ITV

Tag: Broadcasters

  • Parliamentary panel pushes for TRAI’s empowerment

    Parliamentary panel pushes for TRAI’s empowerment

    MUMBAI: Parliament’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Communications (SCIT) wants more regulations for the broadcast industry. Finding the current powers given to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) inadequate, it has recommended that either the scope of its authority be increased or the broadcast industry be given its own regulator.

    In the committee’s report on ‘Status of Cable TV Digitisation and Interoperability of Set-top Boxes’, it noted that since 2004, when the TRAI was entrusted with the responsibility to oversee the broadcast sector, the industry has seen enormous growth in the number of satellite TV channels, DTH services, digitisation of cable TV networks, and TV ratings agencies. With its limited ability, TRAI has efficiently handled issues to bring about transparency and non-discrimination, improve the quality of service and allow the sector to grow.

    It noted that TRAI recommendations were the basis for the government to form several policy decisions. “The committee is, however, constrained to note that TRAI at present has got very limited powers due to which enforcement of its regulations, directions and tariff orders becomes difficult,” the panel mentioned.

    Several services providers have freely violated TRAI orders and cases against them were filed in pertinent courts. The committee doesn’t find this an effective way to get the broadcast industry to fall in line with rules. The TRAI’s recommendations of modifications to its Act are under consideration by the government.

    The committee has suggested the government to evaluate the need for a separate regulator for the broadcast industry and, until such a time, the TRAI be empowered for effective enforcement of its regulations.

    It appreciated the efforts taken by TRAI to regulate pricing of set top boxes, but strongly recommends for unbundling of hardware and associated services and making provision for itemised billing for hardware as well as associated services such as installation, activation and maintenance and providing more option to the customer to procure similar compatible hardware from the open market.

    The TRAI’s effort on addressing carriage fee details was also lauded by the committee. It stated that “despite extreme reluctance on the part of broadcasters to share the details of the carriage fee”, it has now addressed the issue in its new regulatory framework capping it at 20 paise per subscriber per channel and which is expected to further decrease till zero when 20 per cent of subscribers will be available on the platform who choose the channel. Though this decision is being scrutinised at the High Courts of Delhi and Chennai, the committee hoped the TRAI’s efforts will go a long way in addressing the issue to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

    Also read:

    TRAI on carriage fee, other issues in draft interconnect guidelines

    TRAI tariff order’s impact on the industry

  • TRAI orders broadcasters to remove analogue RIOs from website

    TRAI orders broadcasters to remove analogue RIOs from website

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has ordered cable TV service providers to stop displaying any reference interconnect offers(RIO) for analogue platforms.

    Broadcasters have been warned not to show any analogue RIO on its site and also refrain from making direct or indirect offers to allow their TV signals to be shown on analogue cable TV networks. MSOs have been told not to entertain any unencrypted signals on their cable TV networks.

    The TRAI has taken note of some broadcasters who have been avoiding this and continue to display analogue RIOs. “TRAI has written letters to such broadcasters individually whose analogue RIOs were found on websites,” it said.

    The necessity of the order is because 31 March 2018 is the last date for implementing Phase IV of the digital addressable cable TV systems (DAS) after which only digital encrypted signals can be carried in the country. Carrying unencrypted signals after this date will be a violation of Section 4A of the Cable Television Network (regulation) Act 1995.

  • Broadcasters, OTTs to gain as Via adds xHE-AAC at special rate

    Broadcasters, OTTs to gain as Via adds xHE-AAC at special rate

    MUMBAI: Via Licensing Corporation, a intellectual property solutions provider, has announced the upcoming availability of Extended High Efficiency AAC (xHE-AAC) as part of the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) patent pool. The expanded patent pool licence will be available at no additional cost to licensees, starting in Q4 of 2017.

    DRM receiver manufacturers deploying the xHE-AAC technology will be able to gain from special rates for emerging markets (which were earlier only available to AAC licensors) such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, most African countries including South Africa, most Arab countries, most South American countries including Brazil.

    Via and AAC licensors are taking steps to encourage and accelerate the adoption of xHE-AAC, the most recent and advanced member of the AAC family of audio codecs.

    “The addition of xHE-AAC technology increases the value of our AAC patent pool licence,” said Via Licensing president Joe Siino. “Adding xHE-AAC to our patent pool ensures that broadcasters and service providers can deliver the next generation of audio to consumers efficiently and affordably.”

    Previously, xHE-AAC technology could only be used in devices if manufacturers paid for an additional licence in addition to an existing AAC licence. By bringing xHE-AAC into its AAC patent pool, Via grants licensees access to xHE-AAC rights at no additional cost, and reduces average per-unit cost through greater volume aggregation across all AAC related products.

    xHE-AAC combines two MPEG technologies, High Efficiency AAC v2, and Unified Speech and Audio Coding (USAC). It is designed to support the delivery of mixed speech and general audio content including music on mobile devices, radio broadcasts, and wired streaming (OTT) services. xHE-AAC provides exceptional audio quality using low bit rates delivering a listening experience suitable for mobile devices, and can scale-up to offer audiophile-quality reproduction. The reduced bit rate helps mobile broadcasters and streaming audio providers distribute their content more efficiently. Consumers are able to enjoy high quality audio reproduction at lower bit rates which lowers their data consumption and costs.

    Applications for MPEG xHE-AAC include digital radio broadcasting, streaming over mobile and wired networks, and terrestrial radio. It has already been adopted for the Digital Radio Mondiale (“DRM”) broadcast standard and is currently in use on DRM transmissions around the world.

  • Publicise ‘Mission Indradhanush’ & GST, broadcasters told

    NEW DELHI: All satellite television and private FM channels have been asked by the government to give adequate publicity to ‘Mission Indradhanush’ launched to expand immunisation coverage to all children across India.

    The broadcasters have been asked by the ministry of information and broadcasting to give publicity in a befitting manner pro bono as part of their corporate social responsibility activities, keeping in view the significance and meaningfulness of this cause.

    All private satellite TV channels have also been asked to give adequate publicity to the Goods and Services Tax which became effective on 1 July 2017. The ministry has put on its website some scrolls that can be run by the TV channels.

    The Indradhanush Mission is aimed at children who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B.

    The Ministry notes that the electronic media has always been in the forefront to carry such message as “it is a powerful tool to reach out to the people across the country.”

    “ln order to make this mission a success, it has been felt that support, assistance and contribution of private TV channels and FM radio channels will be of immense use,” the Ministry has said.

    The notes by Amit Katoch who is director (broadcasting) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said the GST Cell is organising a GST Awareness campaign named ‘Manthan’ and has suggested some scrolls that should be run. 

    Also Read:

    GST webpage created on PIB website

    ‘Info & cyber insecurity’ biggest risk in biz ops: Survey

    Maharashtra CM supports film industry’s demand for 18% GST

  • Landing page a promotional tool, works only for a finite period, says Chrome DM CEO

    In the television news ecosystem, the latest battle that has burst out is that of landing pages on distribution platforms such as DTH and cable TV operators being hijacked by older rivals for promotional feeds. Chrome DM founder and CEO Pankaj Krishna spoke to indiantelevision.com (excerpts):

     

    After Dual LCNs, channels taking over landing pages seems to be the latest trend. Your take?

    If you look at historical trends, broadcasters have been actively using landing pages to garner trials and thereby viewership for years together. The idea was that higher the availability, the greater the chances that the channel would attract repeat viewing. Until about a year back, MSOs had been monetising landing pages as a source of additional revenue stream by running promos and commercials. But broadcasters taking over landing pages in totality had actually started as a deal between a major broadcaster and a big MSO, and was quickly replicated by others.

    In more recent times however, it is the media coverage of the competition in the English News genre which has actually brought it to the forefront.  

    What we have also seen is that there seems to be an effort to achieve Dual LCN through the surrogate route of being present on the landing page, and then again at the channel’s usual point of placement. I would also like to add that, strictly speaking, a channel’s mere presence on the landing page does not automatically denote it being present on Dual LCNs. In other words, all landing pages do not constitute dual LCN.

    How does taking over a landing page increase viewership?

    According to Chrome OAP, when you switch on your TV, it takes an average time of 43 seconds to arrive at the desired programme or the channel, thus potentially adding to the landing page’s viewership under the present ratings system.

    In terms of trends, where is the landing page phenomena going/headed?

    According to the Chrome Landing Page Report (LPR), in Week 22 between 27th May and 2nd June, the Teleshopping genre has the highest instances of landing pages at 178 counts, followed by Hindi GEC and English News.

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    Source: Chrome LPR, Wk-22 (27th May to 2nd June)

    If you compare this data with data from the past few weeks, I am glad that there has been a considerable fall in the number of landing pages across genre s. Furthermore, if we examine data region-wise, compared to metro cities, the landing pages have been most visible in smaller market segments. For example, UP with a 1-10 lakh population segment has witnessed maximum instances of landing pages followed by Maharashtra and Goa. Interestingly, Kerala in its 10-75 lakh market category had the third largest number of headends with instances of landing pages. If we go a step further and make a content-wise assessment, it is teleshopping which emerges as the top genre with instances of landing pages followed by Hindi GEC and English News. Yet the over-all trend seems somewhat inconsistent in view of the fact that the landing pages on channels for kids had shot up almost three times in the 22nd week before taking a drastic plunge in the third week. Moreover,

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    Telugu channels have been relatively flat through the three weeks.

     

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    Source: Chrome LPR, Wk-22 (27th May to 2nd June)

    But, wouldn’t MSOs be the bigger beneficiaries here?

    It is certainly an additional source of revenue generation for the MSOs considering that the landing page is priced on the higher side. For broadcasters on the other hand, they get to increase their viewership as well as the OTS (Opportunity-to-see). Based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation, on DTH platforms, it could run into almost Rs. one crore a day!

    How ethical is it to resort to landing pages to increase viewership?

    From the broadcaster’s standpoint, the concept of landing page as of now is open-ended. Otherwise, this would amount to a clear distortion of market stemming from exorbitant biddings offered to Multi system operators (MSOs) and the DTH Operators, who control landing pages.

    Given the tricky nature of the subject, it’s a matter of subjectivity and only the designated regulators can take a call, one way or another. I would say that taking over landing pages to boost viewership should not be used as it would force others to follow suit thus eventually triggering a bidding war.

    As a matter of fact, landing page is a promotional tool which works only when it is utilised for a finite period. If allotted to broadcasters, it would make no sense as it would amount to converting a neutral advertorial space to a full-time channel effectively, unfair for the rest of the competition.

     

  • Child Rights Award ’17: A call to broadcasters

    MUMBAI: ABU, CASBAA and UNICEF are calling for entries for the 17th Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award from broadcasters and producers in the region.

    Programmes both for children and about children are eligible and can cover any children’s rights issue. Entries can include documentaries that detail the plight of children, dramas that help break down stereotypes and discrimination, or animation that teaches and entertains.

    Entries must have been broadcast between June 2016 and June 2017 and must be received by 30 June 2017. The Award will be presented during the CASBAA Convention in Macau in early November 2017.

    Eligible countries/territories: Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Republic of Korea, DPR Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand , Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

    This competition is open to all ABU and CASBAA members in the Asia-Pacific region. A full list of countries can be found on the website.

    To join the competition, please submit your entries) online at https://goo.gl/vKWqd5

    ABU is a non-profit, non-government, professional association of broadcasting organizations, to facilitate the development of broadcasting in the Asia–Pacific region. CASBAA is the association for the multichannel audiovisual content creation and distribution industry across Asia. UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child.

  • Analogue signals: MIB to take action against defaulters

    NEW DELHI: Reiterating the switch-off of analogue signals of cable television from 1 April 2017, all broadcasters, MSOs and local cable operators were today warned by the Indian government that action would be taken against defaulters.

    Issuing a notice, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) instructed all stakeholders to ensure that no analogue signals are transmitted over the cable networks in phase IV areas after 31 March 2017.

    The notice said the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act 2011 had made it mandatory for switch-over of the existing analogue Cable TV networks to Digital Addressable System (DAS) in four phases. Digital switch-over has already taken place in phases I, II and III.

    The Ministry by notification of 23 December 2016 last had extended the cut-off date for phase IV of cable TV digitisation to 31 March 2017.

    Also Read:

    Final phase STB seeding is 35% even as deadline nears

    DAS deadline extension ruled out, govt claims 66% seeding done

    TV industry gives mixed reaction to MIB’s DAS III & IV extension

    DAS 4 deadline extended to 31 Mar

  • BT Media distributing Colors HD to Sky UK subs

    MUMBAI: BT Media & Broadcast, the global media services business of BT last Friday evening announced its association with Viacom18, one of India’s fastest growing entertainment network, to bring its flagship Hindi general entertainment channel, Colors, to Sky TV subscribers in the UK in High Definition (HD) format starting 14 February 2017. 

    BT will manage the channel’s distribution into London’s BT Tower via its dedicated, high capacity Global Media Network (GMN), and fully manage the uplink and downlink of the signal to and from the satellite which will beam the channel into people’s homes.

    Colors is renowned in India and other markets around the globe for its Indian adaptations of popular UK entertainment formats like Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars. Its availability in HD starting this week, marks the first time that Viacom18 has brought HD content to the UK market. This move is expected to not only attract new viewers but also enhance the overall viewing experience for its existing UK audience. Viacom18 broadcasts more than 36 channels in India, including some of the top performing channels such as Colors, MTV, Rishtey, etc.

    Commenting on the HD feed, Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats said, “Over the past few quarters we have been focused on accelerating the expansion of our global footprint. Our maiden association with British Telecom will take our flagship channel Colors HD into the homes of Sky TV subscribers, providing them with access to not only the best of Indian content but also an enhanced viewing experience.”

    Adding further, Viacom18 CEO – Hindi Mass Entertainment, Raj Nayak said, “The quality of the viewing experience is so much better in HD, offering customers a more compelling and higher quality viewing experience. With Colors introducing HD feed in the UK market, we are looking forward to a deeper connect with not only the viewers in the region but also the advertisers.”

    Commenting on the launch of the HD feed, IndiaCast Group CEO Anuj Gandhi said, “Colors UK has been providing quality content options to the audience in the UK for over seven years. Our partnership with Sky and BT for the launch of the HD feed is testimony to our commitment towards showcasing top-notch video quality to viewers, making Colors UK HD the top-of-mind entertainment destination for viewers.”

    BT Media and Broadcast VP Mark Wilson-Dunn said, “Today’s deal with Viacom18 is a significant one for our growing Asian business. Viacom18 is one of India’s biggest and most recognized entertainment brands and we’re really excited to be helping it to capture larger UK viewing audiences by supporting its new HD offering. Culturally, TV plays a major part in keeping people of Asian origin living in Europe and other parts of the world connected with their families and heritage. Our role in helping to do that is something we are very proud of.”

    “Our Global Media Network helps broadcasters and entertainment companies from all over the world to expand and succeed in new markets. Any by providing a future-proof path to upgrade to HD and UHD content distribution services, industry leading levels of reliability and 24/7 performance monitoring, there’s no better choice of partner than BT.”

    BT Media and Broadcast is active in the Asia-Pac region, where the bulk of its business involves carrying local TV channels across it GMN for distribution to people of Asian origin in UK, Europe, USA and Canada, where they are broadcast to air by companies such as SKY, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish and Rogers Cable. Currently, BT Media and Broadcast carries more than 100 TV channels from India for this purpose alone.

    BT’s GMN is a purpose built network designed to meet the needs of media and broadcast companies and is capable of delivering fast, reliable and secure LIVE TV and media files to major locations across the globe. It is a proven, high-capacity IP based network that has already successfully delivered live international transmissions of 4k UHD events. Using the latest MPLS and IP technologies, it delivers LIVE, high quality, uninterrupted video content to over 40 major media gateways worldwide.

    Also Read:

    VH1 Supersonic ’17 to hit big, 20 sponsors on board, more IPs in pipeline

    Vh1 to air Grammys, Beyoncé leads: pub screenings in 12 cities

    Free Colors HD on Sky in UK from 14 Feb

     

     

  • Advertisers target rural north & south zone on serials & film-based content: BARC

    Advertisers target rural north & south zone on serials & film-based content: BARC

    MUMBAI: None realised the importance of rural market until BARC India started monitoring viewing habits in the countryside. After the TV audience measurement system gave its ratings, the industry woke up to the potential of this market.

    A recent newsletter released by BARC India emphasises on the viewing habits of the viewers on different fronts.

    From one front,  this research explores the advertisers and marketers targeting north and south zone on serials and film-based content to reach their respective audience.

    On an overall level for rural India, serial-based programmes secure the highest share, followed by film-based programmes. This pattern is consistent across zones with the exception of south India. Viewership for serials is driven majorly by the north zone while film-based programmes have maximum viewership in the south zone, which does not come as a surprise.

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    Most of the programme themes are driven by south zone. The only exception is music which is driven almost entirely by the north zone. For broadcasters in the serials and music genre, north rural market is the key.

    For advertisers and marketers targeting north and south zone, serials and film-based content will be the ‘Holy Grail’ to reach their audience respectively as over 30 per cent of the viewership is attributed to each of these content types across zones.

    For marketers targeting west or east zone, frequency-based plans yield results easily. On the other hand, for those targeting north, reach-based plans may be more achievable.

    On an overall level, the south zone registers the highest reach and ATS ( Average Time Spent) among the four zones in rural market. Looking at the west zone, ATS is the second highest after south zone. However, it has relatively lower reach. This shows that audience in the western rural market has lower reach but they spend a high amount of time consuming television content. Conversely, the north zone has the lowest ATS but has a comparatively better reach. One can infer that audience in the north zone does not stick to television viewing for as long as those in other zones.

    The rural viewership pattern

    Urban and rural India follow distinctly different viewing patterns across the day. Rural India starts its day much earlier than urban India around 5am, and continues to have higher viewership until 9am.

    Post 9am, urban India’s viewership catches up and has higher viewership than the rural India throughout the afternoon and evening. Both, urban and rural India see a marginal peak during 2-230pm. However, rural India sees an early spike for prime time as compared to urban India. The highest viewership in rural India is generated during the time-band 830-9pm followed by the time-band 8-830pm.

    Viewership starts declining around 1030pm hinting at an early wrap-up for the day for the rural audience.

    If one compares all the four zones in the rural market, it seems like the viewership is driven by southern rural market followed by the west zone. The lowest viewership in rural market can be observed in the north zone which has the lowest average rating percentage for the entire day.

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    If one looks at the zone-wise viewership, both weekdays and weekends are driven by the south zone followed by west zone. Overall viewership for weekends is marginally higher than weekdays for rural India. At the zone level, this increase for weekend viewership is the maximum for the west zone and the least for the east zone.

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    Viewership differs during prime time

    Millennials in rural India could be the next big target for broadcasters and advertisers to hold on to.

    Viewership in India during prime time is equally divided among both the genders. However, if compared by the four zones, north and west zone have a higher percentage of male viewers (51 per cent  and 52 per cent, respectively) and Millennials (age-group 15-30) form the largest percentage of audience in rural India. The pattern is the same among all the four zones with the exception of south where Gen X (age group 31-50) forms the largest percentage of the audience.

    NCCS C (New Consumer Classification System) has the highest share of viewership among all zones in rural India. While the west zone and the east zone display a composition similar to rural India, the north zone and south zone have some variations. The north zone has a substantially higher composition of NCCS A & NCCS B, while the contribution of NCCS C is lower than the rural India average. Conversely, in the south zone, the contribution of NCCS A is low.

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    Surprisingly, film-based programmes, which have the maximum reach during prime time, have one of the lowest stickiness across rural India for all the four zones. Game/talk/quiz and lifestyle-based programmes can hold the audience for long as they have a healthy ratio for reach to fidelity. In rural India, stickiness for serial-based programs is the highest across programme themes.

    Surprisingly, it is driven mostly by south zone, which had the lowest reach among all zones for this content. Interestingly, if one compares this to the audience composition analysed above, north zone and west zone, which have a higher percentage of male audience, also see higher stickiness for sports programmes. Lifestyle-based content in terms of stickiness has much better ratio of reach to fidelity across zones.

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    Ad sector popularity

    The top ad sectors by viewership during prime time in rural India are personal care/hygiene, food & beverages, hair care and services etc.

    Personal care/hygiene and hair care sector have a higher share in the north zone. This can also be seen while comparing all the zones for the ‘personal healthcare’ category, where again the north zone takes the lead.

    On the other hand, the south zone is more inclined towards categories such as food and beverages, auto, durables and personal accessories.

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    Switching pattern for GEC & movie genre

    Since most of the TV viewership is generated by GEC and the movie genre, it would be interesting to understand the switching pattern of rural India on a day-part level.

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    As observed in the paragraphs above, throughout the day, most of the switching to or from a channel genre happens due to audience switching the TV on or not. However, it declines during the later time-bands. The only exception is 6pm to 12 midnight where switching between movies and GEC is higher than viewers switching TV on during that time-band (with movies as reference). On comparing switching from movies to GEC genre, switching percentage remains almost comparable throughout the day.

    On the other hand, switching from GEC to movies declines during later time-bands. On an overall level, switching from GEC to movies is seen more often that the switching from movies to GEC.