Tag: Broadcast

Broadcast media urged to help flood-affected people in South India

NEW DELHI: All television and radio channels have been asked by the Government to send relevant and vital information brought out by concerned government agencies for the people of Tamil Nadu and other southern Indian states affected by torrential rains and floods.

In an advisory, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said it was imperative that all information is broadcast that can assist those affected.

The advisory noted that Doordarshan and All India Radio apart from some other channels had been disseminating information about the efforts of the government and rescue agencies and even weather-related information, help-lines, and contact numbers of personnel that can be of help to the affected people.

Considering the enhanced gravity of the situation, it stressed the imperative need for dissemination of critical and vital information regarding all aspects of the disaster on real-time basis.

December 2, 2015
Multi Screen Media Network acquires exclusive broadcast rights of the ATP World Tour

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media Network has announced that it has acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast tournaments as part of the global Elite – Men’s Professional Tennis Circuit; the ATP World Tour, for the next 5 years commencing January 2016.

As part of the rights package, the network will air the live telecast of ATP’s premium tier events, the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and the ATP World Tour 500 events alongside the prestigious season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. In addition to the live telecast, the channel will broadcast the highlights and the news service which will include player interviews around the series of tournaments.

The ATP World Tour is therefore yet another addition to the network’s line-up of live tennis events which presently includes the Australian Open and the Champions Tennis League.

Speaking on the new development MSM CEO NP Singh said, “Sports in India have a strong cultural significance and a way of unifying viewership across audiences. Tennis is a high-consumption sport and the ATP reflects the best of men’s tennis globally. Our association with ATP is a strategic step in the direction of firmly establishing our commitment to tennis which is recognized as one of the most followed sports in the world.”

Sony SIX and KIX business head Prasana Krishnan asserted, “The ATP World Tour will feature the world’s best tennis players on our network throughout the year. Our fans can now look forward to the world’s top ranked players in men’s professional tennis. This is a valued addition to our line-up of major tennis events on our network, making it the one-stop TV destination for tennis enthusiasts.”

Commenting on the deal ATP Media CEO Mark Webster, “We are delighted that MSM has acquired the rights to the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and 500 events along with our season finale, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. We are certain that MSM will provide the passion and superb production values required to showcase the finest male tennis players competing at the world’s most exciting venues.”

The ATP tournaments determine player rankings as well as the seeding for the Grand Slam tournaments. The men’s tennis season concludes each year with the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals which is now considered the biggest tournament outside of the four Majors and often determines the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking. The event is notable for some outstanding matches in the sport’s history due to its unique round-robin format.

November 19, 2015
CASBAA Convention Brings Together the Biggest Wave Makers in the Broadcast industry

MUMBAI: The annual CASBAA Convention kicked off today in its new home at the Intercontinental Hotel, Hong Kong. The two-day convention, with the theme ‘Making Waves’ brought together key industry players in the broadcast, cable and satellite industry to discuss and debate the hottest topics and latest developments in the industry today. With the introduction of OTT and digital broadcast services now an established fact, key themes of the day focused on creating quality and relevant content, as well as localization, agile distribution and protection of content.

To kick-start the day, Hong Kong SAR Government chief secretary for administration Carrie Lam, gave an introductory speech where she underscored that the rule of law and freedom of expression were vital to the fundamental strength of the HK broadcast industry. She also highlighted that the HK SAR government believes that investing in creative talent is key to driving growth of the creative industries and so launched the Create Smart initiative which supports students in tertiary education focusing on TV or media studies.

The AOL Digital Prophet David Shing, then looked at content consumption from the audience perspective, highlighting how humans were at the heart of everything and that “technology changes behavior not needs” when looking at the key developments in the digital landscape. Also in a world where people are creating and publishing their own content, it’s important to note that “creativity still rules over technology” as content is now competing with popular culture. China Media Capital Chairman Li Ruigang, commented how there was huge demand from China for premium content yet “while content is important, there is the need to build up a sustainable system to continue to be able to create more content”. Ruigang also discussed how key global partnerships such as Warner Bros, Dreamworks, and Legoland were central to CMC’s strategy of establishing a solid content ecosystem. He also took the opportunity to announce that his company is buying the China Soccer League to further advance the company’s content and distribution strategy.

New content platforms in Asia were discussed when Janice Lee from PCCW gave more detail on the company’s new global Viu OTT platform, announced just yesterday. She mentioned how the company had to become extremely agile in turning around their content in multiple languages to stay competitive as well as beat illegal content, “Windowing has become very important, we get our content out in multiple languages in just eight hours. Historically this didn’t happen, which gave room for piracy.” Mike Hyun-dong Suh of CJ E&M discussed how partnerships were also key to distribution of content, citing a recent collaboration with Japanese app Naver as an example. He also illustrated how taking content offline through events was also important to engage fans. Greg Beitchman from CNN International discussed the need to have content that worked across all their screens and that this was meeting with success. “Digital touchpoints are enhancing our appeal rather than cannibalizing what we do on TV,” he commented. CNNI also commented on localization, highlighting how it had helped make them “more, not less, relevant.”

Alon Shtruzman from Keshet Media, creator of Homeland and other key global formats, maintains that content is, as ever, ‘king’. His company is starting to look further afield for content and he believes ‘Asia is a goldmine for content’ though not without some heavy legwork in understanding what does and doesn’t work in the market.

How to engage with fans with content was discussed by Victorious CEO Sam Rogoway, who believed their creation of a community of superfans would “change the way fans interact and engage with content.” The inception of the ‘passion graph’ would bring together like-minded individuals that would help drive deeper engagement of content, even when there was no new content available. Distribution of content was discussed by SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, who’s company is investigating the feasibility of launching 4,000 satellites into space with a view to connecting people in remote areas throughout the planet.

SeaChange CEO Jay Samit took a hard line on the future of the pay TV business “the pay TV business as we know it is dead. The majority of content is not linear and we need to adapt quickly or die.” With content now being accessed increasingly online, it’s possible to work out who’s watching what at home and provide relevant content based on that. “Pay TV will be completely data driven,” he added. “With social analytics now shaping content offers, the bottom line is you will go out of business if you don’t know who your consumer is.”

Piracy of content was next on the agenda with Mark Mulready of Irdeto showcasing just how difficult it is to distinguish legal from illegal content sites. The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit example from the UK, where an infringing website list of illegal websites is published and flagged to advertising brands, was flagged a great initiative to disrupt pirate sites. “Through working with the advertising industry, we can remove the incoming revenue to these illegal sites,” commented Det. Chief Supt. David Clark of City of London Police. It was also agreed that it was everyone’s responsibility – whether channel or creator – to protect the value of content. Are Mathisen from Conax AS encouraged all content owners to embrace new technology to combat content theft.

With piracy followed the issue if regulation where Ajit Pai from the US Federal Communications Commission and R.S. Sharma from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India both agreeing that governments should take a less restrictive approach to regulation to allow new business models to take shape.

A video note from UK actor and writer, James Corden, now host of the US The Late Late Show, concluded today’s session at the convention. Corden discussed how he saw his task was making a brilliant hour of TV every night. “All we really want to do is make a show that is different and feels fresh every night. If you think about it from the internet first then you will come unstuck.” He emphasized the importance of a great creative team and how they try to innovate with new features constantly to be as entertaining as possible. Finally when asked if he was tired doing 44 shows a year, he commented “It’s a luxury to be tired from doing something you love and always dreamt of.”

Sponsors for the CASBAA Convention 2015 include: ABS, Accedo, Akamai, AMC, APT Satellite, AsiaSat, Asia Television Limited, Brightcove, Conax, ContentWise, CreateHK, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, Eutelsat, France 24, Ideal Group, InvestHK, Irdeto, ITV Choice, Kantar Media, Letv, Lightning, MEASAT, MediaExcel, One Championship, Patron Spirits, PCCW, PwC, RTL CBS Asia, Scripps Networks Interactive, SES, TIME NOW, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Time Warner, True Visions, Turner, TV5Monde and Victorious.

October 28, 2015
Spectrum issue gets resolved, nine bands reserved for telecom and broadcasting

NEW DELHI: Resolving an issue that was pending for the past eight years, 31 bands of spectrum have been set aside for telecom and broadcasting.

According to a cabinet decision, nine out of 49 bands between 3 Mhz to 40 Ghz will be reserved for defence, while a group will be formed to decide on the allocation of the remaining nine bands for other Ministries.

There will be spectrum swapping with users like defence vacating the ones, which have not been earmarked for them and moving into those reserved for them, following the decision, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

The Cabinet also approved swapping of 15 Megahertz of 3G spectrum between Defence and the Telecom Ministries. However, the government will be able to provide it after completion of the harmonisation process.

“The band in 1700 to 2000 MHz is required to be harmonised. The Cabinet has approved that this harmonisation is to be done in a period of one year,” Prasad said.

The Telecom Ministry has proposed to exchange 15 Mhz spectrum it holds in the 1,900 Mhz band with same quantum of airwaves held by Defence in 2100 Mhz. The 2100 Mhz band is currently used for 3G services.

“Swapping of 15 MHz in the frequency band of 1900 MHz with Telecom has been permitted to be done. Now the swapping will happen but it will take some time,” Prasad added.

The Cabinet has asked the ministries involved in the process to complete harmonisation within a year.

The government has identified that entire spectrum 50 km inside the Indian territory from international border will be classified as Defence Interest Zone.

“The area in 50 km on the border of India is called Defence Interest Zone [DIZ]. In peace time telecom operation that we will do we will inform Defence that this is our infrastructure. In the time of hostility, then those will come under the jurisdiction of Defence,” Prasad said.

January 22, 2015
“Govt needs to look at broadcast as an important sector”: Uday Shankar

MUMBAI: It was in September that Star India’s Uday Shankar was once again handed over the reins of Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), and since then, he has been working on a three-point agenda.

Says the man who has been very vocal about his views on digitisation in India, “When you are heading an organisation like IBF, there are three things that we all need to look at. First and foremost is digitisation. It is the most fundamental thing that the industry requires and so we need to ensure that we engage with government and put the digitisation road map back on track.”

The second is the carriage fees for both big and small channels, particularly for niche channels which are dying under the weight of this. He points out that the investment done by niche channels on content is totally destroyed because they don’t have the money. “Most of them are going bankrupt and carriage fee is the single biggest destructive influence on the industry. The key objective of digitisation was that it would expand carriage capacity and the carriage fees will get substantially reduced or would go away. That has not happened. We need to work on that,” he says.

Thirdly, the foundation needs to make sure that the new government looks at broadcast as an important sector. “The government is genuinely reviewing it also,” he adds.

The view at the IBF , currently, is that broadcast will play a huge role in the Narendra Modi government’s agenda of creating more jobs, creating more opportunities, entrepreneurship and wealth for people. “We as IBF want to take the plan to the government and tell them the way we can carry forward the government’s agenda,” says Shankar.

With a view to benefit the industry and the customer, the foundation aims to work closely with all its synergies as well as other bodies like BARC India.

October 27, 2014
ICC broadcast rights till 2023 bagged by Star India

MUMBAI: In one of the most anticipated sports deal, The International Cricket Council (ICC) jointly awarded its audio-visual rights for ICC Events from 2015 to 2023 to Star India and Star Middle East.

Though the exact final value of the rights fee has not been disclosed, it is much in excess of the ICC’s previous commercial deals.

Commenting on the decision to name the two broadcasters as the successful bidders, ICC chairman N Srinivasan said, “We are delighted that our partnership with the Star group has extended to the next cycle of ICC Events. This illustrates the strong relationship we have built in the current cycle and the value we have delivered since 2007.”

He further went on to say that Star has an outstanding reputation as a sports broadcaster and has played an integral role in promoting and growing the game by taking coverage of ICC Events to a truly global and record-breaking audience.

This commitment for the next eight years will ensure greater stability for ICC members as well as increased funding for developing and established countries. Emerging nations will have access to the largest funding resource in the history of the game and the board has fully endorsed this framework as the best means of safeguarding the future of the sport,” he added.

Speaking on the investment by Star, Srinivasan said the level of investment committed by Star showed that the game is stronger than ever before and hopefully with the financial stability for the next eight years, they could implement plans to strengthen and grow the game further, making it an even bigger and better global game.

The new eight-year period includes 18 ICC tournaments, including two ICC Cricket World Cups (2019 and 2023), two ICC Champions Trophy tournaments (2017 and 2021) and two ICC World Twenty20 tournaments (2016 and 2020).

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “We are delighted and honoured to extend our partnership with ICC. This is a tribute to Star’s commitment and ICC’s trust in our ability to take the great game of cricket to the next level. Star will constantly attempt to reinvent the viewer experience to make cricket bigger and bigger.”

The current cycle has seen ESPN Star Sports hold the audio-visual rights until the contract expires at the end of next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

IBC’s finance and commercial affairs committee chairman Giles Clarke commented, “This innovative and exciting partnership will underpin the long-term financial health of the global game and provide real stability for all our members. It will help the ICC and our members to grow participation in areas such as the women’s game where there have been great strides made as well as supporting the emerging nations. This deal benefits all ICC members and will allow them to improve their competitiveness and public interest in a targeted and sustainable way. The partnership will also guarantee increased promotion and marketing of the game in key markets across the globe.”

The decision was made by the ICC Business Corporation (IBC) Board, ICC’s commercial arm, during a meeting at the ICC headquarters in Dubai on Sunday. The decision followed a robust tender, bidding and evaluation process, which started in July 2014. The process, which involved two rounds of bidding, received 17 competitive bids from various broadcasters across different territories for the rights.

ICC chief executive David Richardson said, “This agreement guarantees more money for all our members, thereby underpinning the growth and development of the game. Star has been an excellent partner for the ICC during the current rights cycle, promoting and supporting ICC Events and cricket in general in the sub-continent, and I am pleased that we now have a chance to build on that success over the next eight years on a global level.”

October 13, 2014
Nielsen says it has issued faulty ratings since March 2014

MUMBAI: Nielsen, which controls almost all of the television ratings measurement market in the US, has been issuing incorrect TV ratings for national broadcast networks due to a technical error. The error, introduced in March, was not discovered until 6 October, the company said in a statement.

The error was ‘generally imperceptible until we saw high viewing levels associated with fall season premiere week,’ it added. “As a result, small amounts of viewing for some national broadcast networks and syndicators were misattributed. Cable networks and local TV ratings were not affected by this error.”

The company fixed the error on 9 October and now plans to reprocess all of its ratings data going back to 18 August, when the first new broadcast program of the season aired. It will also conduct an analysis to determine if other weeks also need to be reprocessed.

ABC appears to be the beneficiary of the glitch, with its programs getting credited for views that belonged to other networks.

Nielsen’s ratings is the metric that advertisers and networks rely on to conduct their ad sales business and will be majorly affected due to this gaffe. It is not yet clear to what extent the ratings will change when the numbers are reprocessed. The changes are expected to be relatively minor.

“We will undertake an exhaustive post-mortem-internally and with our clients-and we are asking Ernst & Young and the MRC to join us in these efforts,” the company added in its statement.

Nielsen, along with Kantar, operates TAM in India, the current industry body for TV ratings.

Read the full statement from Nielsen:

In response to recent ratings irregularities, Nielsen conducted an extensive internal investigation of our systems and processes. On Oct. 6, 2014, we uncovered a technical error that impacts national network television ratings over several months.

The technical error was introduced on March 2, 2014, and was generally imperceptible until we saw high viewing levels associated with fall season premiere week. As a result, small amounts of viewing for some national broadcast networks and syndicators were misattributed. Cable networks and local TV ratings were not affected by this error.

A software fix to correct the problem was deployed on Oct. 9, 2014, meaning that all data being released today and going forward is correct.

In addition,

All of the commercial data-including C3-for the current TV season, which will begin releasing this weekend, will be correct. All previously released data since September 22nd will be reprocessed and reissued by Oct. 17, 2014. We will also reprocess all of the impacted data going back to Aug. 18, 2014, when the first new season broadcast network program aired. This data will be reissued by Oct. 31, 2014. Nielsen is also conducting an impact analysis to determine whether additional weeks should be reprocessed. We will work closely with our clients and the industry to provide updates as soon as possible. This issue has to do with difficult-to-attribute content called “all other tuning with code” (AOT with code). This data represents between 0.1% and 0.25% of all viewing minutes that we credit nationally. In the vast majority of cases, the impact is small; in a handful of cases, the impact is more significant.

As part of our investigation, we have also determined that there are no issues with the National People Meter, our data collection process, our panel, our TV audience measurement methodology or the total TV viewership data produced during this affected period.

We are working closely with our clients to manage this situation and will continue to be transparent with the industry and the media about our plans. In addition, we will undertake an exhaustive post-mortem-internally and with our clients-and we are asking Ernst & Young and the MRC to join us in these efforts.

Nielsen is committed to upholding the highest standards of television audience measurement and data processing, in order to provide the most effective audience measurement solutions to meet client needs.

October 11, 2014
IDOS 2014: Trust amongst stakeholders holds the key to increasing ARPUs

GOA: The broadcasters, multi system operators (MSOs) and the local cable operators (LCOs) need to trust each other to solve most of the issues that affect the cable TV industry. While the dialogue between the trio has begun, there is still lack of trust and this has to change, is what the industry stalwarts expressed at the ongoing India Digital Operators Summit (IDOS) 2014, organised by Indian Television Dot Com and Media Partners Asia.

“The current reality is that the players within the chain have at least started talking to each other, which was missing earlier. So with digitisation, this is one of the most positive moves that has happened,” says IndiaCast CEO Anuj Gandhi. He also emphasises on the need for the MSOs to resolve the jigsaw puzzle with the LCOs to ensure better Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). “The MSOs need to get the LCOs on table and understand their issues,” he says while adding that the last mile needs to be seen as partners in the cycle.

Agreeing with him was Hathway Cable and Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar, who feels that the last mile needs to get returns on the services he provides. “But that will need collective work. We need to grow the ARPUs from the current Rs 180 to Rs 250-Rs 300,” he says.

For Siti Cable CEO VD Wadhwa, the reason for lack of trust lies in the history of cable television ecosystem. “Historically, the understanding has been that the last mile retains a large part of revenue. Now with digitisation, underdeclaration is not possible and so the LCO is suffering from fear psychosis that he will lose his subscribers,” he says.

The Siti Cable CEO also feels that there is a need for MSOs to give the LCOs access to the SMS so that they can feel a certain ownership towards their customers. “There is a need for a policy which is well documented, transparent and honoured,” he adds.

From the time government announced digitisation of cable TV homes, it is the regulations and the courts that have been driving the business. “Let’s not get the regulator involved in areas where we can resolve the issues. We need to put together a commercial document which is uniform across,” opines Star India president and general counsel Deepak Jacob.

One of the biggest concerns for the stakeholders is increasing the currently low ARPU. “The DTH industry has done well on this front. While we started with Rs 150 in 2008, we have gone up to Rs 200-Rs 220 in phase III and phase IV markets, where the cable industry still has a ARPU of Rs 150,” informs Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera. He also feels that the cable industry cannot have different rates for different markets.

The DTH industry faces a huge threat from Freedish, which is becoming a great proposition in phase III and phase IV. “I see more threat from Freedish, if the platform gets the general entertainment channels onboard. According to me, all these channels should be made ‘pay’ on Freedish as well,” opines Khera.

While talking of the threats the industry currently faces, Jacob also highlights the threat that comes from state governments playing a role in the content and distribution market. “The Tamil Nadu and Punjab markets are pretty much locked because of the monopoly of the state government in the region. The disease is growing, with more states looking at the same. We should ask the government to implement recommendations to curb this,” he says.

Another point discussed during the session on ‘Unity and the way forward for the next five years’ was if the DTH operators have an opportunity in phase III and phase IV markets with the extension of digitisation dates. Says Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish, “DTH in phase I and II continued doing what it did when it had started. But phase III and IV is a different kettle of fish and so we at Dish launched Zing. The delay means loss in momentum.”

Hathway is looking beyond cable in the phase III and IV markets. “We are looking at broadband as the margins from here are far higher than cable,” informs Kumar who says that while broadband currently is at 20 per cent, it will increase significantly in the future.

As for increasing ARPUs, Gandhi suggests that there is need to look at the basic packs. “We need to work on making the basic pack light, so that consumers see value in the higher packs,” he says. According to him, the MSOs like the DTH operators should start getting into a multi-year or five year deals with broadcasters, rather than the one year deal that they have currently. “This will help him sort his content cost and also give them more confidence, which they can then pass on to the LCOs,” opines Gandhi.

The MSOs have taken a lot of debt for digitising phase I and phase II. “Now when we approach the investors, we will need to have a roadmap for them to invest,” informs Kumar.

Can phase III and phase IV be underestimated, answers Jacob, “We shouldn’t underestimate these two phases. The households in phase III spend close to Rs 300-Rs 350 on telecom and VAS services, while phase IV spends some Rs 250 on it. And these households are trying to watch all the content on their phone. So this is the matrix the cable TV industry should follow.”

September 26, 2014
IDOS 2014: India’s broadcast, DTH & cable television industry’s captain congregate

MUMBAI: Heads of India’s pay TV, distribution and broadcast sector are headed for Goa between 25 and 27 September 2014 for the industry’s annual confab – The India Digital Operators Summit (IDOS) – 2014. In its third edition, IDOS 2014’s theme is ‘Digitisation: The Next Big Push.’

Organised by IndianTelevision.com and Media Partners Asia (MPA), it unites stakeholders across the value chain to drive meaningful dialogue and facilitate practical solutions to drive the content and distribution markets forward.

The three day summit will kickstart with HBO hosting the most awaited party of the season on 25 September at The Leela in south Goa.

The highlight for the three day conference is TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar who will address the gathering on ‘Policy, practices and the way forward – The Next Five Years for Indian Television.’

Day two of the summit will commence with a keynote on the ‘State of the TV Nation’ by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari and MPA executive director Vivek Couto.

A panel comprising leading investment analysts and investors will next discuss the key drivers of industry economics and value creation and if digitisation extension dates will cause concerns for investors and ROI.

‘Unity and The Way Forward for the Next Five Years’ will be another topic for discussion at the upcoming summit. During the session, industry leaders will be seen discussing on how there is a need to converge upon and the urgency of proper execution in the coming months. The other sessions will see brainstorming on ‘Specialized content and channels in the digital ecosystem’, ‘Broadband and the digital economy – A focus on ground deployments’, ‘In focus: The growth of alternative video platforms’ and ‘Technology shifts in Indian Pay-TV’ among others.

Amongst the headline names who are slated to attend and speak include: Star India CEO Uday Shankar, Zee TV CEO Punit Goenka, TRAI principal advisor N Parmeswaran, FoodFood promoter Sanjiv Kapoor, Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish, Videocon d2H CEO Anil Khera, Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar, Siti Cable CEO VD Wadhwa, DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma, Mybox CEO Amit Kharbanda, Scripps Networks Asia Pacific head Derek Chang, Ortel CEO BP Rath, among others.

Says Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, and editor in chief Anil Wanvari: “For decades, it has been seen as a land of promise. But India’s $7.5 billion television industry has somehow or the other belied that potential. Forced by the government to digitise, India’s TV distribution ecosystem has been struggling to get its act together. While set top boxes (STBs) have been rolled out, transparent customer billing, pricing deals between content owners and distributors, and conditional access have yet to occur seamlessly. This has left industry precisely at the same spot it was at before digitisation was mandated.”

Adds Media Partners Asia executive director Vivek Couto: “Revenue leakages continue, and industry discord has only heightened, amongst broadcasters, cable and DTH satellite operators. Clearly, key changes are required with the Government recently calling for an extension to the digitisation deadline to December 2015 for phase III and December 2016 for phase IV. It is in this perspective we expect IDOS to play a key role in getting likeminded professionals from industry to come together to analyse the just completed phase I and phase II of digitisation and brainstorm for a better phase III and phase IV.”

The title partner for the event executed by ITV 2.0 Productions is Star India. The summit partners are BBC World News, Cisco, Discovery Channel, HBO Defined HBO Hits, SES, Surewaves and Videocon D2H. The associate partners are Akamai, Asiasat, CSG International, DEN, Hathway and Scripps Network. Broadband India Forum is the support partner, while 24 Frames Digital is the webcast partner. The media partners for the event are Avishkar, Cable Quest, Radioandmusic.com, Satellite @ Internet India and Tellychakkar.com

IDOS is to be held at the Hotel Leela in south Goa between 25-27 September 2014.

September 24, 2014
One more week to respond to TRAI paper on resolving issue of the controversial AGR for broadcast, telecom

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided to give one last opportunity to stakeholders to respond to its consultation paper on a review of the definition of Gross Revenue (GR) and the permissible deductions to arrive at Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) in the context of the National Telecom Policy 2012 in view of a multitude of cases by both telecom and broadcast operators.

Stakeholders have been given one extra week and can respond to the 24 questions raised by the Authority by 8 September with counter comments if any by 15 September. This is being done in view of the important issues involved, but TRAI said no further opportunities would be given.

The Authority will also examine the components of GR, AGR and minimum presumptive AGR, rates of licence fee and spectrum usage charges, formats of statements of revenue and licence fee, and audit and verifiability of revenue and licence fee.

The paper on ‘Definition of Revenue Base (AGR) for the Reckoning of Licence Fee and Spectrum Usage Charges’ will also examine the changes made in the licensing regime, the transition from the administrative allocation regime towards market-determined prices for spectrum, and the conclusion of tenure of many licences. The paper provides the relevant background information on the subject covering various issues involved.

On the definition of AGR specifically, the Authority had in 2012 recommended that only the revenue from the wireless services shall count towards AGR calculation for the limited purpose of calculation of Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) that would continue to be determined on service area basis, and should be levied only in respect of those service areas where the Licensee holds any access spectrum.

TRAI wants to know whether there is a need to review/revise the definition of GR and AGR in the different licences at this stage; the guiding principles for designing the framework of the revenue sharing regime; and whether the rate of licence fee (LF) be reviewed instead of changing the definitions of GR and AGR, especially with regard to the component of USO levy In the interest of simplicity, verifiability, and ease of administration.

The paper also wants to know whether the revenue base for levy of licence fee and spectrum usage charges include the entire income of the licensee or only income accruing from licenced activities if the definitions are to be reviewed/revised.

It has asked whether LF be levied as a percentage of GR in place of AGR in the interest of simplicity and ease of application, and should the revenue base for calculating LF and SUC include ‘other operating revenue’ and ‘other income’.

The government prepared a draft licence agreement for International Long Distance (ILD) services in September 2000 containing a provision that LF was payable as a percentage of revenue. For the Public Mobile Radio Trunk Service (PMRTS) too, the revenue share regime was made applicable from 1 November 2001.

The definition of AGR has been litigated since 2003. TSPs questioned the inclusion of various components of revenue in the reckoning of AGR as well as the legality of the definition before TDSAT. In 2006, TDSAT, after noting that revenue from non-licensed activities needed to be excluded from the reckonable revenue, asked TRAI to make recommendations on the inclusion or exclusion of the disputed items in the AGR. TRAI made its recommendations on 13 September 2006 and the Tribunal gave its final order in the matter on 30 August 2007 after accepting most (but modifying some) of TRAI’s recommendations.

In the course of finalising the recommendations of the Authority on the reference from TDSAT, the views of DoT were obtained by the Authority through its representative and incorporated in the “Recommendations on components of Adjusted Gross Revenue” dated 13 September 2006. The Authority was informed that the basic rationale adopted by the government while formulating the definition of AGR was that it should be easy to interpret – so as to pose fewer problems in application and less disputes and litigations, and to make it less prone to reduction in LF liability by way of accounting jugglery; and it should be easy to verify.

The TDSAT’s judgment of 30 August 2007 was taken in appeal by DoT to the Supreme Court and was set aside by its judgment on 11 October 2011 on the grounds, among others, that TDSAT had no jurisdiction to decide the validity of the terms and conditions of the licence including the definition of AGR incorporated in the licence agreement. It was for DoT – and not TRAI and TDSAT – to take a final decision on the definition of AGR. The Supreme Court also held that a licensee can raise a dispute about the computation of AGR relating to a particular demand and that TDSAT can then examine whether the demand was in accordance with the licence agreement and the definition of AGR.

The judgment of the Supreme Court settled important points of law and has clarified the nature of the contractual relationship between the government as licensor and the TSPs. The judgment also laid down the parameters of institutional responsibility in arriving at the contractual terms and conditions; it held that: Litigation regarding the computation of LF continues before the TDSAT in the case of individual demands made on TSPs. It has also been reported that writ petitions re-agitating the revenue share definition have been filed by TSPs in different High Courts.

September 1, 2014