ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • Dish, Star DTH cases: SC declines interim order

    Dish, Star DTH cases: SC declines interim order

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to pass any interim order on petitions filed by Dish TV and Star India relating to a disputes tribunal directive on channel pricing for the DTH platform.

    The apex court admitted both the petitions, but is yet to decide on the next date of hearing.

    Dish TV, the country’s first pay DTH platform, had petitioned to get Star channels at a cheaper rate than what had been directed by TDSAT (Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal). On the other hand, Star’s contention was that the disputes tribunal had no jurisdiction over pricing issues and had accordingly sought a stay on TDSAT’s order.

    An executive of Dish TV said, “We’d have to wait for the court directive. But in the meantime, a deal with Star can be concluded at the prescribed rate of Rs 27 per subscriber.”

    Earlier, TDSAT had said that Star should make available its channels to Dish TV at half the rate at which they are available to cable ops presently. This worked out to RS 27 per subscriber.

    It was only yesterday that Star delivered to Dish TV the integrated receiver decoder boxes that would enable the DTH operator to access its channels for redistribution purposes.

  • Lanka Tri-series: SC rules Ten Sports’ need not share feed with DD

    Lanka Tri-series: SC rules Ten Sports’ need not share feed with DD

    MUMBAI: The Supreme Court today ruled in favour of Taj Television, owner of Ten Sports, while restraining pubcaster Prasar Bharati from interfering with the live transmission of the upcoming Sri Lanka tri-series involving India as well.

    India, South Africa and hosts Sri Lanka will figure in the one-day tri-series to be played from 14 to 29 August on the island nation.

    The ruling of the court, valid for the next three months, is not restricted only to cricket but also includes forthcoming major hockey (women’s Champions Trophy and World Cup) and the US Open tennis tournament that Ten Sports holds telecast rights to.

    While delivering its verdict, the apex court applied a similar yardstick to the one it had used ahead of India’s tour to the West Indies in early May. It had then ordered that Ten Sports had exclusive telecast rights to the series and need not share it with the pubcaster.

    Dubai-headquartered Taj Television had in its original petition on the matter sought a stay on the government guidelines making it mandatory for sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.

    It also contended that the court should be guided by the earlier verdict in the India-Pakistan series wherein DD was just a carrier of the Ten Sports signals on its terrestrial network and had also deposited a sum of Rs 150 million in the court towards possible compensation to Ten Sports.

    The matter was heard by a Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Markandey Katju. The Bench had earlier issued notices to the information and broadcasting ministry and Prasar Bharati on Ten Sports’ plea.

    In its plea, Ten Sports contended that it had acquired exclusive live telecast rights for all these events. In particular, it had acquired rights for the tri-series for four years from the Sri Lankan Cricket Board at a cost of about Rs 2.18 billion.

    It is worth noting that Ten Sports’ rights to Sri Lanka cricket, which it has held since 1 January 2004, comes to a close on to 31 December 2006.

  • Trai answers questions about CAS

    MUMBAI: In pursuance of the Directions of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court on implementation of CAS, the three metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata by 31 December 2006 and Chennai (where it is already in implementation), Trai has taken a number of initiatives. As part of the process of implementation and to facilitate enhanced consumer awareness, Trai has placed on its website a compilation containing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on CAS and related Orders and Regulations of TRAI.

    These are meant to educate the subscribers and the general public in the four metros about CAS. The attempt is to provide answers in a language which a layman can understand, the compilation covers questions, answers to which are necessary to clear doubts and provide greater clarity. The detailed FAQs are available on Trai’s website www.Trai.gov.in.

    The FAQs begin with background information about Cable TV operations. Thereafter there are specific questions related to the following items:-

    – Conditional Access System/Addressable System, CAS Area, Non CAS areas etc.
    – Set Top Box, Smart Card, STB Tariff package etc.
    – Free to air channel, pay channel, basic service tier tariff.
    – Benchmarks and timelines for quality of service.

    It is hoped that these answers to Frequently Asked Questions would help consumer organizations and consumers to ensure that the benefits intended to be provided to them by the various orders of the Authority are fully availed off.

  • Raj TV declares status in CAS areas

    Raj TV declares status in CAS areas

    MUMBAI: TRAI had issued press releases on 15/10/06, 25/10/06 and 14.11.2006 placing the details of Maximum Retail Prices fixed by the broadcasters in respect of CAS areas on the basis of the reporting done by them in terms of clause 7 (ii) of the Tariff Order of 31/8/2006.

    The list placed on the website currently contains details of 13 broadcasters. Subsequently, the Authority was informed that some of the pay channels listed in the website are not pay channels in some of the notified areas. The issue was accordingly taken up with the broadcasters and the broadcasters have now indicated the correct position in respect of these identified channels.

    The changes reported so far is in respect of the following channels:-

    Name of the Channel and Broadcaster Status as reported earlier Status as reported now
    M/s Raj Television Network Raj TV, Raj Digital, Vissa TV Pay Channel in all notified areas Pay channel in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, but FTA in Chennai

    A corrected and updated list has been placed on TRAI’s website www.trai.gov.in.

  • CBS Television tests the water with ‘Shark’

    CBS Television tests the water with ‘Shark’

    MUMBAI: AquaCell announced today that CBS Television, which has historically captured water cooler buzz for its comedies by advertising on Aquacell water coolers installed in retail stores, is diving into uncharted waters by promoting its new prime time drama Shark starring James Woods, on AquaCell’s water coolers installed in law offices.

    “We’re thrilled CBS is expanding its Coolertising program beyond the retail stores by advertising on coolers installed in lawyer’s offices. Lawyer’s offices are the perfect place for CBS Television to promote Shark,” said AquaCell Technologies president Karen Laustsen.

    This latest Coolertising promotion encourages those that are thirsty for something different to “Try a Cooler Courtroom Drama.” The program includes promotion on hundreds of water coolers installed in retail locations in the New York and Los Angeles areas, as well as law offices in the Mid-Atlantic region.

    AquaCell’s “Coolertising” advertising program provides unique “out-of-home” advertising. The company installs its patented self-filling AquaCell bottled water cooler system into various locations free of charge under a multi-year agreement and retains ownership of the “billboard” water cooler.

    Revenue is generated through the sale of the advertising space on the bottle band and cup holder of the permanently attached five-gallon bottle to companies that provide products and services pertinent to the demographics and location.

  • Dish TV pumps up the volume on interactive services, marketing

    Dish TV pumps up the volume on interactive services, marketing

    NEW DELHI: The Indian DTH market is all set to explode with Dish TV going ballistic with services and marketing activities ahead of Tata Sky’s imminent launch.

    Though Dish TV terms it as sheer coincidence that it’s unveiling a host of value-added services and as well as coming out with a media campaign over the last two days, the timing seems to be just correct.

    “We had planned our value added service from before and it’s purely a coincidence that our consumer-awareness campaign, which broke a few days ago in the media, comes ahead of Tata Sky’s proposed launch,” Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna told Indiantelevision.com today.

    Apart from a 360 degree approach through a media campaign — goodbye to cable problems. Hello Digital! — country’s first DTH platform Dish TV is also set to unveil a host of services from Monday onwards.
    Leading the pack of new initiatives is interactivity, which will come via Zee News.

    The digi-boxes of Dish TV would now allow the unique experience of interactive viewing. Consumers can surf while watching TV for detailed stories, headlines and weather reports.

    How does this work? A subscriber of Dish TV wants to see whether Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza has won her latest match or not and cannot wait for the sports segments to come in the news bulletin.

    So while a news bulletin is on on Zee News, a few presses of the buttons can take the viewer straight to the sports section for the Sania news story even as the main news bulletin continues.

    “Such interactive facilities will give Dish viewers more convenience, but will also mean the broadcaster’s (Zee News in this case) having to upload more feeds than usual to give the interactivity features a momentum,” Khanna said.

    By the end of next week, Zee News’ interactivity on Dish would be completed for all subscribers, he assures.

    Apart from news, Dish TV is also planning to go interactive with sports, starting with Zee Sports.

    Sports interactivity will involve freezing of shots from a particular angle, getting player details immediately without having to wait for the sports channel providing it and statistics about the game in progress and sports in general.

    The interactivity on Zee Sports will start with the Indian cricket board-recognised tri-nation series involving India, Australia and another country at a neutral ground from mid-September for which Zee has the telecast rights.

    “At this point of time only Zee Sports will go interactive, but we are talking to Sony Entertainment TV India for introducing the features for the ICC Champions Trophy that will air on Max,” Khanna said.

    Dish now has all the sports channel presently available on Indian cable networks, which include ESPN, Star Sports and Ten Sports. It also has some niche sports channels not beaming to cable subscribers.

    Asked which other channels can go interactive, Khanna opined that globally interactivity works best with news and sports programming.

    Next on the list is a dedicated gaming channel for people of all age groups. At any given point of time it will have eight games, which will be updated on a monthly basis.

    Hassle free and simple, PlayJam software would start downloading on set top boxes of subscribers from early next week onwards.

    The whole process will take a few days to be completed for all of the 1.25 million DTH subscribers of Dish.

    According to Dish TV AVP (interactive services) Manish Chawla, three to four games are likely to be added every month with the overall number of games available remaining at eight presently.

    The electronic programming guide had always been available to Dish subscribers, but from next week it will get fully activated with programming details of over 100 channels at one’s fingertips.

    The EPG will store three days’ information, which is likely to help viewers plan their viewing, Chawla explained as proper setting of the EPG will send out alerts before a particular programme starts.

    With Tata Sky (a joint venture between the Tatas and Rupert Murdoch’s Star) also planning to start its services soon, there will be hectic action in the Indian DTH market.

    Hong Kong based Media Partners Asia (MPA) says that India remains the most significant and accessible cable and satellite (C&S) opportunity in the Asia Pacific region.

    India began commercial DTH operations in October 2003 and by December 2004 reported over three million subscribers. MPA said India is poised to become Asia’s leading cable market by 2010, the largest satellite market by 2008 and the most lucrative pay TV market by 2015.

  • IPTV subscriber base set for explosive growth: iSuppli

    IPTV subscriber base set for explosive growth: iSuppli

    MUMBAI: The worldwide subscriber base for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services is expected to expand by a factor of more than 26 from 2005 to 2010, spurring a competitive battle between video providers both old and new, iSuppli Corp. predicts.

    Global IPTV subscribers will grow to slightly more than 63 million in 2010, rising at a stunning Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 92.1 per cent from 2.4 million in 2005, as presented in the figure below.

    The IPTV subscriber base will generate more than $27 billion in overall IPTV services revenue in 2010. While video services will account for the largest portion of these dollars, value-added media services and IPTV operator advertising will combine to represent more than 14 per cent of IPTV services revenue in 2010. Furthermore, across all IPTV services, the corresponding content licensing revenue will reach $11 billion in 2010.

    “The fight to capture the expanding base of IPTV subscribers will put telecom operators on a collision course with existing pay-TV market competitors and with a new class of broadband video portals as they roll-out progressively more sophisticated offerings,” said iSuppli vice president multimedia content and services Mark Kirstein.

    iSuppli categorises market deployment of IPTV services in three phases. The current global IPTV market is early in its first phase: basic service deployment. The second phase will add an array of value-added and interactive services. Phase three will bring dramatic improvements in integration and interactivity.

    Thus, in this pending battle for subscribers, providing a competitive video offering is merely the cost of entry for IPTV operators. Differentiation of IPTV services will be essential to bringing new capabilities to TV-based entertainment and attracting subscribers.

    Areas of differentiation will include:

    Interactivity, such as communication, community, voting, interactive advertising and television commerce (t-commerce).

    Integration across multiple platforms, across voice and data services and across content types, i.e. video, voice, music, gaming, data services and user content.
    Personalisation, including intelligent TV recommendations, individualised advertising and non-linear video programming, such as Video on Demand (VoD) and Digital Video Recording (DVR).

    Value-added services, including on-demand gaming, music, media applications, home networking management, security and data.

    Beyond the video service providers themselves, an array of companies will benefit from new opportunities arising from their roles as the “arms suppliers” for the battle over the next generation of television distribution. These companies include infrastructure gear manufacturers, set-top box makers, software vendors and semiconductor suppliers, iSuppli predicts.

    On a geographic basis, the European market has taken the early lead in the global IPTV market, both for subscribers and for revenue. However, Asia will generate faster growth than the other regions and will achieve the largest subscriber base by the end of this year. The Americas region will lead the world in terms of IPTV dollars starting this year because it will yield the highest Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

  • Cable TV to air CBFC certified film, music video

    Cable TV to air CBFC certified film, music video

    NEW DELHI: Determined to clean up the Indian cable TV of what it feels is indecent content, the government brought in other regulation relating to airing of songs and promos.

    The information and broadcasting ministry yesterday issued a notification that no film or film song or film promo or film trailer or music video or music album or their promos, whether produced in India or abroad, shall be carried through cable service unless it has been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) as suitable for unrestricted public exhibition in India.

    The move, according to the ministry, has been necessitated on the ground of a growing demand from the public to regulate airing of programmes containing obscenity, violence, cruelty etc., through cable TV networks.

    In this regard, the ministry also cited a judgement of the Bombay High Court, which had directed cable operators not to carry any programme that was unsuitable for unrestricted public exhibition.

    In a statement today, the I&B ministry said another rule relating to airing of ads has been amended.

    From now on, no advertisement, which violates the code for
    self-regulation for public exhibition, as adopted by the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), shall be carried in the cable service.

    The new norms have been inserted as an amendment to the Cable Television (Network) Rules 1994.

    In the meanwhile, the government is still in the process of finalizing draft guidelines for content.

  • Filmy to launch Hollywood dubbed movie block; revamps programming

    Filmy to launch Hollywood dubbed movie block; revamps programming

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Media & Entertainment Ltd’s Hindi movie channel Filmy is entering the second half of its first year with a slew of new initiatives. One key move on the programming front would be the launch of a Hollywood dubbed movie segment.

    “We want to explore the Hollywood action movie genre for Filmy. For this, we are planning to have a dubbed movie block. Filmy will be unveiling the segment very soon and we are working on the slots. At present we are in talks with a couple of foreign players for movie acquisition,” says Filmy business head Ashutosh, while not divulging further details.

    According to market sources, Sahara is in talks with at least three international studios for acquiring the international titles. The list includes Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, the motion picture and television feature distribution company owned by The Walt Disney Company.

    This move will see Filmy joining rival channels Max and Star Gold, which are already into telecasting dubbed versions of popular Hollywood movies. However, Zee Cinema has been distancing itself from the strategy of telecasting Hollywood movies dubbed in Hindi.

    As part of the programming revamp, Filmy is also increasing the footage of its wrap-around content, which includes film-based shows and spoofs. The channel’s anchors Rokki, Lal Gulab, Lallan and Ruchi Reporter will now do more shows on the channel during the breaks.

    The decision to up the wrap-around programming was taken on the basis of an audience study Filmy conducted after completing three months, according to Filmy marketing and content head Shailesh Kapoor.

    “We have received feedback from our viewers, asking us to increase the participation of our anchors in our programming. They want to watch more of the film-based content. Accordingly, We have a new segment ‘Filmy Hot Break’, which will be of the duration of 60 to 90 seconds. Our anchors will be presenting various forms of content, based on the particular movie on air at that time, during these breaks. This segment comes in 21 movies a week, in each time slot of 10 am, 3 pm and 8 pm,” says Kapoor.

    The learnings have inspired Filmy to take a re-look at its film news programming as well. Accepting the demand for the latest film news updates, the channel has now started airing 60 second capsules of film news throughout the day, Monday to Friday. In the weekends, the channel continues telecasting its 30 minutes film news programme Aaj Ka Filmy Khabar. “The effort is to break stories and offer our viewers live updates on the happenings in the entertainment industry,” reasons Kapoor.

    The Filmy Short Film Festival contest, which is positioned as one of its big ideas of 2006, will start rolling from the third week of August. Filmy will be telecasting the shortlisted entries Monday to Friday and during the weekends, it will air some of the best entries handpicked by the jury head Madhur Bhandarkar. The channel will be announcing the final winner in September.

    On the marketing front, Filmy is following the strategy of taking its lead anchors off air and positioning amidst the public. The channel recently associated with Rakesh Roshan for his latest release Krrish and had Lallan performing in the respective theatres. Similarly, Lallan will be doing a Shahrukh act in theatres where Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna would be releasing.

  • Bahl sells 2,00,000 TV18 shares to Network 18 Fincap

    Bahl sells 2,00,000 TV18 shares to Network 18 Fincap

    MUMBAI: Network 18 Fincap Pvt Ltd (previously known as SGA Finance and Management Services Private Limited) has acquired 2,00,000 equity shares of Television Eighteen India Ltd (“TV18”) from founder-promoter Raghav Bahl at Rs 650.25 per share.

    The transaction was by way of block deal executed on the stock exchange, TV18 said. “Pursuant to the sanction to the Scheme of Arrangement by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi, Network 18 Fincap Private has acquired 2,00,000 shares from Bahl,” the company informed the NSE.