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  • News18 Lokmat appoints Umesh Kumawat as managing editor

    News18 Lokmat appoints Umesh Kumawat as managing editor

    MUMBAI: Network18 has today announced the appointment of Umesh Kumawat as managing editor of News18 Lokmat that positions itself on top of the ladder in the regional broadcast news industry. The company is is a joint venture of two media powerhouses in India, Network 18’s TV18 Broadcast Ltd. and the Lokmat Media Pvt Ltd, running Maharashtra’s newspaper.

    He comes with close to nineteen years of experience in journalism. Prior to Network18, he was senior editor with ABP News for fourteen years. Previously he has been a part of  media brands like Aajtak, Zee News and TV 9.  He has also been honored with many awards in the field of journalism.

    Kumawat said, “I’m delighted to be leading the team at News18 Lokmat and being a part of Network18 Group, which is one of the most renowned media houses in India. It is an honor to be a part of such a well-respected media house that comprises of an incredibly talented team. I look forward to bringing authentic, speedy and reliable news and stories to our audience. It is my goal to make the channel an essential part of the viewer’s everyday life.”

  • Hindi news channels continue strong run in 2018

    Hindi news channels continue strong run in 2018

    BENGALURU:The combined total viewership of the top-five Hindi news channels shows that it has a huge audience when compared to the combined total viewership of the top-five news channels of each of the four South Indian languages individually. However, when audiences of the top-five news channels of the four South Indian languages are combined, their 15-week average viewership exceeds the 15-week average ofthe combined total of the top-five Hindi news channels’ viewership by about 13 percent. Though the audience demographics of Hindi and the four South Indian languages are different (13 years difference), they have been compared in the chart. English news has not been mentioned in the first graph because (1) of the wide variance in the audience demographics between the South Indian language news and Indian English news which is 20 years (2) the viewership of Indian English news is too small to be comparable.

    This report is about Indian news channels—including Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English—for which limited ratings data is available in the public domain. Business news channels or news channels in other languages have not been included in this report. The ratings data considered has limitations–it has been sourced from Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) weekly lists of the top-five news channels in each language.

    The first fifteen weeks of 2018 is the period starting Saturday, 30 December 2018 to Friday, 13 April 2018, the last week for which BARC data was available at the time of writing of this report.

    BARC says that its data is based on the following viewer geographies and demographic parameters for news in Hindi, the four South Indian languages and English:

    (a)     Hindi news: Hindi-speaking markets, both urban and rural or HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals.

    (b)     Telugu news: Andhra Pradesh or AP/Telangana (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    (c)     Kannada news: Karnataka (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    (d)     Tamil news: Tamil Nadu/Puducherry (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    (e)     Malayalam news: Kerala (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    (f)      English news: All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals.

    The unit of viewership measure in all cases in the charts below is thousand weekly impressions.

    The overall status

    Let us see how the top-five channels of five languages–Hindi and the four South Indian languages–have performed. Please refer to the chart below.

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    News viewership is event driven. The biggest event that occurred during the first 15 weeks of 2018 was the discussions and debates just before, during and after the elections results announcement of some Indian states in week 9 of 2018–ratings of all the channels peaked as is obvious from the figure. The only exception was Kannada news, the genre’s peak was in week 8 of 2018 based on the combined viewership of the top-five Kannada news channels.

    The combined viewership of the top-five Hindi news channels in week 9 was a staggering 931.068 million impressions–almost at par with the most-watched channel across genre in the country–Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV. The lowest combined viewership of the top-five Hindi news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018 was in week 15–just 393.013 million impressions–this was the week that the eleventh season of the cricket Indian Premier League or IPL 11 commenced and was aired on a number of Star India network channels. The importance of the IPL on viewership and cannot be understated and must be underscored. In the very first week of the tourney, one of the many Star India Network channels that aired the event—Star Sports 1 Hindi, catapulted into BARC’s top 10 channels across genre weekly list to second place with 935.856 million impressions—more than the peak combined impressions of the top-five Hindi news channels in week 9 of 2018. Before IPL 11 in week 15 of 2018, Star Sports 1 Hindi had never made it to BARC’s list of top-10 channels across genres in 2018!

    After Hindi news channels, Telugu news channels had the next largest audience during the first 15 weeks of 2018 going by the combined weekly totals of the top-five Telugu news channels. On a similar basis, at third place in terms of audience size was Kannada News, followed by Tamil news at fourth rank and Malayalam news at fifth place.

    Top Hindi news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

    Only three channels consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Hindi News channels in HSM (U+R) during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In order of viewership, they wereAajTak, Zee News and India TV.

    Three more Hindi news channels made appearances in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Hindi News channels during the first fifteen weeks of 2018. They were News 18 India (present in the lists for 14 of the first 15 weeks of 2018); ABP News (present in the lists for 11 of the first 15 weeks of 2018); and News Nation (present in the lists for 5 of the first 15 weeks of 2018).  As is obvious from the figure below, all the top 3 channels reported a drop in ratings in week 15 as compared to week 14 of 2018. Please refer to the chart below for the Top Hindi News channels – Weeks 1 to 15 of 2018. As has been mentioned in this paper before, the unit on the Y-axis in the graph is thousand weekly impressions.

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    Top Telugu news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

    Four channels consistently made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Telugu News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were TV9 Telugu; NTV Telugu; V6 News; and TV 5 News. The other three Telugu channels that made it to the lists include 10 TV (present in the lists for 8 of first 15 weeks of 2018); ABN Andhra Jyothi (present in the lists for 4 of the first 15 weeks of 2018); and T News (present in the lists for 3 of the first 15 weeks of 2018).

    Please refer to the figure below. As is obvious, TV9 Telugu was in general the top Telugu News channel, but, for a few weeks, it had been overtaken by the second ranked NTV Telugu, which itself was overtaken by V6 News to second place for one week—week 13 of 2018.

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    Top Kannada news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

    In the case of Kannada News channels, four channels were consistently present in BARC’s list of top-five Kannada News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarana News 24X7 and News18 Kannada. From the figure below, it is quite obvious that the demarcations in the ranks are simple. TV9 Kannada was consistently the most viewed Kannada News channel, followed by Public TV. It was only for one week (week 14) during the first 15 weeks of 2018 that there was a small blip when News18 Kannada replaced Suvarna News 24X7 at third place.

    Two more news channels made it to BARC’s weekly lists of Top-five Kannada News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In order of the viewership size they attracted when they were present in BARC list, they were BTV News (present BARC’s weekly lists for 7 of the 15 weeks) and Dighvijay 24×7 News (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 8 of the 15 weeks).  The former drew more eyeballs during the seven weeks it was present in BARC’s list than the latter did during the 8 weeks that it was present in BARC’s lists.

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    Top Tamil news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

    Four channels were consistently present in BARC’s list of top-five Tamil News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In order of ranking they were: Polimer News, Puthiya Thalaimurai, Thanti TV and News 7 Tamil.  Clearly, Polimer News was the most watched Tamil News channel during the first 15 weeks of 2018. Puthiya Thalaimurai was ranked second for 9 of the first 15 weeks of 2018, and was ranked third for 6 of the weeks of 2018. Thanti TV was ranked second for 6 of first 15 weeks and ranked third for 9 of the first 15 weeks of 2018, while News 7 Tamil was ranked fourth consistently during the first 15 weeks of 2018.

    Three more channels made it BARC’s list of top-five Tamil News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were Sun TV (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 11 of the 15 weeks); News 18 Tamil Badu (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 3 of the 11 weeks); while Seithigal made its lone appearance in week 13 of 2018 in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Tamil news channels during the period under review.

    Please refer to the figure below:

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    Top Malayalam news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

    Three channels made it consistently to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Malayalam News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were Asianet News, Manorama News and Mathrubhumi News. The rank demarcations were quite clear.Asianet News was the leader of the genre by far during the period under review.

    Four other news channels made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Malayalam News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018–they were News 18 Kerala (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 12 of the 15 weeks); Media One TV (also present in BARC’s weekly lists for 12 of the 15 weeks, but with lower viewership than News 18 Kerala when present in the lists); People TV (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 5 of the 15 weeks) and Janam TV which made its single appearance in week 3 of 2018.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    public://f6_1.jpg

    Top Indian English news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

    The Indian English news channel genre is niche and special. Generally, five channels made it consistentlyto BARC’s weekly lists of top-five English News channels. However, the Times group’s civic issues focused News channel Mirror Now (the erstwhile MagicBricks Now that was earlier focused on real estate news and information) has grabbed viewers interest and was present in BARC’s lists of top-five English News channels twice during the first 15 weeks of 2018. Mirror Now made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-fiveEnglish News channels in weeks 6 and 9 of 2018 during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In the past (before 2018) a few other English News channels including international news channels such as BBC World and Indian News channels such as NewsX and Wion have made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five English news channels.

    Coming back to the present, the four channels which were consistently present in BARC’s lists of top-five English News channels were: Republic TV, Times Now, India Today Television, and CNN News18 during the first 15 weeks of 2018. The other regular to the lists has been the Prannoy and Radhika Roy led NDTV 24×7 which was present in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five News channels for 13 of the first 15 weeks of 2018.

    The rank demarcations in terms of viewership of the English News genre were quite clear during the first 15 weeks of 2018–the Arnab Goswami led Republic TV has been the pack leader right from the week Republic TV was launched–week 19 of 2017. However, viewership of the earlier numerouno and Goswami’s former employer, Times Now, has almost equalled Republc TV’s ratings twice in 2018–in weeks 8 and 12. Please refer to the figure below:

    public://f7_0.jpg

    Also Read :

    IPL 11 catapults Star Sports 1 Hindi to second place in across genres

    Zee Anmol leads Hindi GEC (U+R) in BARC week 15

    Republic TV continues to lead as English news genre ratings drop

     

  • 10 FreeDish slots may fall vacant by Oct-end as renewals hang fire

    10 FreeDish slots may fall vacant by Oct-end as renewals hang fire

    MUMBAI: The ministry of information and broadcasting has reportedly asked Doordarshan to suspend until further notice e-auctioning of slots, which were picked up by private broadcasters on its free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) platform FreeDish.

    FreeDish, at present, carries 80 TV channels, including Sony Pal, Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, Rishtey and news channels like AajTak, Zee News, ABP News, News 24 etc. FreeDish has two vacant slots but the number could go up to 10 by October-end if no decision is taken by MIB, the Tribune reported.

    The slots are getting vacant and private broadcasters have been unable to renew those. Prasar Bharati has reportedly been refusing renewal since August.

    The e-auction had taken place in July, in which FreeDish had earned Rs 851 million as 11 private broadcasters bagged. Another auction planned for August was cancelled by the broadcaster, citing “administrative reasons” as per the notice dated 18 August, 2017. Doordarshan, for the year 2016-17, earned more than 30 per cent of its revenue from FreeDish at Rs 2641 million — its highest-ever, Mint reported.

    Private broadcasters, reports said, paying an average of around Rs 60-80 million per annum to FreeDish were getting advertising revenue in the range of Rs 5–7 billion per channel owing to the high reach obtained via DD-Direct while Doordarshan was losing millions.

    FreeDish, it is estimated, increased its reach to around 25 million households which is faster than the average growth of the DTH industry in the last few years.

    The top rated 15 channels on FreeDish had ratings which ranged from 50-80 and almost all of them were private TV channels. DD channels got ratings of zero to three, meaning those were going unwatched.

    ALSO READ :

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    Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati on SC verdict, pushing DD Sports and DTT

    FreeDish a key driver in FTA channels’ growth by ’20

    Doordarshan puts off 37th FreeDish auction

  • AajTak topples Times of India as the top news video page on Facebook

    New Delhi, 13th July 2017: AajTak-India’s No.1 News channel- has also topped the rankings on the digital space  by  becoming the most popular on social network for continuous 3 months with over 29.7 million video viewership on Facebook in May, 2017. By crossing this monthly viewership mark, AajTak has stormed the digital platform with its exclusive content.

    Vidooly, the leading video intelligence software product suite for content creators, media companies and brands, had come up with the report  for MOST POPULAR FACEBOOK VIDEO PUBLISHERS IN INDIA – May 2017  which is categorized into six major genres – Health & Lifestyle, New age Entertainment, Traditional Entertainment, New age – News, Traditional News and Independent creators. The report highlights that the top 100 pages collectively clocked more than 2.8 billion viewership in May 2017.

    AajTak has a video viewership of 297,645,571 on Facebook which is way ahead in comparison to the Facebook pages of ABP news and Times Of Indiawhich are ranked in second and third position with 184,526,769 and 114,406,951 viewership respectively.

    Commenting on the report, Ms. KalliPurie, Group Editorial Director (Broadcast & New Media), India Today Group said, “AajTak’s leadership on television and on the digital space can be attributed to the brand philosophy of staying true to the promise of being ‘SabseTez’. The consistent focus on speed, user experience and quality of content at Aajtak.in has made it the most preferred for news content”.   

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    AajTak has been instrumental in reaching out to its viewers on traditional media for many years now and this achievement shows the popularity of the channel in the digital world too. There is a constant engagement with the audience on AajTak Facebook page through Discussions, Satire, Backstage Conversations, News Capsules, Photo Blogs, Engagement Posts, TV Primetime Teasers, Primetime Promotions and a lot more.

    SubratKar, Co-Founder & CEO, Vidooly commented on the developments saying, ”Over the last 6 months, we have been closely tracking the tremendous growth in viewership of videos on Facebook in India. As expected, News related content dominates all the other genres since Facebook has been playing a pivotal role in shaping up the socio political opinions in the country. We are also seeing a steady increase in independent video creators utilizing the platform, catering to both the urban and rural population. It is a very interesting time in the online video business in India as both YouTube and Facebook are attracting content creators. However; given the fact that Facebook is yet to launch monetization for creators, YouTube still is the place to be if you’re looking to make a business out of it.”

    For further information please contact:

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  • Paisabazaar.com launches campaign

    MUMBAI: Paisabazaar.com, a marketplace for loans and cards, which has a partnership with Experian Credit Information, launched its TV campaign during the live broadcast of the India-Pakistan Champions Trophy match on Sunday, featuring several products offering customers a credit report along with monthly updates at absolutely zero cost.

    The campaign was conceptualised by the in-house team of Paisabazaar.com and was executed by K Silent Production. It is scheduled to be aired on Star Sports HD during the telecast of Champions Trophy games along with movie and news channels like Set Max, UTV Movies, AajTak, NDTV India etc.

    Paisabazaar.com CEO and Co-founder Naveen Kukreja said, “We, at Paisabazaar, are focused on spreading the message around the relevance of Credit Score. Credit Score not only determines whether an individual get a loan or not, but also decides the pricing of that loan. We have seen too many of our customers struggle to get loans in times of need because of a poor Credit Score. Through our TV and digital campaigns, we want to make people aware that every individual should be aware of his credit score and constantly strive to improve it.”

    Chief product officer Paisabazaar.com Radhika Binani said, “Our brand promise is to make personal finance decisions easy and convenient for India. By providing Credit Report absolutely free, we are ensuring our customers are empowered to take informed lending decisions and help them get best-suited offers. Along with the Credit Report, we provide free monthly updates of the report to help customers monitor their score.”

    The new commercials feature actors Sumit Raghavan and Amit Mistry.

    Paisabazaar.com Group director and head of marketing Sai Narayan said, “The campaign’s idea is to drive home the point that your chances of getting any type of loan depends on your Credit Score. On Paisabazaar.com, finding out your Credit Score is easy, instantaneous and free.”

    watch video below :

  • Eight TV channels win Freedish slots, bid price goes above Rs 5 cr

    Eight TV channels win Freedish slots, bid price goes above Rs 5 cr

    NEW DELHI: Setting a new record of getting for Rs 5.3 crore against the reserve price of Rs 4.3 crore, Doordarshan’s DTH platform Freedish bagged as many as eight new channels in the e-auction held last week.

    The channels that successfully bid for slots are Zee Anmol, Rishtey, Star Utsav, Fight Soirts, B4U Music, APN, Vision TV (Housefull Movies), and India 24×7.

    The reserve price which had been Rs 3.7 crore was raised to its present level for the 25th e-auction in January. indiantelevision.com had learnt that the bid amount went up to Rs 4.7 crore in earlier e-auctions. The reserve price in the 15th e-auction was Rs 3 crore and was raised to Rs 3.7 crore in the 16th auction.

    A senior Doordarshan official told indiantelevision.com that the next auction would be held in September, though the exact date had not yet been finalized.

    The official refused to give the figure at which individual channels won the auction, as the exact amount after various adjustments was not yet clear.

    Freedish – which currently carries eighty TV channels and 23 radio channels –also carries two channels as FTA which are otherwise pay channels – Aajtak and Big TV.

    The official clarified that Freedish will be able to carry more channels as it is shortly going on to MPEG4. While it could carry about sixteen channels per transponder but MPEG 4 allows up to 24 TV channels per transponder, apart from radio channels.

    The official said the Indian conditional access system (iCAS) is being used to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, but it would remain free-to-air.

    The platform at present has space for eighty channels including its own channels and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV and also carrues 24 All India Radio channels.

    The e-Auction was conducted by M/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida which also conducted the first stage of the FM Radio Phase III auctions on behalf of Prasar Bharati.

    The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction was Rs.1.5 crore which was deposited in advance. Incremental amount for the auction was Rs 10 lakh.

    Of the bid price, Rs 1.1 crore will be deposited within one month of placement and another Rs 1.1 crore within two months along with service tax of 14.5 per cent on the bid amount.

    The balance bid amount will be deposited within six months, failing which the deposited amount will be forfeited and the channel discontinued after a 21-day discontinuation notice.

  • Eight TV channels win Freedish slots, bid price goes above Rs 5 cr

    Eight TV channels win Freedish slots, bid price goes above Rs 5 cr

    NEW DELHI: Setting a new record of getting for Rs 5.3 crore against the reserve price of Rs 4.3 crore, Doordarshan’s DTH platform Freedish bagged as many as eight new channels in the e-auction held last week.

    The channels that successfully bid for slots are Zee Anmol, Rishtey, Star Utsav, Fight Soirts, B4U Music, APN, Vision TV (Housefull Movies), and India 24×7.

    The reserve price which had been Rs 3.7 crore was raised to its present level for the 25th e-auction in January. indiantelevision.com had learnt that the bid amount went up to Rs 4.7 crore in earlier e-auctions. The reserve price in the 15th e-auction was Rs 3 crore and was raised to Rs 3.7 crore in the 16th auction.

    A senior Doordarshan official told indiantelevision.com that the next auction would be held in September, though the exact date had not yet been finalized.

    The official refused to give the figure at which individual channels won the auction, as the exact amount after various adjustments was not yet clear.

    Freedish – which currently carries eighty TV channels and 23 radio channels –also carries two channels as FTA which are otherwise pay channels – Aajtak and Big TV.

    The official clarified that Freedish will be able to carry more channels as it is shortly going on to MPEG4. While it could carry about sixteen channels per transponder but MPEG 4 allows up to 24 TV channels per transponder, apart from radio channels.

    The official said the Indian conditional access system (iCAS) is being used to keep a tab on the number of subscribers, but it would remain free-to-air.

    The platform at present has space for eighty channels including its own channels and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV and also carrues 24 All India Radio channels.

    The e-Auction was conducted by M/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida which also conducted the first stage of the FM Radio Phase III auctions on behalf of Prasar Bharati.

    The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction was Rs.1.5 crore which was deposited in advance. Incremental amount for the auction was Rs 10 lakh.

    Of the bid price, Rs 1.1 crore will be deposited within one month of placement and another Rs 1.1 crore within two months along with service tax of 14.5 per cent on the bid amount.

    The balance bid amount will be deposited within six months, failing which the deposited amount will be forfeited and the channel discontinued after a 21-day discontinuation notice.

  • Shailesh Kumar steps down as editor-in-chief & CEO of News World India

    Shailesh Kumar steps down as editor-in-chief & CEO of News World India

    MUMBAI: F7 Broadcast owned Hindi news channel, News World India’ editor in chief and CEO Shailesh Kumar has stepped down from his responsibility. He is serving his notice period for a month.

    It might be recalled that Kumar had joined the channel in August 2015. Source close to the account voice that Kumar has decided to leave due to some personal reasons. Adding further, “It is not yet confirmed where he is joining.”

    Kumar has over three decades of work experience in print and television and has worked with Navbharat Times, AajTak, Zee News, Discovery, Total TV and News Nation. In his previous hire, he was with Focus TV from where he resigned in April 2015 as managing editor heading regional channels Focus NE, Focus Haryana, Focus Bangla, Focus Oriya and Focus Hi-Fi.

    F7 Broadcast had been providing content to television channels including Focus TV channels and has evolved in motion picture, radio, television and other entertainment activities. It had also tied up with Harmonic, a global leader in video delivery infrastructure in January 2015 to expand its digital satellite news gathering for live events and news coverage by optimising video quality and increasing bandwidth efficiency.

    News World India focuses on news that touches the day-to-day life of the masses.

  • Shailesh Kumar steps down as editor-in-chief & CEO of News World India

    Shailesh Kumar steps down as editor-in-chief & CEO of News World India

    MUMBAI: F7 Broadcast owned Hindi news channel, News World India’ editor in chief and CEO Shailesh Kumar has stepped down from his responsibility. He is serving his notice period for a month.

    It might be recalled that Kumar had joined the channel in August 2015. Source close to the account voice that Kumar has decided to leave due to some personal reasons. Adding further, “It is not yet confirmed where he is joining.”

    Kumar has over three decades of work experience in print and television and has worked with Navbharat Times, AajTak, Zee News, Discovery, Total TV and News Nation. In his previous hire, he was with Focus TV from where he resigned in April 2015 as managing editor heading regional channels Focus NE, Focus Haryana, Focus Bangla, Focus Oriya and Focus Hi-Fi.

    F7 Broadcast had been providing content to television channels including Focus TV channels and has evolved in motion picture, radio, television and other entertainment activities. It had also tied up with Harmonic, a global leader in video delivery infrastructure in January 2015 to expand its digital satellite news gathering for live events and news coverage by optimising video quality and increasing bandwidth efficiency.

    News World India focuses on news that touches the day-to-day life of the masses.

  • DD Freedish confirms MPEG-4 next month, NDTV says no decision on going FTA on any of its channels

    DD Freedish confirms MPEG-4 next month, NDTV says no decision on going FTA on any of its channels

    New Delhi: Even as two pay channels – Aajtak and Big Magic – have come on Doordarshan Freedish as free-to-air channel, possibilities have opened up for more channels coming on the platform even as it prepares to complete its migratiom to MPEG-4 next month. A Prasar Bharati source confirmed that the switch-over to MPEG-4 will be in two phases and the aim was to take the total capacity to 112.

    Claiming that the Broadcast Audience Ratings Council (BARC) ratings had shown the importance of Freedish in reaching out to rural India, the source said that Aajtak and Big Magic which are pay channels are being run as FTA and have been accommodated in the current MPEG-2.

    Meanwhile, NDTV denied any decision on turning FTA and coming on Freedish next month. An NDTV source said that any such decision, if taken, would be communicated through the media. A senior official who did not want to be named also confirmed that no decision had been taken yet on any of the NDTV bouquet channels going free to air, since this kind of decision could only be taken at the management and board levels.

    Doordarshan sources also said that as all the 64 slots under MPEG-2 had been filled, there was no question of any other channel coming on. In any case, he said any channel which decided to come on the platform had to bid in the auctions that are held from time to time. All the slots under MPEG-2 were filled, the next auction date had not been finalized, the sources confirmed.

    Freedish is adopting the conditional access system designed by the Bangalore-based ByDesign India Pvt Ltd.

    The ByDesign model is totally indigenous and built for DVB-C setup. This CAS solution will enable broadcasters and network operators to control access to their services by viewers, and thereby enabling them to extend their business models to subscription based schemes.

    This will mean that the Freedish will become encrypted but will remain free to air. In addition to helping increase the number of channels on the platform, this will enable Freedish to gauge the exact number of households relying on Freedish as encrypted set top boxes will only be available with authorized dealers.

    The ByDesign CAS is provided by making access possible to content, depending on subscriber credentials, which are generated by this CAS and sent through the broadcast system to receivers in the field.