (MSO) and all major DTH players to review the progress of migration of TV viewers under the new framework.

    "According to inputs received by the regulator from players, in the case of DTH services, about 43 per cent customers have made their channel preferences known. When combined with statistics for ‘best fit plan’, this number rises to 57 per cent," stated TRAI secretary SK Gupta.

  • TRAI directs BARC to publish TV viewership data on website immediately

    TRAI directs BARC to publish TV viewership data on website immediately

    MUMBAI:  Industry watchdog and regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), is cracking the whip on TV ratings monitoring body – Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). In a sternly worded letter, TRAI has asked BARC to publish ratings and TV viewership data for the week ending 8 February with immediate effect. TRAI’s directive has come in the wake of the latter's decision to release the weekly data only to its subscribers as opposed to publishing it on the website.

    BARC had cited implementation of the new tariff order as the reason for it not sticking to the norm.

    According to a report by news agency Press Trust of India, the sector regulator has asked BARC to furnish compliance by 25 February 2019, "failing which, appropriate action would be initiated" under relevant sections of the TRAI Act.

    "BARC India has modified its Fair and Permissible Usage Policy in February 14, 2019, even after being repeatedly asked by the authority to not stop publishing of rating data and viewership data on its website during the migration to new regulatory framework until and unless explicitly permitted by the authority and are thus, in contravention of the direction of the authority dated December 21, 2018 and January 14, 2019," the TRAI directive read.

    According to TRAI, BARC has ignored its previous directives of publishing ratings and viewership data for television channels. The regulator said that the audience measurement company had argued that disruption due to migration to a new regulatory framework could prevent consumers from gaining access to channels of their choice, thereby running the risk of an inaccurate portrayal of TV consumption trends in the country.

    Industry sources have told Indiantelevision.com that it was, in fact, the broadcasters who were not keen on the weekly data being published on the BARC website. With fluctuations expected during the tariff order implementation, broadcasters were skeptical about how the weekly data would impact their channels and popular shows especially from a public perception point of view.

    TRAI, however, is opposed to the idea of not publishing the data, which, it feels, is a true reflection of the market changes. BARC’s decision to "withhold" the data is not justified, the regulator pointed out.

    TRAI also highlighted that BARC "failed to furnish any cogent reason for not publishing the rating and viewership data" and that "such action on part of BARC India reflects poorly on the creditworthiness of the data published by them."

    "Now…the authority…hereby directs Broadcast Audience Research Council to immediately release and publish viewership data for the week ending February 8, 2019 and weeks subsequent to it, on its website without any further delay and not to stop it in future also without explicit instruction/direction from the authority or Ministry of Information and Broadcasting…," said the TRAI directive.

    BARC was setup  as an industry-funded body following the drawing up of guidelines for TV monitoring agencies by TRAI and the I&B ministry and is requires registration with the latter.

    Recently, TRAI extended the deadline for consumers to select television channels under its new tariff regime till 31 March. Subscribers that don’t opt for new channels would be moved to ‘Best Fit Plans’, which would be developed as per usage pattern, language and channel popularity, the sector regulator said in its statement.

    Earlier, the Indian Society of Advertisers' (ISA) executive council had advised its members to not use the BARC data for media buying, planning and evaluation perspective during the transition period, which it feels will stretch up to six weeks.

  • TRAI: Almost 100% cable consumers have picked channels in new tariff regime

    TRAI: Almost 100% cable consumers have picked channels in new tariff regime

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) held a meeting on Friday with distribution platform operators (DPOs) where it was informed that almost all cable consumers have either made their channel preferences or moved to ‘best fit plan’ under the new tariff regime, according to a report by the Press Trust of India.

    The meeting was attended by multi-system operators (MSO) and all major DTH players to review the progress of migration of TV viewers under the new framework.

    TRAI secretary SK Gupta said, "According to inputs received by the regulator from players, in the case of DTH services, about 43 per cent customers have made their channel preferences known. When combined with statistics for ‘best fit plan’, this number rises to 57 per cent."

    The DTH service providers have submitted to TRAI that all subscribers of this prepaid platform will be migrated to the new framework in the next 2-3 weeks. TRAI has also emphasised to players that customers should not face any inconvenience or service disruption during the migration process.

    Earlier this month, the regulator had extended the timeline for consumers to make their channel preferences till 31 March 2019.

    “TRAI is urging subscribers to exercise their options to select TV channels of their choice, immediately. DPOs have been instructed to execute the options of subscribers at the earliest,” he said.

  • TRAI directs DPOs to refrain from placing channels outside the genre

    TRAI directs DPOs to refrain from placing channels outside the genre

    MUMBAI: After receiving complaints from TV18 and TV Today Network against Republic Bharat, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed all distribution platform operators (DPOs) to refrain from placing channels outside their genres.

    TV18 and TV Today Network had written to TRAI that the newly launched Republic Bharat is being placed outside the Hindi news genre to garner higher viewership.

    TRAI stated, “The authority has received many complaints alleging transmission of television channels on dual LCN or placement of television channels by the distributors of TV channels, out of the genre declared by the broadcaster.”

    The TRAI regulations require every broadcaster to declare the genre of its channels such as ‘devotional’, ‘general entertainment’, ‘infotainment’, ‘kids’, ‘movies’, ‘music’, ‘news and current affairs’, ‘sports’ or ‘miscellaneous’.

    It is also mandatory for the distributor to place channels in the electronic programme guide, in such a way that the television channels of same genre, as declared by the broadcasters, are placed together consecutively and one channel shall appear at one place only. The authority has also said that action will be taken against such distributors who fail to comply with the regulations.

    “Now, therefore, the authority, in exercise of the powers conferred upon it under section 13, read with clause (b) of sub-section (I) of section 11, of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997) and in order to protect the interest of service providers and consumers and ensure orderly growth of the sector, hereby directs all distributors of the television channels to ensure that the television channels of same genre, as declared by the broadcasters, are placed together consecutively and one channel shall appear at one place only failing which action shall be taken against such distributors, under the provisions of TRAI Act, 1997,” TRAI concluded.

  • TRAI says TV industry saw 12.24% growth in FY 2018

    TRAI says TV industry saw 12.24% growth in FY 2018

    MUMBAI: While the global scenario reflects an impending death for TV in India soon, factors like rising OTT platforms and cheaper data rates, are also adding fuel to the fire. However, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Annual Report 2017-18, the TV sector revenue in the country has recorded a growth of 12.24 per cent since last year.

    Even though the growth of data usage by wireless subscribers has reached a new level showing unprecedented growth, the revenue of the TV industry grew from Rs 58.8 crore to Rs 66 crore.
    Indian consumers are still showing willingness to pay for their content as TV subscription revenue plays the major share (59.5 per cent) in the overall industry revenues. It also witnessed a decent hike; from Rs 38.7 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 39.3 crore in 2017-18.

    The cable TV segment came out as the largest of the TV service sector with an estimated subscriber base of around 98.5 million subscribers. The subscriber base in the last fiscal was 92 million.

    Advertisement revenue also showed an upward trend, growing 32.8 percent-from Rs 20.1 crore to Rs 26.7 crore-during the year. DTH attained a net active subscriber base of around 67.53 million.

    The report also revealed that the radio industry is entirely dependent on advertisement revenues and has registered a growth of around 6.03 per cent during the year 2017-18. Advertisement revenues have also risen from Rs 20.46 crore10 in 2016-17 to Rs 21.7 crore in year 2017-18.

     

  • Tata Sky favours multiple agencies for TV audience measurement

    Tata Sky favours multiple agencies for TV audience measurement

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky, one of the leading DTH operators in India has suggested Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that there should be multiple rating agencies. The competition will bring in new technologies and new methods in analysis.

    “Yes, multiple rating agencies need to be promoted. Competition will  bring in new technologies, new research methodologies, new methods in analysis, new and better ways to ensure better data quality,” Tata Sky has said in its submission to a consultation paper on TV audience measurement floated by TRAI.

    On the contrary, GTPL Hathway believes that there is no need for competition in the television rating services to ensure transparency and accuracy.

    “If more television ratings agencies are allowed to compete then the sample size will reduce and might even get scattered demographically. Therefore to ensure transparency and accuracy, there is no need for competition in the television rating services,” GTPL Hathway stated.

    The DTH player also commented that BARC India is not transparent regarding sharing the methodology and the representation of the panel home amongst the various platform types.

    Both Tata Sky and GTPL Hathway suggested that the BARC shareholding body should also include members representing the DPO/DTH/OTT platform body.

    To address the issue of panel tampering/infiltration, GTPL Hathway suggested to increase the sample size of the panel household significantly, which will reduce the impact of tampering on overall TV ratings, which in turn will reduce the temptation to tamper with the panel homes.

    Tata Sky argues that there is an under representation of DTH customers amongst the existing panel homes and BARC has taken no steps to publish a list for transparency. The representation of HD homes also needs correction.

    On the question whether BARC India should be permitted to provide raw level data to broadcasters, the MSO said, “We agree with TRAI’s view that release of raw data to broadcasters may potentially compromise on secrecy of households and sanctity of the data. The proposition that availability of raw data would help in giving the broadcaster sharper insights into viewership behavior is not sufficient to take such a huge security risk. There are other ways of sharper insights into viewership behavior such as AI."

    "Provisioning of raw level data to broadcasters will definitely contravene the policy guidelines for television rating agencies prescribed by MIB. The accreditation system mentioned by MIB requires secrecy of panel households, while release of raw data to broadcasters may potentially compromise secrecy of households", GTPL Hathway stated.

  • TRAI vs Tata Sky: Delhi High Court adjourns case to 11 March

    TRAI vs Tata Sky: Delhi High Court adjourns case to 11 March

    MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday adjourned Tata Sky’s ongoing legal battle, in which Discovery,  Bharti Telemedia-owned Airtel Digital TV and Sun Direct are a part, with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) and its new tariff regime to 11 March.

    Recently, the regulator extended the deadline for consumers to select television channels under its new tariff regime till 31 March. The subscribers that don’t opt for new channels would be moved to ‘Best Fit Plans’, which would be developed as per usage pattern, language and channel popularity, the sector regulator said in its statement.

    TRAI chairman RS Sharma addressed a press conference couple of weeks back in Delhi, rubbishing a Crisil report that claimed that cable and DTH bills were bound to increase after the implementation of the tariff order.

    Earlier, Indian Society of Advertisers' (ISA) executive council also advised its members to not use the BARC data for media buying, planning and evaluation perspective during the transition period, which it feels will stretch up to six weeks.

    On 4 February, after senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing Tata Sky, concluded his arguments including legal submissions, Discovery India Communication’s counsel Gopal Jain laid the foundation for his arguments.

    The regulator informed the court that the new tariff order has already been implemented from 1 February.

    Earlier TRAI had offered an extension till 31 January to distribution platform operators (DPOs) for implementation.

    On 24 January, the Harit Nagpal-led company finally unveiled the new pricing of channels and packs after it was served a show-cause notice by the TRAI.

    TRAI's show-cause notice said, "Tata Sky has failed to provide options to its 17.7 million subscribers in compliance with the new framework to exercise their choices for TV channels. Tata Sky has put its subscribers in a situation of great difficulty despite no fault of theirs by not complying with the provisions of the new regulations and the tariff order.”

    Despite the delay in announcing channel prices, Tata Sky MD and CEO Nagpal is confident that his team can complete the tricky task of implementing the new norms within a relatively short span of time.

    “Tata Sky has always been compliant to regulatory requirements. We have gone live with our modes of communication across the Tata Sky website, Tata Sky mobile app and also equipped the dealers that subscribers can reach out to. We were confident that we would be able to complete the task in 1 week’s time. Hence we used this time to a seamless and smooth transition for all our subscribers. We have ensured that choosing channels and packs is as easy as 1, 2, 3 for any subscriber,” the veteran executive said.

    On 29 January, the Calcutta High Court stayed the cable switchover till 18 February. The court’s directive was a result of 80 cable operators from the city filing a petition against the TRAI mandate. However, the high court later vacated the stay.

    The petitioners’ lawyer Debabrata Saha Roy argued that the revenue-sharing model under the new regime will significantly reduce the cable operators’ share to just nine per cent. With 80 per cent going into the broadcasters’ kitty, MSOs stand to get just 11 per cent, thus making it an unsustainable business proposition for operators.

    In 2017, Bharti Telemedia, Tata Sky and Discovery Communication India had filed petitions against TRAI, challenging its tariff order and the interconnect regulations.

    Unlike the position adopted by Star India wherein it questioned the regulatory powers of TRAI, the matter in the Delhi HC questions the regulator’s power to wipe out deals that operators enter into to fix commissions and rates for customers.

  • Broadcasters support return of RPD in BARC measurement module

    Broadcasters support return of RPD in BARC measurement module

    MUMBAI: Broadcasters have shown unified support towards the need to improve the current audience measurement technique used by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

    In their responses to the multiple queries that TRAI had put forth in a consultation paper broadcasters—ABP News Network, Sony Pictures Network, and Discovery Communications India–have contended that the introduction of Return Path Data (RPD) vide digital set-top boxes (STB) will improve the measurement process. They also noted that raw data should be provided to the broadcasters as it will help them in improving their efficiency.

    Another point raised by the broadcasters is that there should be an increase in the number of sample homes used for collecting data. Discovery Communications India noted, “All STBs should facilitate RPD technology, however, the same can be considered to be done in phases. The additional cost would only be limited to include the requisite software and hardware to support the technology.”

    However, the broadcasters did not propose any change in the stakeholding pattern of BARC. Currently, IBF has 60 per cent shareholding while the ISA and AAAI hold 20 per cent each in BARC. They also declined the need to introduce competition in the viewership measurement domain. Discovery Communications India stated that it would lead to chaos and duplication of data while Sony Pictures Networks said it will lead to skewing of results to the convenience of a few stakeholders.

    Responding to the query if DPOs should be mandated to facilitate the collection of viewership data, broadcasters differed. While ABP News Network denied the possibility completely stating that it might lead to data tampering, Discovery Communications India supported the idea saying, “As the subscriber data is already available with them hence it would make the process time efficient and the process easier in toto.”

    Sony Pictures said, “In order for the data collection process to be fair, neutral and immune from any bias, all interested parties including DPOs should be kept outside of the process. However, if DPOs are mandated to roll out hybrid STBs or RPD technology to capture viewership data for greater reach resulting the data should directly reach BARC or else there could be scope for manipulation as discussed above (DPO to act as a pure pass-through). Hence, stringent technology and security checks should be deployed to ensure that the data is not manipulated.”

    In addition to this, Sony Pictures also asked for the draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2018, proposed by the Justice Srikrishna Committee, to be complied with to ensure the privacy of individual information while data collection for viewership counts.

    TRAI had released the said consultation paper in December last year, seeking responses of the various stakeholders to several pertinent questions related to TV viewership measurement. The consultation was a result of various stakeholder meetings asking to improve the existing BARC mentoring format. The last date to file the responses was extended by a month to 2 February on 28 December 2018.

  • TRAI to take action against errant service providers

    TRAI to take action against errant service providers

    MUMBAI: In order to address customer concerns regarding the new tariff regime that came into effect from 1 February, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken considerable steps to educate and inform people.

    Noting that several service providers have not been active in getting people migrated, it has, according to a report by Telecom Talk, said that customers who are grappling with faulty connections can lodge a complaint at a designated call centre.

    The authority even stated that if there is no word from the operator even after making a claim, subscribers won’t have to pay after 72 hours. After witnessing the issues being faced by customers, TRAI extended the date for choosing packs till 31 March and even asked operators to ensure that those who have prepaid for their connections should not suffer any cable loss. The least that can be done is to temporarily move people to packs which are close enough to their previous choice.

    TRAI has also taken similar steps to address the concern of exorbitant rates being charged by DTH and cable operators for service charges. It has capped cable charges to Rs 200-300 and DTH at Rs 500.

    A few days ago, TRAI said that about 6.5 crore cable and 2.5 crore DTH homes have been migrated to the new regime. This means 9 crore out of the total 17 crore TV homes in the country have successfully adopted new plans. It had said that it will take up massive consumer awareness programmes through print, social media, ads and other programmes to ensure the message reaches out to consumers.

    It even told operators that in cases of a second TV connection in the same home, they have the option to forgo or provide a discount on the base charge of Rs 130.