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Tag: Becil

  • TDSAT rules in favor of DEN Networks, directs ZEE entertainment to provide channels on RIO basis

    TDSAT rules in favor of DEN Networks, directs ZEE entertainment to provide channels on RIO basis

    In a major victory for DEN Networks – TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) directed ZEE Entertainment Limited (ZEEL) to provide channels to DEN Networks on RIO basis dismissing ZEEL’s claim that SMS and CAS of DEN were not compliant with the regulations. 

    TDSAT has passed this order in favour of DEN Networks after taking cognizance of Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) audit report which found that DEN’s systems are fully compliant with TRAI regulations. 

    Earlier, DEN had filed a petition in TDSAT to go on RIO with ZEEL till the time both the parties are not able to negotiate for agreed terms of settlement and further agreement on Content Subscription. And TDSAT in its order dated 15th January 2018 had directed  BECIL to hold an audit of the DEN Networks’ to find out whether it is regulation compliant or not.

    Both the parties are in dispute due to outstanding dues and non-renewal of their commercial arrangement which expired on December 31, 2017.  

    In its order, the Tribunal had also directed both the parties to appear before CA Mediator on February 5, 2018 and asked the Mediator to submit / furnish the result of the mediation proceedings within 10 days. 

    Accepting the request of BECIL for additional time, the Tribunal had granted it six weeks’ time to submit the audit report of three JV companies of DEN Networks having independent DAS license alongwith independent head-end separate CAS and SMS servers.  

    The Tribunal also asked DEN Networks to release the pending / outstanding dues of Rs 23.50 Crore which DEN had withheld subject to resolution of the dispute. 

  • MIB to collect data on satellite capacity needs, digital chatter

    MIB to collect data on satellite capacity needs, digital chatter

    NEW DELHI: The Indian government has not only embarked upon data collation of the satellite capacity needs of TV channels in India but is also preparing to get real-time insights on digital chatter.

    In a letter sent earlier in January to Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd or BECIL, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has asked the sister government organisation to collect data on capacity requirements by TV channels on Indian satellites as also the life of foreign satellites catering to Indian customers.

    Pointing out that the data was needed on an urgent basis, the MIB has directed the BECIL to consult industry associations such as the IBF and the News Broadcasters Association, apart from DTH and HITS players, on information relating to “total estimated requirement” of the broadcasting sector on Indian satellites and “end of life period of foreign satellites”.

    Though MIB hasn’t spelt out the need to collate such data, nudged by the Department of Space and ISRO, the ministry, in the recent past, has been obliquely hinting TV channels to shift to Indian satellites before various government permissions being sought could be given.

    Most foreign satellite companies operating in India, however, have been conveying to the government and regulator TRAI (one such meeting happened in New Delhi about a week back when TRAI called for feedback on NTP 2018) that ISRO has been doing a great job in flying high India’s flag in the space but the dream of Digital India, as envisaged by PM Modi, could get a major fillip if foreign satellites, too, could be used to provide broadband and other related services to Indians.

    Meanwhile, the BECIL has also floated a tender seeking vendors to set up a ‘Social Media Communication Hub’ that would help the MIB keep a tab on trending news and act as the eyes and ears to get insights into digital chatter mostly involving the federal government’s flagship schemes.

    “The tool should have the capability to crawl [the] worldwide web and social media to monitor and analyze various trends emerging, as well as to gauge the sentiments amongst netizens. The tool should be comprehensive with the capability to generate reports and do customizations as per the requirements of [the] Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,” the tender floated by the BECIL stated.

    The platform or the hub sought to be set up should facilitate creating a 360-degree view of the people who were creating the buzz across various topics with an ability to analyse as well as visualise large volumes of data across diverse digital platforms in real time.

    The broad features that are required for this social media monitoring tool, as enumerated by the BECIL, are following:

    — Listening and responding capabilities: The platform is expected to not only listen to the standard digital channels listed below but also enable easy extension to integrate proprietary data sources such as the mobile insights platform.

    — The tool should be able to interface with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Play Store, emails, news blogs, forums and complaint websites for the purposes of monitoring.

    — Real-time integration for Facebook and Twitter needs to be demonstrated. Also, the platform will need to demonstrate the ability to configure data collection, insights and response for the platform.

    — The platform should have support for Indian languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, along with English.

    “This software tool should be able to perform like [a] search engine, which will work both as web crawler and social media crawler, and would be able to search various hash-tags [and] keywords across the social media platforms,” the tender document stated, adding that the tool/software should be able to identify fake news with particular focus on such conversations on social media and specialised websites.

    For this hub, MIB is looking at a 20-member strong team (scalable later) of SM analytics and domain experts in social media analysis with experience in handling tools such as Oracle CRM and Brandwatch to be stationed on the premises of the ministry.

    Also Read :

    MIB, DoS nudge TV channel to use Indian satellites

    MIB reverts to earlier norms of seeking nod from ISRO on uplink/downlink of TV channels

    MIB bumps up TV channel processing fee

    MIB categorises all non-Hindi and non-Eng TV channels as regional

  • TRAI sees merit in using satcom for broadband delivery

    TRAI sees merit in using satcom for broadband delivery

    NEW DELHI: India needs to create digital platforms, pushed by government policies and private sector entrepreneurship, which are specific to India and address its specific needs, telecom and broadcast regulator TRAI advisor SK Singhal said on Wednesday, adding that affordable broadband and allied services like television form the backbone of NTP 2018.

    “We need to create policies (including those pertaining to the digital world) that address our specific needs,” Singhal said at the CII Big Picture Summit 2017, adding that optimal usage of capacity created by cable networks is a must to deliver broadband services to every corner of India as envisioned by PM Modi.

    Singhal, along with Broadcast Engineering Consultant India Ltd (BECIL) CMD George Kuruvilla were speaking on the theme of `Connected India is Digital India’ and how for digital India to be truly implemented broadband access had to be made affordable, including all mediums of delivery like satellite communications (satcom) and cable.

    Pointing out that a stronger ‘collaboration’ is needed between operators of cable networks and those who use the pipe to deliver services, Singhal said that TRAI has already recommended to the government to use cable networks’ broadband delivery potential to fulfil the goals of the New Telecom Policy 2018.

    However, he officially admitted that to fully realise the digital potential of cable networks, some “policy hiccups” also need to be ironed out along with proper guidance in entrepreneurial skills of people who operate such networks.

    Economic Times, in September, had quoted telecoms minister Manoj Sinha as saying that the NTP 2018, expected by March 2018, will focus on providing affordable internet access to 1.3 billion Indians and facilitate domestic manufacturing to curb dependence on imports. He had added that NTP will address sector issues and make them future-proof with the onset of disruptive technologies such as fifth-generation (5G) and AI.

    Dwelling further on building broadband capacity and fully “unleash the potential” of cable networks, Singhal said set top boxes too need to be unbundled or made interoperable. TRAI has an interaction going on with all stakeholders on the issue and some field tests have also been conducted on interoperable boxes.

    Asked how the draft space policy, presently being reviewed by various stakeholders, could facilitate increased use of satellite communications to give a fillip to delivery of broadband services, Singhal skirted a direct answer as space related policies were handled by ministries of telecoms and space (department of space falls within the ambit of prime minister’s office).

    ALSO READ: MIB, TRAI allay industry fears on sat capacity leasing & content regulations

    Prasar Bharati, Dish TV, Star, Zee and BES bat for KU-band open-sky policy

    ISRO stresses on indigenization; TRAI for Open Sky policy

  • Workshop to train manpower in cable TV distribution

    Workshop to train manpower in cable TV distribution

    NEW DELHI: A workshop is being held on 27 November to deliberate on the importance of skilling, certification and accreditation of the manpower deployed in cable TV distribution.

    It is organised by the Broadcast Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd ( BECIL) in collaboration with the Instrumentation Automation Surveillance & Communication-Sector Skill Council (IASC-SSC in New Delhi a Vigyan Bhavan.

    Digitisation of the cable TV networks in the country has enabled availability of state-of-the-art services not only in the field of TV but also broadband access and host of value added services. HD, 4K & 8K quality TV pictures can also be provided on digital cable networks. This has provided a lot of opportunities to cable TV service providers which are not available even on DTH/ IPTV/ OTT platforms.

    However, it has also posed challenges like properly equipping and training the manpower in the field of digital technology to maintain the quality of service specified not only by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India but also for consumer satisfaction.

    Certification of their skills for better employment opportunities and their accreditation (since the personnel visit homes during hours when most women and children are alone) are also considered important issues.

    Keeping in view the need of skilled manpower, the government embarked on Skill India Mission and a number of schemes have been initiated. IASC-SSC was created with the objective to carry out skill-gap analysis, development of qualification packs and national occupational standards and affiliation of training partners and assessment agencies, certification of trained manpower and help their placement.

    IASC-SSC is an industry-led non-profit company under the preview of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The council is also certifying the existing available human resources having domain knowledge under recognition of prior learning (RPL) scheme to bring them into mainstream

  • Total private TV channels now 883, six more cancellations in June 2017

    NEW DELHI: With an increase of just one channel in June 2017, the total number of functional private television channels has gone up to 883, though permission was granted to 1078,

    This number is still far short of the claim made last year that the country will have 1500 channels by the end of March this year.

    The master list issued by the Government of 883 includes nine channels whose permission has been “cancelled by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry due to security denial by Home Ministry However stay order given by Court.”

    The licences of 195 (as against 189 by end of May 2017) were cancelled. (This does not include the nine whose cases were stayed by Courts.)

    In the 883, the number of news channels has fallen to 388 from 391 as on 31 May, while there are 495 general entertainment channels. Of these, 776 channels including 367 news channels are permitted to uplink from and downlink in India. Another 89 including fifteen news channels are uplinked from overseas and permitted to downlink into India.

    In comparison, the country has only eighteen channels including six news channels which are uplinked from India but permitted to downlink in other countries.

    The number of total channels had grown from 869 in February-end 2016 to 892 in February-end this year but has fallen by ten since then. In fact, the number had risen to 899 by the end of December 2016 when the total cancellations were 155. By January-end this year, the number had fallen to 889 of which twelve banned channels had received stay orders from Courts.

    Channels permitted in June includes just one newx channel – TV 1 News 24×7 owned by Lakshmi Gold Khazaanaa Pvt. Ltd. The other channels permitted in June this year are: FYI TV18 HD and History TV 18 Tamil owned by AETN 18 Media Pvt. Ltd; Enter 10 Bangla and Shaandaar Cinema owned by Enter 10 Television Pvt. Ltd; Prerna owned by Graphisads Private Limited; and BNB owned by BnB Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

    The list of the channels permitted as on 30 June 2017 along with their area and language of operation and the names of owning companies has been placed on the I and B Ministry site mib.nic.in.

    The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology which goes into issues relating to Information and Broadcasting had last year noted that the State Finance Commission while drafting its proposals for the 12th Plan (2012-17) had assumed that the number of permitted TV channels would rise to 1500.

    Meanwhile, the Committee was told that the present set up of Electronic Media Monitoring Centre had developed logging and recording facility for 900 TV channels and is thus fully equipped to start monitoring of all permitted channels available on public domain.

    The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) is configuring all available free to air channels in the content monitoring system of the EMMC.

  • Govt admits centralised content monitoring of TV and Radio ‘non-workable’

    NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has said that it is “unable to comprehend whether the proposal of centralized content monitoring of television and radio is really a non-workable proposition as claimed by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry” or because it failed to get tenders.

    In fact, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology which also examines issues relating to Information and Broadcasting Ministry has implied that the Ministry has come to this conclusion as the Broadcast Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd (BECIL) which is handling the project “did not receive any valid response to their tenders.

    The Ministry has admitted to the Committee that “real time transition of content from FM and community radio stations to a centralized monitoring facility is challenging in terms of technology and IT infrastructure.”

    The Ministry is therefore in the process of formalizing the complaints redressal mechanism by giving it a statutory status according to the Supreme Court Order of 12 January 2017 which has acknowledged self-regulatory mechanism in addition to complaint based processes.

    BECIL, which is handling the project on turnkey basis, had invited tenders for the setting up of monitoring facility for private FM and CRS which did not receive any valid response. Real time transmission of content from FM and CRS stations across the length and breadth of the country to a centralized monitoring facility is challenging in terms of technology and IT infrastructure in remote areas. The Ministry admitted that the efficacy of such a system is “doubtful due to the information overload”.

    In view of the fact that the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) has so far configured 729 TV channels though it has content acquisition facility for 900 channels. On being asked about the physical targets set under the Scheme for the year 2016-17, the Ministry stated that EMMC aims to configure the remaining 78 TV channels in the existing software set up. The configuration requires technical parameters for Free to Air (FTA) channels while in case of Pay channels it requires broadcasters to provide necessary equipments for downloading and decryption of the content/signal.

    The Committee has been informed that the EMMC and BECIL are coordinating with the industry to obtain technical parameters for configuration of remaining channels.

    The Ministry have said that though the initial target was to achieve monitoring of 1500 channels since 892 channels had been given license till 31st December 2016, the monitoring facility at EMMC is in tune with the number of channels which have been granted permission and the facility would be scaled up if required.

    The Committee note that the budgetary allocation for the Scheme of Strengthening of EMMC was Rs 120 million which was marginally reduced to Rs 116 million at revised estimates stage during the year 2016-17, out of which the Ministry have been able to expend only Rs 74.2 million.

    Explaining this shortfall, the Ministry stated that in order to stagger the deployment of resources commensurate with the likely additional channels that may be approved for uplinking/downlinking, an amount of Rs 20 million was being surrendered.

    While the Committee left “the matter to the wisdom of the Ministry:, it desired that necessary steps are taken in the right direction so that the content monitoring for FM channels and CRS does not suffer and Rs 120 million allocated for the purpose for the financial year 2017-18 is utilized judiciously.

  • 892 pvt TV channels against 1500 targeted in 12th Plan

    NEW DELHI: India has a total of 892 functional private television channels as on 28 February 2017 despite a claim made last year that the country will have 1500 channels by the end of this month. A master list issued by the Government includes in the 892 eleven channels whose permission has been “cancelled by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry due to security denial by Home Ministry However stay order given by Court.”

    While permission was accorded to a total of 1061 TV channels, the licences of 169 were cancelled. (This does not include the eleven whose cases were stayed by Courts.)

    Of the 892, 391 are news channels while 501 are general entertainment channels. Of these, 782 channels including 369 news channels are permitted to uplink from and downlink in India. Another 90 including 15 news channels are uplinked from overseas but permitted to downlink into India.

    In comparison, the country has only twenty channels including seven news channels which are uplinked from India but permitted to downlinked in other countries.

    Interestingly, the number of total channels has grown from 869 in February-end 2016 to 892 in February-end this year. This number had risen to 899 by the end of December 2016 when the total cancellations were 155. By January-end this year, the number had fallen to 889 of which twelve banned channels had received stay orders from Courts.

    Channels permitted in February this year are: History TV18 HD uplinking and the Telugu Hindu Dharmam which only uplinking permission and Sony BBC Earth HD which has downlinking permission.

    The list of the channels permitted as on 28 February 2017 along with their area and language of operation and the names of owning companies has been placed on the ministry site.

    The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology which goes into issues relating to Information and Broadcasting had last year noted that the State Finance Commission while drafting its proposals for the 12th Plan (2012-17) had assumed that the number of permitted TV channels would rise to 1500.

    The Committee was informed that during the year 2015-16, 11 cases were found where TV channels were in violation of content guidelines (Programme Code and Advertisement Code).

    While there is no provision of pre-censorship of the content telecast on private TV channels, all programmes/ advertisements telecast on such TV channels are required to adhere to the Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the rules framed thereunder. Action is taken whenever any violation of the Codes is noticed or brought to the notice of the Ministry.

    Meanwhile, the Committee was told that the present set up of Electronic Media Monitoring Centre had developed logging and recording facility for 900 TV channels and is thus fully equipped to start monitoring of all permitted channels available on public domain.

    The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) is configuring all available free to air channels in the content monitoring system of the EMMC.

    However, configuration of pay channels requires broadcasters to provide necessary equipment for downloading and decryption of the content/signal and this is expected to be completed within four months’ time.

    By the end of Fiscal Year 2014-15, EMMC successfully achieved the Plan target of content acquisition facility of 600 TV channels. Under the 12th Plan, Rs.563.7 million had been utilized as of 31 March 2016 out of the total outlay of Rs.900 million.

    The Committee was told that the budget estimate for 2016-17 had been reduced to Rs 120 million as compared to Rs 210 million in 2015-16, out of which Rs 197.6 million had been spent by 3 March 2016. The budget for EMMC for 2017-18 has again been retained at Rs 120 million, same as in the previous year.

    The Ministry said its target under the Machinery and Equipment head was to develop content acquisition facility for additional 300 TV channels by the end of FY 2016-17.

  • MIB urgently seeks pending 78 channels’ equipment details

    MIB urgently seeks pending 78 channels’ equipment details

    MUMBAI: The government of India expects all TV channels to submit technical details of their respective equipment for the purpose of monitoring. In all, 78 channels have failed to do so.

    The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a Notice dated 9 December 2016 to 194 TV channels to provide a set of Professional IRD for each TV channel permitted to them which can give SD-SDI output (in case of HD channels, HD-SDI output) along with one spare IRD per bouquet, to EMMC.

    Alternatively, the pay TV broadcaster/ service  provider  should  provide  Viewing  card  (VC)  with matching  CAM  module  for interfacing with de-modulators to decrypt and demodulate the channel over IP. TV channels are also required  to  provide  the  technical  parameters  as Satellite,  Frequency,  location of teleport etc.

    Accordingly, the details/ equipment from 78 TV channels have not been received so far. The Broadcasting companies of these TV channels are required to send the details/ required equipment urgently.

    The  equipment   details may   be  sent  to  Director, Electronic Media Monitoring Centre, BECIL,  Soochna Bhawan, New Delhi.

    Also Read:  81 teleports permitted to uplink, downlink TV channels

    Also Read:  The TRAI broadcasting & cable tariff order simplified

    Also Read:  TRAI may moot MRP for bouquet TV channels; no price cap on unbundled premium products

    Also Read:  53 TV channels, six teleports’ licences up for renewal in ’17

  • MIB urgently seeks pending 78 channels’ equipment details

    MIB urgently seeks pending 78 channels’ equipment details

    MUMBAI: The government of India expects all TV channels to submit technical details of their respective equipment for the purpose of monitoring. In all, 78 channels have failed to do so.

    The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a Notice dated 9 December 2016 to 194 TV channels to provide a set of Professional IRD for each TV channel permitted to them which can give SD-SDI output (in case of HD channels, HD-SDI output) along with one spare IRD per bouquet, to EMMC.

    Alternatively, the pay TV broadcaster/ service  provider  should  provide  Viewing  card  (VC)  with matching  CAM  module  for interfacing with de-modulators to decrypt and demodulate the channel over IP. TV channels are also required  to  provide  the  technical  parameters  as Satellite,  Frequency,  location of teleport etc.

    Accordingly, the details/ equipment from 78 TV channels have not been received so far. The Broadcasting companies of these TV channels are required to send the details/ required equipment urgently.

    The  equipment   details may   be  sent  to  Director, Electronic Media Monitoring Centre, BECIL,  Soochna Bhawan, New Delhi.

    Also Read:  81 teleports permitted to uplink, downlink TV channels

    Also Read:  The TRAI broadcasting & cable tariff order simplified

    Also Read:  TRAI may moot MRP for bouquet TV channels; no price cap on unbundled premium products

    Also Read:  53 TV channels, six teleports’ licences up for renewal in ’17

  • Govt seeks professional help for DD revival

    Govt seeks professional help for DD revival

    NEW DELHI: Fazed by private sector television channels’ stridency in terms of revenues and viewership in an increasingly digital India, the government is seeking outside professional help in “transformation of Doordarshan.”

    A tender has been issued by an organisation under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to look for a consultant to revamp Doordarshan into a leading public broadcaster that becomes a highly successful medium of mass communication.

    Amongst the objectives listed in the tender documents by the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) a stated aim is to engage a consulting firm to support Doordarshan in achieving this “transformation goal by undertaking a comprehensive view on the projects and initiatives to be executed” by the Indian pubcaster.

    Pointing out that in the last couple of decades after introduction of cable television and technological changes in a country that’s now openly flirting with digital consumption of video and audio on multiple platforms, the government admitted DD’s monopoly days are over and it is not the target media for a large swathe of Indian population. “Given the potential television has, not just commercially but also as a means for socio-economic transformation, it’s critical to revitalize Doordarshan and develop it into a powerful and commercially successful organization of mass communication,” BECIL said in a note enumerating the objectives for the project.

    The consultant would have to undertake a comprehensive view on the projects and initiatives to be executed by Doordarshan, engage all stakeholders to arrive at trouble-spots and prepare a solution map for addressing those difficulties. The government is hoping that the consultant will identify in medium term goals for “quick wins” and further help Doordarshan develop a long-term strategic roadmap.

    The interested bidders are expected to send in their queries by 2 November 2016 and get responses in a pre-bid meeting on 4 November. The technical bids will be opened on 15 November at 1530 hours. Dates for presentations by bidders and opening of financial bids will be intimated later by BECIL.

    Interestingly, Minister of State for MIB Rajyavardhan Rathore few days back had admitted at a media conference that Prasar Bharati, DD’s parent, lacked adequate programming and marketing capabilities and was open to seeking help from private players.

    Doordarshan is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in the world in terms of studios and infrastructure and claims to cover 90 per cent of the total Indian population — a claim that, however, doesn’t aptly reflect in audience measurement data. DD, which offers 23 TV channels in various Indian languages, provides television, radio, online and app-based mobile services throughout India and overseas.

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    Prasar Bharati lacks content & marketing; open to tie-ups: MIB Minister