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Tag: Avishkar

  • Cable frat calls nationwide strike over service tax

    Cable frat calls nationwide strike over service tax

    NEW DELHI: The cable fraternity has threatened that from tomorrow (17 August), TV screens would go on the blink, as all cable services will be stopped, except for news channels.

    The reason for this nationwide strike by cable operators and multi-system operators, under the aegis of All-India Cable TV Forum, is to protest against the imposition of 8 per cent service tax on the cable industry.

    Pointing out that service tax would “cripple” the cable industry as any increase in cable prices is resisted strongly by subscribers, Siti Cable head Jawahar Goel said that under these circumstance, cable operators and MSOs are left with no alternative but to go on an all-India “indefinite strike.”

    All major towns of India will stop the services of cable TV from 17 August morning. However, four news channels will remain operative on cable TV services during the strike period in public interest. The Forum has appealed to all subscribers to bear with it and “support us in our fight to abolish the unjustified service tax.”

    Some of industry bodies and companies that have come together to support this strike include Hathway Datacom (Win cable), Siti Cable, RPG, Trinity Platco (formerly Spectranet), Cable Operators United Front (COUF), CODA (Mumbai), Forum of Cable Operators, Kolkata, Tamizhaga Cable TV Urimaiyalargal Sangam, Chennai, Rajasthan Cable Operators Front, Federation of Punjab Cable Operators, Avishkar and Punjab Cable TV Network Association.

    However, striking a discordant note was Hinduja Group MSO InCableNet. Speaking on behalf of Mumbai’s biggest MSO, Ashok Mansukhani, executive vice-president, corporate services, Hinduja TMT (parent of INCableNet), explained his company’s stand thus: “We would like to carry out further dialogue with the government on the issue of service tax and have requested the authorities to sympathetically consider the memorandum given in this regard to the Central Board of Excise and Customs.”

    “We would prefer to await the final budgetary proposals likely to be moved by the finance minister shortly before taking any such steps as they are not in the interests of the consumer,” Mansukhani added.

    Cable operators in Bangalore also said they were not joining the agitation, saying the strike call had been given with too short a notice.

    Meanwhile, In a letter to the finance and the IT & telecom ministers on the service tax issue, the Forum has urged the government to abolish the tax and stated, “The cable TV operators and MSO are disappointed by the non-supportive attitude of the government regarding our legitimate demand for abolishing the service tax on cable TV services in India.”

    According to Goel, cable operators have been pursuing with the government for withdrawal of service tax for long, but instead of its withdrawal, the tax net has been extended to include MSOs also. Cable operators are being 
    forced by the government to increase the subscription from consumers as at present they are not collecting any tax from public/ subscribers.

    The tax that is being paid comes from the collection of cable operators and this is a reason for poor collection by the State exchequer, Goel said, adding that this tax is not justified at all on the subscribers of the cable TV, which is the general public.

    Why should service tax be abolished on cable services? The Forum in the letter to the finance minister has listed the following reasons:

    1) Cable TV has become a necessity for general public and a very important source of information. The information and news are provided immediately as and when it happens and much earlier than even the latest newspaper reports. Cable TV revolution has helped the nation to integrate (debatable, though). Cable TV advantages warrant tax-free regime for the industry. Entertainment content is carried by newspapers to make reading more interesting. Similarly, cable TV carries entertainment so that information and education can be made available to subscribers at large.

    2) Tax will put extra burden on the public and may make cable TV out of reach of general public.

    3) No other parallel services like DTH or broadband have any service tax levied on them.

    4) Service Tax on Cable TV is not justified as it is part of the entertainment industry and no other sector of the entertainment industry has any service tax levied on it.

    5) Cable operators are self-employed small businessmen and have no infrastructure to collect such taxes. This will encourage inspector raj once again and stop the growth of this industry.

    6) There is no contribution from the government at any level to the cable operators.

  • Fragmented cable ops threaten blackout

    NEW DELHI: A section of cable operators (mostly comprising independent operators) are not a happy lot after the finance ministry proposed the costing of Rs 45.90 for the basic tier of free to air channels in a post-conditional access regime.
    They are thinking of venting their grouse by blacking out cable services for a day in the four metros where CAS is being sought to be implemented.
    The threatened blackout, however, would be after the March 27 meeting of the government-sponsored task force on CAS. Interestingly, another section of cable ops, said to be close to some big MSOs, has “rejected” the idea of a token blackout saying it was “not the way to fight or protest the task force’s moves on costing of the basic tier.”
    Cable Network’s Association general secretary and an independent cable op Rakesh Dutta, while participating in a meeting that 100-odd cable ops had on the issue in Delhi, told indiantelevision.com: “We are planning a strategy to get across the cable operators’ viewpoint to the people and others too and would resort to a token black out of cable services,”. Dutta, incidentally, is also a task force member.
    “If the government does not listen to our viewpoint (on the low costing of the basic tier), then we’d have no option but to black out cable services,” he explained, adding that a memorandum in this regard would be given to the information and broadcasting ministry soon.
    Another operator Roop Sharma said, “the proposed rate of the FTA channels is not acceptable to us. We have to decide on a future course ofaction.”
    But, when asked about the meeting and the proposed blackout, Dr A K Rastogi, an independent and highly active cable op of Delhi, who also runs a cable magaizne Avishkar, said, “By resorting to a token strike, the cable operators would play into the hands of the broadcasters as such a move would also turn consumer activists against cable operators.”
    Though Rastogi agreed that the costing being arrived at by the finance ministry is “too low,” he pointed out, “there are other ways to neutralise such moves and that should be done through the task force itself and the government should be educated that the parameters of their costing is wrong.”
    Now, people like Dutta and Rastogi, successful cable ops in their own right, represent the two spectrum of thecable fraternity that is perennially divided and seldom seem to have consensus on an issue— a factor that is exploited by other stakeholders of the broadcasting and cable industry fully.

  • Avishkar launches fortnightly, institutes trade award

    Avishkar launches fortnightly, institutes trade award

    A fortnightly cable TV newspaper? Yes, it’s the brainwave of the colourful Delhi-based cable operator-turned-publisher-turned-industry-representative Dr A. K. Rastogi.

    Rastogi, who runs the monthly Hindi-English bimonthly Avishkar Dish Antenna Programmes Guide, has introduced Avishkar Darpan which will initially target the north Indian market. He hopes that the fortnightly will serve as a platform for cable TV operators to increase awareness among viewers about issues which affect the industry.

    Priced at Rs 5, it is to be distributed by cable TV ops and have a print run of 10,000 initially. Rastogi says it will help viewers get information about developments in television serials and cable TV, the problems cable ops face, new services and technology provided by them to viewers, as well as give them tips on how they can get on to game shows and interactive programmes.

    Avishkar Darpan is also instituting the Best Channel Distributor award from the coming year. Winners will win air tickets for two to Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Kathmandu, and contestants who vie for the award with an entry fee of Rs 5,000, will have their company profiled in a special souvenir.