Category: Terrestrial

DD can share World Cup signals with cable operators: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed the order of the Delhi High Court barring Doordarshan from sharing the signals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 with cable operators.

The leave petition will meanwhile be heard on 17 February by when ESPN and Star Sports will submit their replies.

In its judgment, the High Court had refused to strike down the must carry clause under which cable operators have to carry signals of Doordarshan nor the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the order on the plea of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), ESPN and Star who had contended that cable TV operators were getting live feeds through DD channels free of cost, resulting in loss of revenue for them.

In its order, the Court refused to strike down a 2000 notification issued by Prasar Bharati, which made it mandatory for cable operators to carry DD National and DD News channels. Simultaneously, the court also rejected the additional prayers by ESPN Star to strike down Section 3 of the Sports Act, which makes it mandatory for them to share with Prasar Bharati the live feed of sporting events of national importance.

DD officials said the Mandatory Sharing Act was clear that matches would have to be shared with DD on its terrestrial network and via its direct-to-home Freedish. An official said the directive by the Court appeared to be a precautionary measure aimed at warning cable operators who pirate the signals and not Doordarshan.

In the order, the High Court had said, “The appeal as well as writ petition (civil) 8458/2007 are allowed to the extent that the live broadcasting signal shared by ESPN/Star by virtue of the Sports Act with Prasar Bharati, shall not be carried in the designated Doordarshan channels under the must carry obligation cast by the Cable TV Network Act on cable operators. This shall operate prospectively.”

In its directive, the Court had also observed that while the advertisement revenue received by DD in respect of the shared content of the sports channels was to be shared in the ratio of not less than 75:25, “it still does not cater to the loss of subscription revenue” by ESPN and Star.

BCCI, Nimbus Communications Ltd and the two sports channels (ESPN and Star) had challenged the High Court’s single judge November 2007 order rejecting their pleas that no cable television network, Direct-to-Home (DTH) Network, multi-system network or local cable operator could broadcast such sports events without a licence from the content owners.

February 10, 2015
Prasar Bharati moves SC against Delhi HC judgment on World Cup telecasts

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati today filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to appeal against the judgment of the Delhi High Court (HC) barring it from sharing signals of the ICC World Cup Cricket 2015 with cable operators.

The leave petition presented by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi is expected to come up for hearing on 10 February.

In its judgment, the HC had refused to strike down the must carry clause under which cable operators have to carry signals of Doordarshan.

A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the order on the plea of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), ESPN and Star who had contended that cable TV operators were getting live feeds through DD channels free of cost, resulting in loss of revenue for them.

In its order, the Court refused to strike down a 2000 notification issued by Prasar Bharati, which made it mandatory for cable operators to carry DD National and DD News channels. Simultaneously, the court also rejected the additional prayers by ESPN Star to strike down Section 3 of the Sports Act, which makes it mandatory for them to share with Prasar Bharati the live feed of sporting events of national importance.

DD officials said the Mandatory Sharing Act was clear that matches would have to be shared with DD on its terrestrial network and via its direct-to-home Freedish. An official said the directive by the Court appeared to be a precautionary measure aimed at warning cable operators who pirate the signals and not Doordarshan.

In the order, the Court had said, “The appeal as well as writ petition (civil) 8458/2007 are allowed to the extent that the live broadcasting signal shared by ESPN/Star by virtue of the Sports Act with Prasar Bharati, shall not be carried in the designated Doordarshan channels under the must carry obligation cast by the Cable TV Network Act on cable operators. This shall operate prospectively.”

In its directive, the Court had observed that while the advertisement revenue received by DD in respect of the shared content of the sports channels was to be shared in the ratio of not less than 75:25, “it still does not cater to the loss of subscription revenue” by ESPN and Star.

BCCI, Nimbus Communications and the two sports channels (ESPN and Star) had challenged the high court’s single judge November 2007 order rejecting their pleas that no cable television network, Direct-to-Home (DTH) Network, multi-system network or local cable operator could broadcast such sports events without a licence from the content owners.

February 9, 2015
AIR bags exclusive radio broadcast rights for commentary of Cricket World Cup 2015

NEW DELHI: Even as controversy continues to prevail over how Doordarshan can fulfil the Delhi High Court order in the light of the must-carry clause, All India Radio (AIR) has bagged the exclusive rights for the broadcast of radio commentary for the International Cricket Club Cricket World Cup 2015.

All India Radio will broadcast ball-by-ball bilingual commentary of 17 one-day international (ODI) cricket matches of the forthcoming World Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand from 15 February to 29 March.

AIR will broadcast commentary of matches that are played by India and some of the matches involving neighbouring countries. It will also broadcast all the matches that will be played from quarter-finals stage onwards.

The commentaries of the 17 ODI matches will be broadcast on the national hook-up and the same will be relayed by 66 identified Medium Wave AIR stations and FM Gold network. All India Radio, Delhi, will broadcast hourly updates of the 17 matches on its FM Rainbow Channel and it will be relayed by all other AIR FM Rainbow Channels, thus ensuring unique dissemination.

The commentary will be interspersed with news and bytes of nationally and internationally acclaimed cricket stars to add value to the coverage. One will hear the close knocking sound of bat, the gasps and the beauty of the match will be crisply worded to give the vivid picture of 17 matches.

The list of the 17 matches will be soon available on AIR website along with the timings. Cricket enthusiasts can also follow on Twitter (@AkashvaniAIR) and the Facebook page (AkashvaniPrasarBharati)

February 9, 2015
DD to appeal against Delhi HC’s order barring sharing of 2015 WC feed with cable ops

NEW DELHI: The countdown to the 2015 Cricket World Cup has begun, and even as teams gear to battle it out on ground, back home, public broadcaster Doordarshan is up for another challenge. This, after the Delhi High Court on 4 February came out with its order which barred Doordarshan from sharing the live feed of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, of which ESPN and Star have the exclusive broadcasting rights, with cable operators.

While this seems like a good news for broadcaster Star India, which could now be hoping for renewing all its distribution deals with multi system operators (MSOs) for its sports channels after its decision of moving to Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) deals; the pubcaster is all set to appeal against this order in the Supreme Court.

As per DD legal experts, an appeal will be filed in the Supreme Court since the directive of the High Court militates against the must-carry clause and the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

A Prasar Bharati official confirmed that the matter had been discussed with the legal consultant Rajeev Sharma this morning and the appeal would be filed shortly.

Several MSOs in the capital also confirmed to indiantelevision.com that they were planning to either file an independent appeal or intervene in the appeal to be filed by Doordarshan or Prasar Bharati.

A MSO on condition of anonymity said, “The order has come out only yesterday, we are yet to get a copy of the order. Once that happens, we will read it thoroughly and decide on our next move.”

He further added, “As per the law, we have to carry 24 Doordarshan channels, but we do not control the content that is being aired on its channels. We will meet the Ministry to get a clear understanding of what the next move should be.”

A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the order on the plea of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), ESPN and Star who had contended that cable TV operators were getting live feeds through DD channels free of cost, resulting in loss of revenue for them.

Another MSO said, “Since we are under a mandatory obligation of must- carry of DD channels, it is surprising that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry did not intervene in the matter in the Delhi High Court.”

MSOs and LCOs said that this also violated their fundamental right to do business. MSO and LCO representatives told indiantelevision.com that they feared that they may be forced to shut DD channels at the time of the matches on the ground of technical fault as had often been done previously.

In its order, the Court refused to strike down a 2000 notification issued by Prasar Bharati which made it mandatory for cable operators to carry DD National and DD News channels. Simultaneously, the court also rejected the additional prayers by ESPN Star to strike down section 3 of the Sports Act, which makes it mandatory for them to share with Prasar Bharati the live feed of sporting events of national importance.

DD officials said the Mandatory Sharing Act was clear that matches would have to be shared with DD on its terrestrial network and via its direct-to-home Freedish. An official said the directive by the Court appeared to be a precautionary measure aimed at warning cable operators who pirate the signals and not Doordarshan.

In the order, the Court had said, “The appeal as well as writ petition (civil) 8458/2007 are allowed to the extent that the live broadcasting signal shared by ESPN/STAR by virtue of the Sports Act with Prasar Bharati, shall not be carried in the designated Doordarshan channels under the must carry obligation cast by the Cable TV Network Act on cable operators. This shall operate prospectively.”

In its directive, the Court had observed that while the advertisement revenue received by DD in respect of the shared content of the sports channels was to be shared in the ratio of not less than 75:25, “it still does not cater to the loss of subscription revenue” by ESPN and Star.

BCCI, Nimbus Communications and the two sports channels (ESPN and Star) had challenged the High Court’s single judge November 2007 order rejecting their pleas that no cable television network, Direct-to-Home (DTH) Network, multi-system network or local cable operator could broadcast such sports events without a licence from the content owners.

Broadcaster Star on its part is currently reading the judgment in detail and internal discussions are on. “We need to understand the nuances of the High Court order and then come up with a strategy which is both under law and our business practices,” said a source from Star.

February 5, 2015
Prasar Bharati expresses helplessness in regularising contractual employees

NEW DELHI: Despite major shortage of staff, Prasar Bharati has informed the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that it is not feasible to regularize services of contractual employees in All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Ministry source told indiantelevision.com that the pubcaster had said that recruitment has to be done according to the Recruitment Rules and the contractuals of Prasar Bharati had not been engaged by following the Recruitment Rules concerned as most of them do not fulfill the prescribed educational and other qualifications.

In view of this, their regularisation would be in violation of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of State of Karnataka Vs Uma Devi.

Further, Prasar Bharati has said that as some of the casuals/contractuals are booked for a maximum of six days in a month, their numbers in panels far exceed the number of posts for any particular job.

Prasar Bharati has informed that Doordarshan has engaged the following type of contractuals:

i.             Special Assignees –              18

ii.            Contractual Engagees-         63

iii.           Ex-BECIL Engagee –              166

iv.           Retired Engagees –              211

Moreover, 306 contractuals are engaged in DD News headquarters and 41 contractuals are working in the Regional News Units of Doordarshan Kendras.

Prasar Bharati has also informed that All India Radio (AIR) has engaged 125 retired officials, on short term contract basis. Moreover, AIR headquarters has engaged 116 Data Entry Operators and 38 casual workers through outsourcing agency.

Casual presenters/ announcers are being booked by AIR stations as talent on assignment basis. The number of such casual announcers varies from station to station as per their requirement. Since this is an ongoing process, there is no fixed number of casual presenters/ announcers.

February 3, 2015
Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar to attend KLF’s inaugural ceremony

KOLKATA: Publishers and Book Sellers Guild announced the second edition of Kolkata Literature Festival (KLF) through a press conference in Kolkata.

President of Publishers and Book Sellers Guild Tridib Chatterjee said that Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar along with renowned actor Soumitra Chatterjee and author Shobha De will join the inaugural ceremony of KLF on 6 February.

KLF will be held from 6 – 8 February at the KLF Auditorium (SBI Auditorium) inside the Milan Mela premises, where the International Kolkata Book Fair, one of the largest book fair in terms of footfall, has already begun from 28 January.

“Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar will be present at the inaugural ceremony. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen will be present on the closing day of the KLF,” Chatterjee informed.

Bookworms and bibliophiles are expected to bask in the winter sun and meet literary writers.

Renowned dancer Alokananda Roy is likely to showcase a dance performance on Tagore’s songs and on the life of Jesus Christ.

Roy said that the prisoners from Dumdum correctional home, Presidency jail, Alipore women’s correctional home and Medinipore jail are also likely to perform in her dance programme.

February 3, 2015
DD Kisan set for launch on Baisakhi

NEW DELHI: The launch of the 24-hour channel devoted to farmers and rural India – DD Kisan – has been pushed back by three months to Baisakhi Day on 14 April as Doordarshan has still to complete all the formalities relating to staff and programme.

The channel was earlier slated to launch on Makar Sankranti on 14 January but Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley has now been assured that all arrangements would be completed by mid-April.

As per information available with Indiantelevision.com, the assurance was given in Jaitley’s customary morning meeting with senior officials of his Ministry as well as Prasar Bharati.

Jaitley sought full details of the work done on the channel, for which he had set aside Rs 100 crore in the Budget in his capacity as Finance Minister. However, the budget for I&B Ministry shows an allocation of Rs 90 crore for the same in the year 2014-15.

DD sources told Indiantelevision.com that the Minister had been assured that all preparations would be completed by mid-April. It was also stated that 14 April is a very important day for farmers as it marks the start of the sowing season.

Apart from Jaitley and Miniser of State Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, I&B secretary Bimal Julka, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar and senior DD officials were present in the meeting held earlier this week.

Noting that the proposed Doordarshan Kisan is a dedicated channel for the farmers to give them information targeted to address the wholesome edutainment needs of a farmer to adopt and adapt to modern scenario, the national broadcaster had in early December invited proposals for programmes under the Self Financing Commissioned (SFC) Scheme.

DD sources said that the content expected for DD Kisan will primarily address the developmental needs of the farmer addressing ‘Core Agriculture’, ‘Critical Support’ and ‘Essential Ancillary’ areas, keeping in mind the varied Agro-Economic Zones, Climatic Areas, Different Crops and the need to address the target audience spread across various states but will have to be entertaining and engaging.

The content on DD Kisan will be in Hindi with regional dubbing.

The genres for which it invited proposals were: Documentaries/Features (Field Based); Magazines/Docu Dramas (Field Based); Cookery Shows/Biographies; Daily Soap/Fiction Serials/Family Serials/Thrillers; film song based programmes; Reality Shows/Game Shows; and Mandi Bhav/Bazar Bhav/Agro Based Bulletins.

In addition, DD Kisan will have a new segment for iconic characters plus content packaging where animation characters will convey the agricultural themes and desired messaging. It is expected that the participants under this category will also provide layouts of the channel’s packaging.

The channel will also have a segment for edited feature films where the entire film is expected to be capsuled with anchor based presentation for 60 minutes.

In the Bazar Bhav/ Mandi Bhav segments, updates from the mandis including the template will be required to be provided, which will give the core audiences suitable direction and help in the agricultural activity.

Ministry sources highlighted Prasar Bharati’s plan to take inputs from different Agricultural Universities and Institutes to develop rich content for the channel.

DD is hoping to engage people in the fields of production as well as marketing in positions ranging from senior to mid to junior level.

There are a total of 67 vacant posts of post production professionals, visual graphics designer, record keeper, senior videographer, junior videographer, senior production executive, production executive, senior creative editor, creative editor, senior presenter, presenter, copy editor–cum-writer, programme trainees, head- sales & marketing, and senior sales & marketing executive.

Other steps being taken by Prasar Bharati for this channel include: production of in-house and outsourced content; liason with relevant ministries to get inputs for channel content and for which advertisements will be issued; calculation of budget and expenditure for the channel; crowd sourcing for channel name, logo, jingles etc; issue of advertisement for channel packaging and branding along with look and feel and montage.

A consultation meeting has been held with various educational institutes for a rich content and to create a ‘Resource Persons Group’ and this would be a continuous process.

Meanwhile, the Krishi Darshan programmes of Doordarshan are being telecast under the “Mass Media Support to Agriculture Extension” funded by the Agriculture Ministry focusing on dissemination of modern agricultural techniques by involving experts from various fields like insurance, banking, credit for farmers, State Government schemes on agriculture/ fisheries/veterinary science/water and soil conservation/social forestry etc.

In addition, a programme Mera Gaon Connection telecast at prime time on DD National also introduces modern agricultural techniques to the viewers.

The mass media support to agricultural extension and focused publicity campaigns has been strengthened to reach out to all farmers including small and marginal.

January 31, 2015
Prasar Bharati to MIB: No plans to stop commissioning of programmes

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has assured the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) that there are no plans to stop commissioning of programmes by Doordarshan.

However, a Doordarshan source told Indiantelevision.com that the commission has taken on a new form. It is now a Self Financed Commissioning in the sense that the producer makes the series at his or her own cost initially after getting it cleared from DD and then later gets the costs reimbursed.

DD has decided to procure content through various notified schemes such as Self Finance Commissioning (SFC), Revenue Sharing Mode (RSM) for producers/simulcast, and Advertisement Funded Programme (AFP). The Revenue Sharing Scheme (Producers/Simulcast) also allows Doordarshan to collaborate with some private channels for sourcing some high quality software in the simulcast mode content on favourable terms.

Proposals have been invited for DD National Network and for the upcoming DD Kisan channels under the SFC scheme. Doordarshan is directly selling airtime to agencies and clients in the media market.

Prasar Bharati is an autonomous body not owned by the state but does receive Government support in the form of grants-in-aid. Its objectives as Public Service Broadcaster are not directed towards profits but towards reaching out to all sections of society in all corners of the country, the question of losses/profits does not arise.

The source said it was the constant endeavour of DD to improve upon its programmes by reviewing the content and quality from time to time with the view to sustain the interest of the viewers.

January 28, 2015
‘Mann ki Baat’ to feature Barrack Obama with Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: This month’s edition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ on All India Radio (AIR) will have two special features: it will feature both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting American President Barrack Obama, and will carry many commercials.

The broadcast at 8 pm on the evening of 27 January is expected to be a simulcast by all major television channels including DD News.

It is also expected to be carried on CNN simultaneously.

The recording for ‘Mann ki Baat’ was done at the high-profile Hyderabad House in New Delhi at 3 pm on 25 January.

Confirming this, AIR sources told indiantelevision.com that regional versions of this broadcast at 9 pm on 28 January will be carried by regional kendras of AIR.

AIR will also have several commercials before and after the broadcast.

Indians all over the world had been asked to give suggestions or questions for a special edition of the monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ on All India Radio this month. Questions or suggestions can be sent on mygov.nic.in.

January 26, 2015
Prasar Bharati eyes wider reach for DD India via international satellites

NEW DELHI: After revamping its other channels and its website, Doordarshan is now working towards not just revamping its international channel DD India, but to increase its reach.

Prasar Bharati sources said that efforts were being made to distribute DD India Channel globally. Doordarshan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Asian Television Network, Canada, for distribution of five DD channels in Canada. Additionally, Doordarshan has granted permission to Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation for distribution of six DD channels in Mauritius.

The pubcaster has also signed an MOU with Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany for distribution of DD India channel through EUTELSAT’s Hotbird 13B satellite on barter basis, which will ensure Doordarshan will become available for the first time in the direct-to-home in a Free-to-Air basic package mode in the whole of Europe and in Arab countries with DD Freedish coming on air on EUTELSAT’s Hotbird 13 B satellite.

DW will provide Prasar Bharati with a satellite capacity of 2 Mbit/s on Hotbird for the transmission of DD India signal. DD India will be available in a basic package and will be without any subscription. It will also provide the signal to DW or any other recipient determined by DW in a form suitable for receipt and transmission. DD will be responsible for the cost of delivery of the signal to DW in Germany and all cost associated with such delivery shall be paid by Prasar Bharati to the DW Licensee in India, Cabsat Channels Pvt. Ltd.

Cabsat is willing to arrange to collect the signal of DD India from the Indian satellite and arrange for the provision of the Signal to DW in Germany, and invoice Prasar Bharati accordingly.

This will help the public broadcaster project India’s viewpoint to the global audience in a cost effective manner. DD will be offered in the basic package of the DTH service, which does not require any individual to either subscribe to it or to pay for viewing the channel.

Prasar Bharati sources said the offer by DW has extremely favourable terms and DD India does not even require a license immediately. The license can be obtained within a period of one year if the experiment is successful.

DD currently has a budget of Rs 2 – 3 crore per year for production of programmes, which has to go up and so other Ministries pool in their resources/content for quality programmes for the viewership abroad. Programming will be mainly accessed from archival material and current programmes, apart from some live and deferred live programmes. The programming, which was mostly in English and Hindi, may have subtitling where necessary.

As of now, Indian satellites carrying DD signals reach around 34 countries.

While the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is coming on board DD Freedish, France was proposing to beam to India via an Indian satellite.

DW beamed to the world in four beams: English, German, Arabic and Spanish. Asia was reached through the Asiasat I satellite.

The five broad regions to be covered are Central Asia, Middle East or West Asia, East Europe, West Europe and North Africa. The programmes would primarily target different cultures, keeping in mind the different languages of the regions like Turki, Persian, Arabic and French, with English being reasonably the lingua franca. The programmes for the target audiences would be decided in consultation with the concerned Ministries who have experience and expertise in the various fields, and assessing the cultural and political sensitivities of the areas.

Programmes of private programmes will continue to be broadcast with their own view point of India. It all depends on their interest about presenting the picture of India. They are promoting the issues of India from the view point and interest of audiences. Programmes palatable to one region may offend sensibilities elsewhere, which would have to be of prime concern while producing them.

Since 1995, Doordarshan has been trying to build bridges of communication with Indians living abroad and also trying to showcase its diverse culture, values and rich heritage to the world by launching its first international channel.

Upon the expansion of this International Channel into 24×7 transmission, Doordarshan signed an agreement with Pan Am SAT (later Intelsat Inc.) for achieving global footprint of its international channel in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America by placing it on ‘C’ & ‘KU’ band of IS-10 , IS-906 and G-13 satellites.

In 2011, the services provided by Intelsat were dispensed with and the contract was terminated.

From March 2011, Doordarshan started availing of the service of ISRO’s INSAT-4B in both KU band & C band. However, the inadequacy of not being able to locate any significant global partners to distribute and connect DD to homes overseas continued.

In the past also DD did make efforts to distribute its international channel in various parts of the world but made little progress in the last mile distribution due to policies, which did not permit large scale spending on carriage fees.

Doordarshan made renewed efforts through Indian Missions to distribute its international channel abroad, but it could make little progress in this last mile distribution due to several reasons. However, significant local partners could not be located to distribute and connect DD to homes overseas continued.

Hotbird-13B is the most chosen satellite by European countries because of its polarity. It has a reach of 120 million homes in the whole of Europe, Northern Africa and the whole of Middle East. It is an extremely popular DTH platform in Europe and this platform was the logical choice for DD India to launch its overseas services afresh.

January 24, 2015