ITV

Tag: Aftab Alam

  • TDSAT directs Welcome Cable to restore signals to Skynet Digital on payment of Rs 20 lakh

    TDSAT directs Welcome Cable to restore signals to Skynet Digital on payment of Rs 20 lakh

    NEW DELHI: Welcome Cable Network Pvt. Ltd has been directed by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to resume its signals to Skynet Digital Services Pvt. Ltd on payment of Rs 20 lakh.

    The Tribunal however made it clear that the payment “will be on account and without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.”

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and member B B Srivastava listed the matter for further hearing on 8 April.

    The Tribunal also directed Welcome Cable counsel U Thakur to file the reply within a week and said rejoinder, if any, may be filed within two weeks for the date of receipt of a copy of the reply.

  • Four broadcasters to examine headend of MSO to ensure rectification of defect pointed out by BECIL

    Four broadcasters to examine headend of MSO to ensure rectification of defect pointed out by BECIL

    New Delhi: Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd, Star India, Taj Television, and Indiacast UTV Media Distribution Services Pvt. Ltd have been asked by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal to constitute a joint team or may agree upon one of them getting the inspection done by its technical team of the headend of M.C. Transmissions for any defects.

    The Tribunal said: “Normally, we should have asked BECIL to revisit the petitioner’s head end and to give a supplementary report but that would saddle the petitioner with heavy costs. Hence, we think it proper to ask the four respondent broadcasters to have a joint inspection of the petitioner’s head end by their technical people.”

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and member B B Srivastava directed that the inspection should be completed within 15 days and listed the matter for 8 April.
     
    Earlier following the tribunal’s order of 24 February, the Broadcasting Consulting Engineers (India) Ltd had found one defect in the Digital Addressable System (CAS, SMS and STB) available and installed at M C Tansmissions’ headend as on 16 March which “does not fully meet” the TRAI minimum requirements.

    BECIL had found that “The system of MC Transmission has the provision for blacklisting the VC whereas the provision for blacklisting of STB is yet to be deployed.”

    However, MC Transmissions counsel Nittin Bhatia said the device for blacklisting STBs had also been installed and the lacuna pointed out in the report had been fully cured.

     

  • Four broadcasters to examine headend of MSO to ensure rectification of defect pointed out by BECIL

    Four broadcasters to examine headend of MSO to ensure rectification of defect pointed out by BECIL

    New Delhi: Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd, Star India, Taj Television, and Indiacast UTV Media Distribution Services Pvt. Ltd have been asked by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal to constitute a joint team or may agree upon one of them getting the inspection done by its technical team of the headend of M.C. Transmissions for any defects.

    The Tribunal said: “Normally, we should have asked BECIL to revisit the petitioner’s head end and to give a supplementary report but that would saddle the petitioner with heavy costs. Hence, we think it proper to ask the four respondent broadcasters to have a joint inspection of the petitioner’s head end by their technical people.”

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and member B B Srivastava directed that the inspection should be completed within 15 days and listed the matter for 8 April.
     
    Earlier following the tribunal’s order of 24 February, the Broadcasting Consulting Engineers (India) Ltd had found one defect in the Digital Addressable System (CAS, SMS and STB) available and installed at M C Tansmissions’ headend as on 16 March which “does not fully meet” the TRAI minimum requirements.

    BECIL had found that “The system of MC Transmission has the provision for blacklisting the VC whereas the provision for blacklisting of STB is yet to be deployed.”

    However, MC Transmissions counsel Nittin Bhatia said the device for blacklisting STBs had also been installed and the lacuna pointed out in the report had been fully cured.

     

  • TDSAT rejects Neo Sports petition seeking interconnect agreement with Tata Sky on its own terms

    TDSAT rejects Neo Sports petition seeking interconnect agreement with Tata Sky on its own terms

    New Delhi: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has dismissed a petition by Neo Sports Broadcast Private Ltd seeking an interconnect agreement on its own reference interconnect offer terms with DTH platform Tata Sky.

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava said the submissions by the broadcaster were ‘quite misconceived’.

    Referring to the two provisions relied upon by counsel for the broadcaster, the Tribunal said these were part of the broadcaster’s obligations to publish Reference Interconnect Offers for direct-to-home service and the provisions relied upon secure the interests of the direct-to-home distributor rather than the broadcaster.

    The Tribunal levied costs of Rs 25,000 which would be deposited with the TDSAT Employees Welfare Society within four weeks.

    The Tribunal termed the petition as an “unusual case in that the broadcaster had come to it seeking an interconnect agreement on its own Reference interconnect Offer (RIO) terms.

    According to Neo Sports, it had been in inter-connect relationship with Tata Sky and the latter hadbeen carrying on its platform Neo sports’ two channels: Neo Sports and Neo Prime (formerly NeoCricket) since 2006-07. The last agreement between the parties was executed on 17 September 20 10 for a period of three years commencing from 1October 20 1 0 and coming to end on 30September 2013.

    Under clause V of the agreement Tata Sky was obliged to pay to Neo Sports “the rather steep” subscription fee of Rs 124 crore (R s. 1 09 crore for channels  being distributed in the Standard Definition mode and Rs 15 crore for channels being distributed in the High Definition mode).

    It is to be noted that at the time the interconnect agreement was executed Neo Sports  enjoyed exclusive BCCI rights for live broadcast of international cricket matches which gave it the power tocommand very high subscription fees in the Indian broadcasting market.  It lost the right to the cricket broadcasts in December 2011 and “it is a measure of popularity of the game in the country that there after it was unable to hold onto the amount of subscription fees stipulated in the agreement which was still subsisting”. The two sides executed an Addendum on 16 May 2012  to the Distribution Agreement of 17 September  2010 reducing the subscription fee substantially and it was fixed at the rate of Rs one crore per month plus applicable service tax for the period from April 2012 to 30September 2013.

    The Tribunal noted that negotiations continued thereafter but Neo Sports did not have the marketing power it had at the time of execution of the earlier agreement and Tata Sky was no longer willing to meet its demands.

  • TDSAT rejects Neo Sports petition seeking interconnect agreement with Tata Sky on its own terms

    TDSAT rejects Neo Sports petition seeking interconnect agreement with Tata Sky on its own terms

    New Delhi: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has dismissed a petition by Neo Sports Broadcast Private Ltd seeking an interconnect agreement on its own reference interconnect offer terms with DTH platform Tata Sky.

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava said the submissions by the broadcaster were ‘quite misconceived’.

    Referring to the two provisions relied upon by counsel for the broadcaster, the Tribunal said these were part of the broadcaster’s obligations to publish Reference Interconnect Offers for direct-to-home service and the provisions relied upon secure the interests of the direct-to-home distributor rather than the broadcaster.

    The Tribunal levied costs of Rs 25,000 which would be deposited with the TDSAT Employees Welfare Society within four weeks.

    The Tribunal termed the petition as an “unusual case in that the broadcaster had come to it seeking an interconnect agreement on its own Reference interconnect Offer (RIO) terms.

    According to Neo Sports, it had been in inter-connect relationship with Tata Sky and the latter hadbeen carrying on its platform Neo sports’ two channels: Neo Sports and Neo Prime (formerly NeoCricket) since 2006-07. The last agreement between the parties was executed on 17 September 20 10 for a period of three years commencing from 1October 20 1 0 and coming to end on 30September 2013.

    Under clause V of the agreement Tata Sky was obliged to pay to Neo Sports “the rather steep” subscription fee of Rs 124 crore (R s. 1 09 crore for channels  being distributed in the Standard Definition mode and Rs 15 crore for channels being distributed in the High Definition mode).

    It is to be noted that at the time the interconnect agreement was executed Neo Sports  enjoyed exclusive BCCI rights for live broadcast of international cricket matches which gave it the power tocommand very high subscription fees in the Indian broadcasting market.  It lost the right to the cricket broadcasts in December 2011 and “it is a measure of popularity of the game in the country that there after it was unable to hold onto the amount of subscription fees stipulated in the agreement which was still subsisting”. The two sides executed an Addendum on 16 May 2012  to the Distribution Agreement of 17 September  2010 reducing the subscription fee substantially and it was fixed at the rate of Rs one crore per month plus applicable service tax for the period from April 2012 to 30September 2013.

    The Tribunal noted that negotiations continued thereafter but Neo Sports did not have the marketing power it had at the time of execution of the earlier agreement and Tata Sky was no longer willing to meet its demands.

  • TDSAT upholds BECIL audit in case of Home Systems vs Star India case

    TDSAT upholds BECIL audit in case of Home Systems vs Star India case

    New Delhi, The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has rejected an application by Home Systems Pvt Ltd.Mumbai challenging the methodology of Broadcasting Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd as it felt that procedure adopted adopted is  absolutely correct and there is no error in the report.

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh listed the matter for further hearing on 6 April.

    At the outset, it said the application had been filed by Home Systems Pvt Ltd.Mumbai in its dispute with Star India seeking a review of the order of the Tribunal of 21 January.

    Home Systems said the SMS count given by BECIL for he period in dispute is the total number of subscribers on the network and not the total number of authorised subscribers, which the petitioner says is the relevant number for making payments to the broadcaster.
    Home Systems said the figure calculated by BECIL for active subscribers is based on command logs of SMS. He submitted that sometimes a command is given in the SMS with wrong STB number or VC Card Number and this leads to counting the same subscriber multiple times. Thus, Home Systems said BECIL has made an error in arriving at the figure of active subscribers. It submitted that there are three different numbers possible in SMS and that is why there is need to reconcile the SMS and CAS data.

    BECIL said it had taken active subscribers both from the SMS data base and CAS data base. Since the figures obtained from SMS data base were lower than the CAS data base, BECIL discussed this with the petitioner at the time of audit. It  is due to a stop  (suspension) command  which may  suspend a subscriber temporarily in the SMS  but the entitlement for the Subscriber still remains intact in CAS.  BECIL accordingly added  all such subscribers that were  in suspention to the active subscribers to arrive at the SMS figures.

    BECIL sadi a subscriber who is temporarily suspended cannot be considered as de-activated. If such a subscriber was to be counted as de-activated, this could lead to a situation where there is under-reporting of subscribers as the ervice provider may use this command to suspend the subscribers temporarily  for some time at the time  of  taking the SMS figures  and immediately thereafter, restore them to active status.

  • TDSAT upholds BECIL audit in case of Home Systems vs Star India case

    TDSAT upholds BECIL audit in case of Home Systems vs Star India case

    New Delhi, The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has rejected an application by Home Systems Pvt Ltd.Mumbai challenging the methodology of Broadcasting Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd as it felt that procedure adopted adopted is  absolutely correct and there is no error in the report.

    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh listed the matter for further hearing on 6 April.

    At the outset, it said the application had been filed by Home Systems Pvt Ltd.Mumbai in its dispute with Star India seeking a review of the order of the Tribunal of 21 January.

    Home Systems said the SMS count given by BECIL for he period in dispute is the total number of subscribers on the network and not the total number of authorised subscribers, which the petitioner says is the relevant number for making payments to the broadcaster.
    Home Systems said the figure calculated by BECIL for active subscribers is based on command logs of SMS. He submitted that sometimes a command is given in the SMS with wrong STB number or VC Card Number and this leads to counting the same subscriber multiple times. Thus, Home Systems said BECIL has made an error in arriving at the figure of active subscribers. It submitted that there are three different numbers possible in SMS and that is why there is need to reconcile the SMS and CAS data.

    BECIL said it had taken active subscribers both from the SMS data base and CAS data base. Since the figures obtained from SMS data base were lower than the CAS data base, BECIL discussed this with the petitioner at the time of audit. It  is due to a stop  (suspension) command  which may  suspend a subscriber temporarily in the SMS  but the entitlement for the Subscriber still remains intact in CAS.  BECIL accordingly added  all such subscribers that were  in suspention to the active subscribers to arrive at the SMS figures.

    BECIL sadi a subscriber who is temporarily suspended cannot be considered as de-activated. If such a subscriber was to be counted as de-activated, this could lead to a situation where there is under-reporting of subscribers as the ervice provider may use this command to suspend the subscribers temporarily  for some time at the time  of  taking the SMS figures  and immediately thereafter, restore them to active status.

  • TDSAT accepts plea by MediaPro for attachment of bank accounts of Digicable, operative from next month

    TDSAT accepts plea by MediaPro for attachment of bank accounts of Digicable, operative from next month

    New Delhi, 25 March: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate has directed attachment of the bank accounts of Digicable Network (India) Ltd, accepting the plea in this regard by Media Pro Enterprise (I) Pvt. Ltd in the prayer clause in the execution application.

    However, the Tribunal said the order of attachment will become operative from 1 April, subject to the condition that Digicable Network “shall not make any withdrawal from the account, save and except for payment of salary to its staff”.

    Chairman Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava said a copy of the order should be sent to the concerned banks without delay.

    At the outset, the Tribunal noted that the execution proceedings are at a stage where the only course left is to make a direction for attachment of the bank accounts, head-ends and other properties of Digicable Networks. 

    However, the Tribunal said that “we wish to give one more opportunity to the respondent to try to resolve the matter amicably” before making such a direction.  

    The matter has been listed for 6 April when the CEO of Digicable should remain personally present before the Tribunal to make proposal, if any, for settlement with the respondent, the Tribunal said.

     

     
  • TDSAT accepts plea by MediaPro for attachment of bank accounts of Digicable, operative from next month

    TDSAT accepts plea by MediaPro for attachment of bank accounts of Digicable, operative from next month

    New Delhi, 25 March: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate has directed attachment of the bank accounts of Digicable Network (India) Ltd, accepting the plea in this regard by Media Pro Enterprise (I) Pvt. Ltd in the prayer clause in the execution application.

    However, the Tribunal said the order of attachment will become operative from 1 April, subject to the condition that Digicable Network “shall not make any withdrawal from the account, save and except for payment of salary to its staff”.

    Chairman Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava said a copy of the order should be sent to the concerned banks without delay.

    At the outset, the Tribunal noted that the execution proceedings are at a stage where the only course left is to make a direction for attachment of the bank accounts, head-ends and other properties of Digicable Networks. 

    However, the Tribunal said that “we wish to give one more opportunity to the respondent to try to resolve the matter amicably” before making such a direction.  

    The matter has been listed for 6 April when the CEO of Digicable should remain personally present before the Tribunal to make proposal, if any, for settlement with the respondent, the Tribunal said.

     

     
  • Taj TV directed by TDSAT to enter into interim agreement with Asianet subject to final judgment

    Taj TV directed by TDSAT to enter into interim agreement with Asianet subject to final judgment

    New Delhi, 21 March: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has directed Taj TV to enter into an interconnect agreement with Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd for Telengana and Andhra Pradesh as an interim measure and without prejudice to Asianet’s rights.
     
    The directive came after Asianet counsel Shirin Khajuria said that her client was ready for such an agreement on Taj TV’s RIO terms.
     
    Chairman Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava said “there cannot be any objection to such a request”.
     
    The Tribunal said that Asianet’s representative will visit the Bangalore office of Taj TV and the latter was asked to ensure that the agreement is executed on the same day and following the execution of the agreement the signals are supplied without any undue delay.  
     
    The interim arrangement under which the RIO agreement is directed to be executed between the parties shall abide by the final result of the case.
     
    Taj TV was directed to file the reply and the matter was listed for further hearing on 30 March.