ITV

Tag: Arunachal Pradesh

  • Govt asks broadcasters to sensitise audience about North-East Indians

    Govt asks broadcasters to sensitise audience about North-East Indians

    MUMBAI: The sad demise of 19-year-old Nido Tania in Delhi has created a furore all over. The gory incident has just not got the protestors on the streets to seek justice for the slain student, but has even put the government on a hyperactive active mode. Considering the rising instances of bias against the North Eastern community, the Home Ministry has sent a letter to various broadcasting bodies in the country asking them to sensitise the TV audiences about the culture of the North East.

     

    Since the seven states of North East India don’t get much prominence on the channels, the Ministry has requested them to come up with programmes centered on NE citizens and culture. The Ministry is of the opinion that the migrated population from the region ‘might be getting treated differently due to their different culture’ that include their typical physical features, culture, food habits and dressing sense. It has also advised the news channels to send journalists to the NE region to cover its issues and also increase interaction with those who have migrated to different cities.

     

    A broadcaster, however, says that from a business point of view, it is too expensive to cover the region. He points out that since the TV ratings agency TAM does not cover the entire region, except few parts of Assam, it becomes difficult to keep a tab on TVTs. Secondly, the area doesn’t have many advertisers, except for few tea brands.

     

    For now, the letters have been sent out to the various broadcasting bodies such as the News Broadcasters Association and the Indian Broadcasting Federation. They will have to think about whether or not they would want to take up the suggestion by the Ministry.

     

    Nido Tania, son of an Arunachal Pradesh Congressman in Delhi, was killed during an argument with a shopkeeper over his hair colour.

  • Prasar Bharati’s Sircar says no new NE channel planned

    Prasar Bharati’s Sircar says no new NE channel planned

    MUMBAI: It was on 12 November that the media was abuzz with the news that Indian terrestrial pubcaster Doordarshan (DD) is all set to give birth to another baby to add to its 21 channel brood. Reports stated that the channel called Prabha would target the North Eastern states of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh to show showcase their art and culture. It seemed as though it was a done thing.

     

    However, when indiantelevision.com contacted Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, he highlighted that currently there was only a conversation going on whether such a step should be taken; nothing had really fructified.

     

    “This idea was discussed in Arunachal Pradesh during my recent visits but it is for the government – not Prasar Bharati – to decide whether to go ahead with it or not,” says Sircar.

     

    As of now, the government owned network has two all India channels (DD National and DD News), 11 regional language satellite channels, four state networks, one international channel, DD Sports as well as DD Rajya Sabha and DD Lok Sabha. One of these is a satellite TV channel for North East called DD North East that telecasts programmes in Assamese, English and other regional dialects with a programming mix of serials, informative and social shows, infotainment, news, current affairs, art and culture.

     

    With a channel already addressing the needs of TV viewers in this region, does creating a second one make sense? “If additional funds are available from the government then maybe Prasar Bharati could take a shot,” quips Sircar. He was recently on a tour to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland to understand the issues facing DD in the region and to increase its reach. It was during this tour that some discussions and proposals were made, which were then reported by a wire service. 

  • North East Live in talks with DTH players

    North East Live in talks with DTH players

    Kolkata: ‘North East Live’, the first 24×7 satellite news channel launched in Arunachal Pradesh at the beginning of this month, is in talks with DTH (direct-to-home) players like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel, etc to get itself integrated in the list of channels offered to subscribers by them. For this, the channel has earmarked an annual budget of Rs 12 crore-Rs 13 crore.

    In Arunachal Pradesh, the DTH players charge around Rs 4.5 crore every year as carriage fees.

    The news channel also plans to start a beauty pageant very soon. It has tied up with Femina Miss India in order to make participating in the contest easier for the girls from north east India. The girls can directly get in touch with the channel.

    ‘North East Live’ is a sister channel of Guwahati-based Pride East Entertainment Private Limited running three other channels-namely ‘Newslive’, a news channel; while ‘Rang’ and ‘Ramdhenu’ are general entertainment channels (GEC) channels.

    “This is the fourth venture of Pride East Entertainment. The news would be telecast in Hindi, English, Assamese and Bengali. We would focus on the political beat more as north eastern states are likely to see many developments,” said Caushiq Bezboruah, chief executive officer, Pride East Entertainments.

    Pride East Entertainments has around 350 employs working for them. For the ‘North East Live’, there is a team of 50 people. “We have set up a studio at Arunachal Pradesh and for the Guwahati reporting, the infrastructure and manpower of ‘Newslive’ are used,” said Bezboruah.

    Talking about their plan to get them included on the DTH platform, Bezboruah says that the DTH players have strong foothold as compared to local cable operators in the state. “The players would take a view of the percentage of our acceptance among viewers. They will do a survey probably,” he said.

    While talking about the tie up with Femina Miss India, he said that many aspiring women miss the opportunity because of the difficulty of travelling to Kolkata. “But this would make it easier for them,” he said.

    He even thinks that with this new works out, the people across the country and abroad will be able to know more about north east India via their channels. “The information about north east India missed by the mainstream channels will reach the rest of the country and the world from now on through this satellite channel,” he said.

    On being asked about the media scenario in the north eastern region of the country, Bezboruah said it is very similar to the other parts of the country and revenue generation is challenging.

  • DD on studio upgradation drive

    DD on studio upgradation drive

    New Delhi: A total of 39 studio centres in the country have been taken up for full digitization as part of the ongoing scheme of digitization of Doordarshan’s Network, Parliament has been informed.

    State of the art digital equipment would therefore be made available at the studio centres in the north east states on a par with other similar studio centres in the country.

    Of these 39, eleven are in the north east states: three in Assam, two in Meghalaya, and one each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The others are: five in Uttar Pradesh; two each in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal; and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and Puducherry.

    Five Digital Satellite News Gathering Units (DSNG) have also been provided at Guwahati to cater to the coverage requirements of north east states. DSNG Units are deployed at different places in north east states as per coverage requirements. As part of the ongoing schemes, four additional DSNG Units for North East States are envisaged to be procured.

    Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati sources said upgradation/modernization which includes induction of new technologies, replacement of old aging equipment and augmentation/upgradation facilities of all Doordarshan Kendras including those located in north-east region is a continuous process and schemes in this regard are formulated and implemented from time to time.

    The sources said that for the north east region there is a dedicated 24×7 North East Channel, besides Kendras in North East like DDK Guwahati, DDK Aizwal, DDK Gangtok, DDK Tura, DDK Shillong , DDK Silchar, DDK Dibrugarh, DDK Itanagar, DDK Agartala, DDK Kohima and DDK Imphal which telecast programmes in their respective regional languages.