MUMBAI: Network 18, the holding company of the TV 18 Group, has opened its first day trading on a strong note that touched a high of Rs 394 on the BSE.
The performance outstripped the market expectations, closing on Friday at Rs 366.75. Broking firm Sharekhan had predicted the listing would be in the Rs 320-355 region.
TV18 Group has de-merged its business as part of its exercise to meet the guidelines for news channels uplinking from India. TV18 is already listed and ended today at Rs 623.35.
MUMBAI: NBC Universal chairman and CEO Bob Wright has called for governments and businesses to join forces in a rigorous alliance to combat piracy and counterfeiting.
At the Third Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy, organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, he appealed to broadband providers, Internet auction sites, financial intermediaries and shipping companies to act more promptly in controlling the flow of illegal downloads and trading on their watch.
His speech was called “Hear No Evil No Longer”. He urged business leaders to put the issue of dealing with piracy at the top of their agendas. “The days of ‘hear no evil, see no evil’ must come to an end. The scale of the epidemic leaves no choice. Legitimate businesses have to step forward and declare that they will not profit on the back of IP theft. And if they don’t step forward, governments need to adopt laws to require cooperation.”
He noted that the technology-based, information-based society of tomorrow depends on innovation, invention, and creativity. These are the drivers of growth and progress. He warned that if they are not protected, tomorrow’s world will suffer greatly.
“And from where I sit, we are losing ground in this battle. Much more urgent and concerted action must be taken if we are to turn back a rising global surge of counterfeiting and pirating, which threatens not just to dampen but to seriously threaten the fire of innovation and invention that creates economic growth.”
He noted that one challenge involves raising the profile of the vast extent of intellectual property theft — and explaining and quantifying the threat to it. He stressed the need for action that goes beyond just modest measures.
Piracy results in a ripple effect that magnifies the losses suffered by any individual sector of the economy. For every dollar a nation’s industry loses to counterfeiting and piracy, that nation will lose at least three dollars of GDP.
When a movie studio loses revenues to piracy, it doesn’t have that money to reinvest into making more movies and television. Not only does this affect the individual studio but it also impacts all the companies that would have contributed to or benefited from these unmade productions. It reduces the revenue of the upstream suppliers to movie producers, and of the downstream industries, like movie theaters, DVD retailers, and video rentals.
He went on to note that counterfeiting and piracy depends on legitimate businesses for distribution and resale. It is these businesses that must be enlisted in order to reduce trade in counterfeit and pirated product.
NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet today approved the promulgation of an ordinance making it compulsory for private broadcasters to share the feed of sporting events of national importance (read cricket) with the public broadcaster.
The move comes in the wake of the refusal by India cricket rights holder Nimbus to share the live feed of recently held matches with national broadcaster Doordarshan.
Additionally, a Bill will be introduced in the coming Session of Parliament to replace the ordinance by an Act of Parliament.
“The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance, 2007 will make it obligatory on every content right owner and TV and Radio broadcasting service provider to share the live telecast signals without its advertisement, for such sporting events as may be prescribed by the Central Government, with the public service broadcasters on such terms and conditions as may be specified,” a posting on the government’s Press Information Bureau website says.
“This Ordinance would provide access to the largest number of listeners and viewers, on a free to air basis, of sporting events of national importance whether held in India or abroad,” it adds.
At a briefing this evening, information and broadcasting minister PR Dasmunsi expressed the hope that the ordinance would be notified before the start of the coming India-Sri Lanka series on 8 February, newswire Press Trust of India has reported.
Nimbus, while welcoming the approval of the ordinance, has threatened to go to court if it would mean telecasting feed on DD’s DTH platform, PTI adds.
An expert committee has been set up in the I&B ministry to look into the issue of encryption, an official told indiantelevision.com.
This will have to be sent to the law ministry and their approval procured so that it becomes water tight and face little legal and political challenge, in the court or in Parliament itself, from opposition benches, the official said.
The Downlinking Guidelines of the government will form the body of the ordinance, though the words will be framed in the form of a statute.
Sources said that the wording as such is ready and Dasmunsi, who had been incensed with Nimbus getting away with the live telecast of the current ODI series without sharing its live feed with DD, had been the trigger.
Dasmunsi, however, had to wait to place this with the cabinet and seek its formal announcement. This is what the cabinet today decided: that now there is no option but to go for the harsh measure of promulgating an ordinance.
The government’s decision will ensure viewers in non-cable houses and radio listeners would receive live feed of Indian team’s one-day matches, wherever it plays. However, for test matches, the government has said live feed would be required only for those matches played in India and highlights would do for the others.
As a sop to private broadcasters, Dasmunsi has said a technical committee would look into the matter of encrypting the signals being telecast by Doordarshan, which would ensure that the feed is not pirated by broadcasters outside India.
Earlier in the day, government officials present at the inauguration of the three-day Broadcast Engineering Society Expo 2007 in the capital had told indiantelevision.com that the ministry had come precariously close even earlier to issuing an ordinance ensuring live feed for cricket events in India involving the national team.
“I think it is because of the court case and ruling on seven minutes delay that the legal experts suggested we don’t go against the ruling, but bring in the bill and settle the issue for once and all, but the anger in the ministry is huge,” a senior official had revealed at the time, naturally asking not to be quoted.
Giving a not so subtle threat to “broadcasters for not falling in line”, he suggested that this would mean that the minister and the officials may not make it easy for whoever has been hoping for a less ‘draconian’ broadcasting bill.
NEW DELHI: “Investors in the broadcast sector must realise that the government’s policy is open, and when the (broadcasting) bill is ready, the world will see and realise this,” said information and broadcasting minister PR Dasmunsi at the inauguration of the three-day Broadcast Engineering Society Expo 2007 today.
Dasmunsi said, “There is a huge potential for development of broadcasting in India and we have a lot of advanced technologies available with us. What we need to have is proper selection of technologies suiting our requirements.”
I&B secretary SK Arora, in his remarks said that in devising a regulatory framework, the interest of the consumer is foremost in government’s mind. The business models have to suit the large number of our consumers. Policy framework and the business models have to be in sync to cater to the consumer interest, he added.
Sharing with his audience the excitement of living in this amazing age of broadcasting revolution, he stressed nevertheless that the government would ensure a level playing field for all, and more than that, not allow most of the consumers to be deprived of the benefits of technology. Prices need to be controlled to keep them affordable.
“We must allow full play of technology, business and management to take shape successfully,” he said, adding, “the regulatory regime is crucial for the success of innovative ideas and products.”
He had a critique of the government sector too, which, he said, lacked management skills. “The public sector must realise the commercial aspects, and be acutely conscious of working out systems to facilitate innovations and business models to become successful,” Arora held.
He stressed that the core philosophy of the government was simple: the consumer. “Everyone must keep this in mind,” he added for good measure.
Prasar Bharati’s experience in introducing newer technologies (TV, FM radio, DTH, now digitalisation and mobile TV) has helped develop the regulatory environment.
“We have depended on the technological expertise of Prasar Bharati while designing the regulatory regime,” he explained.
He felt that though the regulatory framework must have adequate provision for segmentation and exploitation of the market by investors, the business models they develop must be appropriate and new technology is carried to the people at affordable prices.
The inauguration ceremony also saw BES president AS Guin, David Astley, secretary general of AsiaPacific Broadcasting Union, and Roger Crumpton, CEO of International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers address the more than 300 persons attending the function.
‘BROADCASTING MULTI-FACETED, MULTI-DIMENSIONAL’
In his keynote address, Crumpton said that broadcasting is not only a multifaceted affair, as the title for this year’s Expo suggested, but a multidimensional one, in which the engineering challenges were just huge.
Especially in India, he added, explaining that whereas only 19 per cent of the people in the US and 20 per cent in the UK were under 15, the figure is 35 per cent for India, and with this population the multiplicity of platforms is not important: content is everything.
“It does not matter on what platform they are accessing it, but they want it where and when they choose and what they choose. This is the young demographics we are dealing with, which is cash-positive and time-negative,” Crumpton said.
What was important in his speech was that he made presentations of when the first TV sets came and then the first colour TV sets came and it all seemed to people like him, and these are the people who are having to design technologies and content, so this aging generation of experts need to be in synch with the young demographics facing them.
The challenge is that for this generation, there must be a clear agenda for creation and delivery of content, which will be constantly repurposed in real time, a situation where broadcasting will face this problem. Because there is a paradigm shift from tapes-based programming to file-based one, he explained.
“There has to be a radical shift,” Crumpton argued, “for training, qualifying and accreditation systems.”
And he saw a huge opportunity for India. He says this paradigm shift, combined with an ageing skilled workforce in the West has already started creating problems of skill shortages in the globally $11 billion broadcasting market, which is also facing revenue streaming threats from telecom and IPTV.
NEW DELHI: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned threats from the outlawed United Liberation front of Assam (Ulfa) to the privately-owned satellite channel North East Television (NETV) after it reported that the group and the government in Assam may have links and warned that authorities must not join forces with the group to intimidate media.
NETV, the only private satellite channel in Northeast India, said the outlawed terrorist outfit ULFA told station director Manoranjana Sinh to prove allegations that the group is working with the government or stop broadcasting and to leave Assam or “face dire consequences.” Government officials have also criticised the channel’s reports.
“It is a shocking that NETV has been threatened by a militant group for its stories and the government has done nothing about it except criticise the station as well,” said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. “The government should be protecting independent reporting in general and NETV in particular, not joining forces with ULFA to intimidate media.”
The IFJ says there are legal procedures for libel if the government believes that NETV has been untruthful, but it should not allow militant groups to threaten media over stories it does not like.
The threats from ULFA came just a day after Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi publicly criticised NETV and said in general the media is producing anti–establishment news. The criticism was spurred by NETV’s reports that the Assam government had paid money to buy a truce with ULFA for the smooth conduct of the National Games scheduled to be held in the region from 9 to 18 February.
Observers believe those reports may have prompted the government to enlist ULFA to threaten media outlets, including NETV. According to press reports, the ULFA commander-in-chief has threatened that NETV must either prove the veracity of reports that the Assam government had paid money to buy peace with ULFA, withdraw its reports or leave Assam immediately.
The IFJ is calling on the government to intervene to stop the harrassment and threats against NETV and its staff and to ensure that all media in the region are able to report independently.
This is not the first case of official pressure on NETV, which has upset government officials in the past with its reporting. A few months ago, the state government of Assam ransacked the offices of the channel. The Congress Youth Wing president has also criticised the channel, asking it to withdraw stories clearly established several legitimate cases of land-grabbing for which the Youth Wing President was responsible.
“If the government is using ULFA and threats of violence to suppress reporting that it does not like, it will set a terrible precedent for press freedom in the region,” White said. “The Assam government must act quickly to prevent this situation from dealing a serious blow to press freedom in India.”
MUMBAI: CNN International has teamed up with London based documentary maker ‘Journeyman Pictures’ to launch a new weekly 30 minute documentary strand, WORLD’S UNTOLD STORIES.
Launching on 17 February, CNN International has purchased an initial run of 25 documentaries from ‘Journeyman Pictures’ for 2007 with the first four films looking at police recruitment in Iraq, the sex trade in India, Afghanistan’s first female governor and combating terrorism in the Philippines.
“These are remarkable documentaries and I’m proud to have secured the rights to show them”, said CNN International senior vice president Rena Golden “The films are compelling and fresh, covering controversial issues and datelines that are not currently getting a lot of media attention. The series features superbly crafted journalism in which the commitment and courage of the reporters shines through.”
Journeyman Pictures, director Mark Stuke said “We’re delighted to have agreed with CNN International to provide programme selections from the Journeyman throughput on an ongoing basis. There can be no more qualified platform on which to see the international niche of programming we dedicate ourselves to. And I know our suppliers are going to be as pleased as us.”
Some of the documentaries include The Very Thin Blue Line which takes the viewer inside a police training camp in Jordan where the instructors focus on one skill in particular – survival, Land of Missing Children shows reporter Sam Kiley accompanying reluctant police on a raid where girls are rescued from prostitution only to disappear again.
A Tale of Two Women is set in Bamiyan, Afghanistan where the country’s first and only female Governor. Habiba Sarabi is trying to carve out a new Afghanistan by sending girls to school and persuading farmers to give up their opium crops and Member of Parliament Malalai Joya who lives under constant threat of assassination. Road to Terrorism provides extraordinary access to the fight against terrorism at the ground level in Phillipines.
The documentaries will be aired weekly on Saturdays at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm and Sunday at 5:30 pm.
MUMBAI: HT Media Ltd., publisher of Hindustan Times and Hindustan, has launched its business newspaper titled Mint.
The brand and logo was unveiled by HT Media vice chairperson Shobhana Bhartia and The Wall Street Journal Asian managing director Christine Brendle at an event in New Delhi.
Set to hit news stands on 1 February, Mint will initially be available in New Delhi and Mumbai from Monday to Saturday at Rs 2. As part of a pre-launch campaign a yearly subscription of Rs 299 was introduced.
As far as the logic of the HT-WSJ tie-up goes, every weekday four pages of news will be sourced from The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. These will be articles selected by Mint’s editors with the Indian reader in mind, states an official release.
“Mint is product of a unique collaboration between HT Media and The Wall Street Journal, which will bring life to the world of business and participate in the business of life,” Bhartia said. “Mint is constructed around Indian business and economy and the way it is impacting the world and captures the trends of the world for India to leverage.”
The weekend edition of Mint has taken the magazine route style. The Saturday edition Lounge is a standalone offering aimed at “reinvigorating the readers with its emphasis on living healthier, wealthier and happier lives.”
The newspaper’s online edition, www.LIVEMINT.com, will also go live on 1 February. Along with LIVEMINT.com, the new newspaper also offers new advertising opportunities that start with print and extend into online.
Managing editor of the paper Raju Narisetti said, “It is a clear recognition that our readers are busy and mobile. The format is part of our promise to help readers deal with the torrents of unevaluated words coming their way each day. Our approach extends to careful selection of stories and providing clear writing, presentation and analysis.”
The paper has been designed by world-renowned newspaper designer Mario Garcia and will be in a unique Berliner size that will bring, for the first time to readers in India, a globally proven, convenient format, states the release.
“We are excited about the unique concept we’re launching, and the added benefits it will bring to our readers and advertisers,” said Publisher Rajan Bhalla,. “Mint’s differentiated design will also offer advertisers new content adjacencies, innovative placement opportunities and impactful advertising units.”
MUMBAI: Eenadu Television is taking its Bengali general entertainment channel pay with effect from 1 February. The other channels in the network will also go pay in a phased manner.
ETV Bangla will be priced at Rs 10 a month per subscriber. “Our Bengali channel is going pay from 1 February. The other channels in the network will follow suit,” a senior ETV executive confirms.
ETV Kannada and ETV Marathi are likely to go pay by March. All the ETV channels will be priced similarly at Rs 10.
In the Cas (conditional access system) areas of Mumbai and Kolkata, ETV has not yet decided whether it should stay free-to-air (FTA). “We haven’t taken a call yet whether ETV Bangla will be FTA in the Cas notified areas of Kolkata. Similarly, we have to decide about ETV Marathi in the Cas region of Mumbai when we take the channel pay,” the executive said.
Last year ETV had taken its Telugu channels – ETV Telugu and ETV2 – pay and priced it together at Rs 10. ETV has a bouquet of 12 regional channels including ETV Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Private investment firm Blackstone Group recently announced it would pump in $ 275 million (approximately Rs 12.38 billion) to acquire a stake in Ushodaya Enterprises Limited (UEL), the holding company that manages Ramoji Rao’s media assets. UEL owns Eenadu, the third largest newspaper, and ETV, the fourth largest private television broadcasting network in the country.
MUMBAI: Time Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd. (TBSPL) plans to raise $70 million for manufacture of IPTV set-top boxes (STBs) and expansion of its content delivery network (CDN).
The company has exclusively tied up with UK-based Amino Communications Ltd. to manufacture AmiNET125 H.264 AVC (MPEG-4, Part 10) compliant STBs in India. TBSPL will have the rights to sell these STBs in India, Middle East and parts of East Africa. The benefit of manufacturing these STBs in India will be to bring the cost below $100.
“This is a significant development for us as India is a potentially big market for IPTV. We have manufacturing arrangements also in China and Taiwan,” says Amino Communications Ltd. vice president/general manager Roy Kirsopp.
TBSPL, which has already raised $10 million and got a further $5 million from Dimensions Group, will raise a further $35 million in its second round of funding. This will be towards expanding the CDN for IPTV.
“We are in talks for second round of investment and have got term sheets. We hope to tie up the funds by February-March,” says TBSPL managing director and CEO Sujata Dev.
Another $35 million will be raised through sister company Broadband Tech Pvt. Ltd. for manufacture of STBs. The company is in talks with three consumer electronics companies for this. “We are negotiating with three state governments for getting subsidy. We are in talks with consumer electronics companies for the financing and manufacture of the STBs,” says Dev. The company is looking at Kolkata, Chennai or another city to set up the manufacturing facility.
Amino has been paid an upfront amount of $1 million. “We have guaranteed Amino $10-12 million over 18 months. Dimensions Broadband UK has committed a $7 million exposure for this,” says Dev. The contract involves a fixed license fee and a royalty to Amino on the STBs sold.
The AmiNET125 STB is designed on the DaVinci SoC chip from Texas Instruments and is integrated with Kasenna middleware and Verimatrix content protection.
“The deal will enable TBSPL to execute mass deployments of our “MY TIME” IPTV package. STBs play the most critical role in the IPTV business.
This relationship with a leading industry partner like Amino would further strengthen TBSPL in establishing the business matrix in the Indian market, capable of providing a total end-to-end CDN solution to telecom operator partners intending to launch IPTV,” says Dev.
Adds Kirsopp: “We see opportunity in India, China and South America. This deal validates our licensing model where we tie up with local partners for local manufacturing.”
MUMBAI: Zee News Limited (ZNL) today reported nine months revenues of Rs 1,665 million representing a 39 per cent growth over the corresponding period in the previous fiscal, compared on proforma numbers.
Overall net profit stood at Rs 93 million.
Subhash Chandra, chairman, stated, “Zee News Limited finished the nine months with a good performance, highlighted by strong advertising revenue growth of 54 per cent and robust operating profit growth of 179 per cent. We believe that Zee News Limited has the potential to grow into a media giant with a regional focus.”
“We are extremely pleased to see the steady steps towards digitization of the Indian cable and satellite industry. CAS has been successfully implemented in the notified areas of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. With more subscribers opting for digital services even in other parts of the country, it will give a big boost to our subscription revenues in the near future. All these have extremely positive and long term impact on our business given that most of our channels are pay.” Chandra added.
Commenting on the restructuring exercise, Chandra continued, “The restructuring exercise for ZNL is now complete. ZNL is ready to exploit the vast emerging opportunities and will deliver long term shareholder value.”