ITV

Tag: Broadcasting

  • Where is the ‘News’?

    News is back,” said Anurradha Prasad at the launch of B.A.G Films and Media‘s Hindi news channel News24. Now does that simply indicate that news channels in India are currently devoid of “news” in its truest and purest form? A content analysis reveals something more…

    India‘s experience with TV remains unique. It is the only country in the world with more than three dozen 24-hour TV channels broadcasting programmes on news and current affairs, barely a quarter-century after the world‘s first 24-hour TV news channel (CNN or Cable News Network) came up in 1980. Till 1991, television viewers in India could view only the channels broadcast by Doordarshan. That landscape significantly changed with the invasion of private satellite news channels.

    Hindi news channels have been consistently accused of invariably having less news and more entertainment. Litres of ink and loads of paper have been spent, arguing that news channels are no longer part of the anti-establishment group as they carry only those stories that fetch them gold.

    Agrees IBN7 managing editor Ashutosh: “Over the last few years, the concept of news has changed. Even for those who used to watch political news, it is no longer a good proposition, as there are no charismatic leaders. The UPA government has not thrown up any leader worth following as news. Even the newspapers‘ political coverage has changed. All this has happened mainly because it is now all about eyeball chasing, and it is getting from bad to worse.”

    While speaking to indiantelevision.com earlier, Aaj Tak news director QW Naqvi had said: “Talking of the year 2007, I feel the audience has changed its choice and appeal. Issues like corruption don‘t appeal to viewers anymore. Maybe, people have accepted it as an integral part of our society. Therefore, an exposé featuring corruption doesn‘t interest the audience, to a large extent.”

    Undoubtedly there has been a paradigm shift of news. While many argue that news in itself has shifted its meaning, others ask who defines news. For some, naag-naagin shaadi (marriage of snakes) is just as important as a barbaric killing in Singur or Nandigarm.

    To further quote Naqvi: “No doubt, television news industry has grown at such a frantic pace that it has created certain pitfalls. All-out efforts in the past year were made to grab viewership. In this mad race, at times content was compromised and true journalism took a back seat. Compounding this malady, mushrooming news channels tended to water down the impact of many meaningful news reports.”

    Says Media Content and Communications Services (MCCS) managing editor Shazi Zaman, “Central to our selection of news is the impact it will have on people and the interest that people have in the story. The last few years have seen new viewers added, many of whom have non-traditional preferences. The changes in the content of news channels are a reflection of this shift.”

    In the last one or two years, it seemed Hindi news channels took a cue from the Hindi film fraternity. Whatever was hit in the news space was seen as a formula and followed thereafter.

    First came a wave of family drama, matrimonial discord, violence and divorce. Once it reached its fatigue, the audience got bored and the news content searched for a different formula.

    Then came ghost stories. News channels vied with each other for showing horror stories. While this content was very short lived, it was also alleged that some of the news reports were concocted.

    After ghost stories, came the Baba wave, followed by amazing videos. This was a completely new phenomenon. In these videos, channels showed people performing crazy feats. But finally this, too, seems to be nearing its end.

    Says Zaman, “Experimentation is the result of a desire to reach out to more and more people and to cater to as many tastes as possible. In 2007, news became more encompassing than ever before. Thus, it was no coincidence that the year of experimentation was also the year that saw genre expansion.”

    A study by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS) says that the three C‘s of cricket, cinema and crime lord over politics in Hindi news channels. The study shows that news channels have undergone a radical transformation, whereby news has not only changed in its definition and content, but also in the manner in which it is presented.

    Hindi news channels have seen a rise in comedy and reality show content, the emergence and establishment of trivia in news, and most significantly, the end of political news dominance.

    According to the CMS Media Lab, the time spent on political news in the year 2007 has come down by more than 50 per cent. Political news coverage by Hindi news channels has dipped from 23.1 per cent in 2005 to 10.09 per cent in 2007.

    On the other hand, sports, entertainment, crime and human interest news have managed to almost double up from 27.9 per cent in 2005 to 53.1 per cent in 2007. At the same time, agriculture, education, health and environment-related news have not seen any net change; their coverage has been as insignificant in 2007 as earlier.

    Ashutosh reverts, “Careful studies show that it is not sports coverage that has gone up, but cricket. There is hardly any non-cricket sports news. For the past two years, there have been so many controversies, and cricket news is being covered even for other reasons like Sourav being dropped, Rahul Dravid becoming the captain, the entire Chappell controversy. Secondly, in cricket India has been doing exceedingly well. So far as crime reporting is concerned, there is a lot of drama, and it is just right for television.”

    “Besides, the entertainment industry has grown tremendously, and they have realised the power of news channels. They are marketing their products through news channels, and all the big films have media partners,” he adds.

    News broadcasters also feel that serious stories without any element of drama have a short life in the Hindi news space.

    Naqvi points out that “Operation Kalank” (the Aaj Tak-Tehelka exposé on the connivance of state administration in sheltering and helping the riot accused in 2002) in a normal news environment would have shaken the foundation of governance in both Ahmedabad and Delhi.

    “But the shelf life of this haunting exposé was hardly a few days. It did shake up the intelligentsia and society for a while, but it was not the topic of discussion in most drawing rooms after even a week. Not much changed either. Even though our channels kept the issue alive for a few days, the story did not really move forward. And this, I presume, is largely due to a variety of news being aired by a host of channels.”

    He says further that there was another good story on another channel, portraying a major scandal in UP. That exposé showed how police in UP has surpassed all levels of corruption. For as little as Rs 3,000, police officers were acting as contract killers and shooting down people in fake “encounters.” This was not an insignificant story. Rather, it was a crucial exposé showing the depths of corruption within the police force. Had this story appeared a few years ago, it would have made national headlines and would have been the talking point for a long time. But in today‘s circumstances, it vanished from the scene within days and could not even attract print media‘s attention.

    A few broadcasters also believe that in the last two years there has been a clutter in the Hindi news space with some addition to it, which subsequently had its toll on the quality and focus of the content.

    “This has to be attributed to the overcrowding in the TV news space, which has reduced the audience attention span. There are so many news items being dished out that your interest in something of importance vanishes swiftly. Rather, to retain audience interest many a time too many stories are being splashed, so that the audience doesn‘t move away,” added Naqvi.

    A general rundown of Tam‘s (television audience measurement) top five programmes on Hindi news channels cannot be hard to guess: wrestler Khali, stand-up comedian Raju Srivastav, Lord Ram have been a hot favourite with the Hindi news channels in the past few months.

    Star News‘ comedy capsules edited out from Star One‘s The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, which is hosted by an anchor in a virtual studio with good number of ad breaks, has figured highest in the top five programmes in the last few months as per the data provided by Tam.

    Cricket has been featured differently in Ye Cricket Kuch Kehta Hain (Aaj Tak), Nach Le Cricket (Aaj Tak), Disco Cricket (Star news) while Khali has seen a variety of presentations like Khali Ki Khalbali, Khali Karega Khatma and Khali Sae Bali. Gods blessed the news channels in shows like Zinda Hain Rawan, Sabko Mil Gaye Ram and Kaise Dekhe Ram.

    Star News claims that in the week 9 ending 1 March, 41 per cent of the content in its channel was news bulletin while the rest was religious, crime and cricket-centric stories. Religious stories were 8 per cent while sports reviews, comedies, business shows, crime and thriller were 7 per cent each. Cricket-based shows grabbed 10 per cent while film shows managed 1 per cent of the entire content pie.

    One of the senior editors of a Hindi news channel vehemently opposes the Tam rating system. He argues that content is mainly driven by the Tam ratings. Explaining further, he says that most of the time the editorial is forced to do stories which categorically caters to the places or states where the Tam Peoplemeters are placed.

    A man hit by a bull in the streets of Delhi will get more coverage and footage than five men killed in Darjeeling or Assam. The reason is only that peoplemeters are located in places of Delhi and not in the hill zones. For a Delhite, the former story is about the neighbouhood which compulsorily gets more hits in the peoplemeter.

    “The content is decided by the geographical placement of the peoplemeter to get spikes in the ratings chart. Hence, some parts of India (where peoplemeter is absent) and some stories are left untouched or given very little importance,” says the senior editor.

    Another complaint of the news broadcasters is the heavy distribution cost. Broadcasters say more than half of the outlay goes in the distribution cost, which cuts other costs like human resources. That is why a reporter cannot be placed in the interiors as it has its own costs. A virtual studio ultimately becomes the easy answer.

    Ashutosh says, “Distribution cost has gone up tremendously because of the clutter of channels. This is in fact affecting quality as a lot of money from a fixed budget goes into distribution, and channels have not learnt to be patient enough to give quality products. If only we could be patient, a lot of difference could come in.”

    All said and done, Hindi news content is still doubted of its news value. Instances like a sting operation on a Delhi school teacher gone horribly wrong by Live India have forced the Information and Broadcasting ministry to consider taking the editorial reigns in its hands by the Broadcast Bill. Until then it is a merry time for all.

  • Budget, latest notifications push up STB production, broadcasting costs

     

    NEW DELHI: The measures suggested in the budget proposals for 2007 and the latest government notifications issued on 1 March, will not only make manufacturing of STBs dearer, they will also escalate manifold the price of broadcasting programmes.

    These are the conclusions, an exclusive analysis for indiantelevision.com by a senior tax expert on the matter have thrown up.

    The exemption from CVD has been withdrawn on specified parts of STBs, like tuners, RF Modulators and remote controls, according to Essel Group vice president and MSO Alliance leader Arvind Mohan.

    Mohan handles all the tax issues for the Esssel group.
     

    “Earlier, the exemption on CVD was granted by Notification No.21/2002-Customs. However, this has now been withdrawn vide Notification No.20/2007 March 1, 2007,” Mohan tells indiantelevision.com.

    Accordingly, he argued, now 16 per cent of CVD would be levied on the import of these parts. To that extent, the domestic production of STBs would become costlier.

    “It is quite surprising that though the CVD exemption benefit has been withdrawn from the specified part of STB, the exemption from levy of 4 per cent of Additional Duty of Customs in respect of cell phone parts, components and accessories, as was available only till April 30 2007, has been extended through the present budget proposals till June 30, 2009.

    “It is a clear-cut discrimination between the Telecom Industry and Broadcasting & Cable Industry,” Mohan says.
     

    Mohan shows also that the notification regarding the broadcasting sector would also shoot up their costs dramatically.

    Concessional rate of custom duty at the rate of 5 per cent was levied on the following items used in broadcasting sector vide Notification No.21/2002, on 14 major items. These are

    • Television cameras (with portable field video recorders (professional grade);
    • Audio recording equipment;
    • Tabletop post production video editing machines;
    • Four-source editing controllers to control editing machines;
    • Eight-channel video mixer/switches;
    • Special effect generators for fading and superimposing of text and graphics;
    • Time-base correctors/frame synchronisers;
    • Broadcast standard 3-D computer graphic systems;
    • Professional grade colour video monitors;
    • Portable lighting equipment with lamps for shooting in low light situation;
    • Professional-grade photographic cameras of all formats;
    • Darkroom equipment including enlargers;
    • Computer control editing machines;
    • And spares and accessories of above mentioned equipment as permitted by the Deputy Principal Information Bureau in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

    However, these concession have now been withdrawn vide Notification No.20/2007-Customs. Accordingly, now the basic custom duty at the rate of 10 per cent shall be applicable on all these items,” Mohan says.

    “Consequently all the related duties and taxes would also go up. What you must remember is that professional TV cameras, audio recording equipment, video editing machines, etc. are being regularly used by various channels, specially news channels in their day to day working. This move is likely to adversely affect all channels, including news channels.”

    He points out also that exemption from Customs Duty has been withdrawn on recorded magnetic films used for producing TV serials.

    These items will now attract peak rate of custom duty at the rate of 10 per cent.

    Similarly, the Excise Duty exemption on recorded video cassettes, U-matic tapes, Betacam, any similar format, etc. intended for TV broadcasting, has also been withdrawn and excise duty at the rate of 8 per cent has been imposed.

    “This move is also going to adversely affect the broadcasting sector,” Mohan argues.

    Despite announcements by the government and reiteration by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on the initiative to introduce digitisation in all the major cities of India by 2010 (Commonwealth Games), no fiscal concession has been extended in order to catalyse the process, he asserts.

    “This is clearly contrary to the approach adopted by the government for expanding telecommunication services, which were duly-supported by a lot of fiscal incentives and some of these incentives are still continuing.

    “In order to create a level playing field between IT, newspaper and TV sectors, it is imperative that similar fiscal concessions are extended to broadcasting and cable sector also, to realise the objective of digitisation,” Mohan argued.

    He stresses that while no fiscal concession has been extended for digitization initiative despite the representations and recommendations of Trai and the information & broadcasting ministry, a lot of concessions have been accorded to the delivery of content to cinema in digital form namely, which he felt was also discriminatory action.

    As examples, he shows that digital cinema development projects have been notified as project imports under heading 9801 and will thus attract the project rate of 7.5 per cent customs duty.

    The services provided in relation to delivery of content of cinema in digital form after encrypting electronically have also been exempted from the payment of service tax.

    “Similar concessions are required to be extended for promotion digitisation of broadcasting and the cable sector.

    “World over, there has been a migration from analogue to digital regime as analogue is increasingly becoming obsolete. In all countries, various concessions in the form of subsidies, fiscal incentives, tax holidays for establishment of digital infrastructure are being extended by the respective governments, Mohan says.

    He clearly asserts that creditable role of the government in the process of digitisation, but says that if the targets are to be achieved in the stipulated timeframe at the national level, the necessary support to boost digitisation efforts is required to be extended by the government, as have been done in case of telecom sector.

  • Media stocks under fire as Sensex crashes

    MUMBAI: Finance minister P Chidambaram‘s `no nothing‘ offer to the media sector came as no surprise except in the area of set-top boxes (STBs) where one thought a push would be given in terms of sops to boost the local manufacturing industry. There is very little that the Budget can offer in realistic terms and the past trend continued this time too.

     

    If the Union Budget 2007-08 hurt the media stocks today, it was more to do with the announcements that were made as part of an overall corporate sector tax policy. There were, in fact, three tax proposals that could pinch the industry but in varying degrees.

    First, and this will particularly hit the news channels, is the employee stock options (ESOPs) which are being brought under the fringe benefit tax (FBT) net. Listed companies like TV18 Group, NDTV and TV Today Network have been planning to use this as a management tool to retain talent in a media business that has recently seen a high attrition rate.

    Already NDTV‘s net profits have been eroded (for a few quarters) by a rise in personnel costs and ESOPs. TV18‘s policy has been to reserve a chunk of holding for the employees while TV Today has taken permission to offer up tp five per cent as stock options.

    The news channels took a beating today with TV18 dropping 4.47 per cent to Rs 578.70 on the BSE while Global Broadcast News slipped 6.08 per cent to Rs 572.80. NDTV, on the other hand, fell 2.26 per cent to Rs 318.50 but TV Today gained 1.7 per cent to Rs 134.85.

    Unlike IT companies which has built stock options into it, the media sector shouldn‘t be unduly alarmed. “There may be some cause for concern but it wouldn‘t have any major impact. Though it is becoming a trend, the media sector doesn‘t integrally have a big component reserved as stock options,” says an analyst at a broking firm.

    The dividend distribution tax, up from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent, will also impact the sector. But this could only be a minor shock as media companies are not well known for doling out huge dividends.

    The third, and probably most pinching of the lot, is the commercial property rentals that will now fall under the service tax bracket. If this does not exclude the entertainment sector (we are still awaiting clarity on this), multiplexes may find themselves in a spot of trouble. Most of them have ambitious expansion plans to spread across the country and do not see ownership of property as the only route to setting up screens in different locations.

    The multiplex companies went into a free-fall today as the scrip value dipped in the stock exchanges. Adlabs and Shringar ended four per cent down at Rs 423.65 and Rs 52.65 respectively while Cinemax fell 7.29 per cent to Rs 141.25.

    “If the multiplexes fall under the service tax net, it will have a more lasting impact on their bottomlines,” says an analyst.

    Meanwhile, UTV dropped 8.61 per cent to Rs 258.95 while Balaji Telefilms fell 7.58 per cent to Rs 114.05.

    Zee Group‘s Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL) also shed 6.5 per cent to close the day at Rs 102. While Cas (conditional access system) is slow to take off, the industry is still not clear whether there are incentives provided in the Budget for domestic manufacturing of set-top boxes.

    “Media stocks fell today along with the tumbling of scrips in other sectors like cement and IT. Besides, there was a global meltdown which cast its imfluence in India. It remains to be seen how long the Budget will cast its negative impact on the media stocks, but there is nothing that is deeply damaging,” the analyst adds.

     

  • Prasar Bharati grant down, fourfold increase in loans

    NEW DELHI: Even as the grant-in-aid to Prasar Bharati in the budgetary allocations for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for 2007-2008 has come down, there has been a more than fourfold increase in the loans to the public broadcaster over the current financial year.

    The loan to Prasar Bharati has been fixed at Rs 2,174.4 million as compared to Rs 411.1 million as sanctioned in the Revised Estimates for 2006-07. The grant-in-aid has come down further, from Rs 11,748.2 million in the Revised Estimates for 2006-7 (as compared to the Budgetary allocation of Rs 12,340.7 million) to Rs 10,639.3 million. All this is apart from the investment of Rs 2,174.4 million.
    In keeping with a decision taken with the budget for 2000-01, Prasar Bharati is being funded as a full-fledged autonomous body with effect from April 2000. The grant-in-aid is to cover the gap in resources of Prasar Bharati in meeting its revenue expenditure, while the loans are to finance the capital expenditure.

    The total budgetary allocation for the I&B Ministry for 2007-08 is Rs 16,818.4 million as compared to Rs 16,600 million in the Revised Estimates for 2006-07 (as against a Budgetary allocation of Rs 17,160 million in the Budget).

    While there is no announcement of any new programmes, the Budget document says the allocation of Rs 220.8 million for buildings and machinery includes funds for the multi-storey building of the Films Division in Mumbai, the Phase II building of the National Film Archives of India in Pune, and a mini Media Centre of the Press Information Bureau in Delhi.

  • IBF demands tax holiday, level playing field with print and telecom sectors

     
     

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Broadcasting Federation has sent several pre-budget demands to the ministry of finance, including the expansion of the definition of Industrial Undertaking under Section 72A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to include electronic media i.e. TV broadcasting, as well as exemption of cess charges and additional duty on STBs.

    It has also demanded that for the next 10 years, the government must reduce the base for Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) from 20 per cent to five per cent for the industry, as in the case of computer software industry, a senior official at IBF told indiantelevision.com.

    The IBF recommendations say that for the next 10 years, the government should exempt CVD, cess charges and additional duty on STBs to ensure that customers get STBs at reasonable prices.

    The Excise Duty should be zero to encourage indigenous production of STBs.

    The Customs and Excise Duties on all the other broadcasting equipment should be kept at par with the IT equipment, the IBF has demanded, seeking a level playing field for the electronic and print media.

    “We strongly recommend that the Government of India should exempt broadcasting industry from Service Tax as in the case of print media.

    The IBF reasons that Section 72A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, provides an incentive to robust companies to take over and amalgamate with the companies which would otherwise become a burden on the economy.

    The basic objective of Section 72A was to revive the financially weak businesses and synergise the business to achieve better growth, better profits, recovery of bad advances by banks and institutions, which will result in higher tax revenues, increase in employment ultimately leading to contribution to the economy.

    Section 72A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, defines the term Industrial Undertaking but does not seem to cover Broadcasting Industry.

    IBF feels that when this definition was introduced, industry was in a nascent stage and probably that is the reason it was not included in the definition of the ‘industrial undertaking’ though the print media does get covered under this definition.

    “We therefore request to favourably consider the matter and expand the definition of the term Industrial Undertaking to include the broadcasting industry,” the document said.

    “There are 112 million television homes in India and more than 68 million homes are connected to cable TV and these are increasing rapidly,” says the report in its preamble, arguing that .forr the majority of Indians, including the poor and non-educated people, television is the cheapest source of information and entertainment.

    According to the document, the industry produces approximately 6,00,000 hours of original programming annually for more than 300 TV channels, making it one of the biggest in the world.

    There are over 50 million viewers of Indian TV programming in neighboring countries and overseas creating a positive international image of India unlike any other media, the document asserts.

    It argued also that the TV channels spread a sense of unity and integrity in the country, as witnessed during Kargil War, Gujarat earthquake, the terrorist attack on the Parliament on December 13, 2001, the 2004 tsunami tragedy, and the most recent train blasts in Mumbai.

    On the issue of FBT too, the IBF has taken a strong stand of being discriminated against vis-?-vis other industries.

    “The Finance Act 2005 has considered 20% of the total expenditure under certain heads as being subjected to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT).

    “However, in industries such as pharmaceuticals, computer software industry, hotel industry etc., the value of fringe benefits for the purposes of computation of tax is taken at the rate of 5 per cent, which is a clear discrimination against television broadcasting industry,” the official said, quoting the IBF document.

    Explaining the nature of the industry, especially news channels, the document says that this involves extensive communication (telephone/mobiles) and use of vehicles for carrying performers, technicians, panelists, politicians and audiences and other celebrities who appear on the channels frequently.

    The news channels have to depute OB vans, cameramen and reporters for out door coverage of events and activities. The telephone also has to be used excessively.

    (Telephone charges as part of the salary paid for by the company to employees comes under the mischief of FBT, hence the demand for the reduction of FBT base from 20 to five per cent)

    the IBF has also claimed a level playing field vis-?-vis the IT industry in terms of benefits and concessions with regard to Customs and Excise Duties.

    “The Central Government, in the Ministry of Telecom and IT have amended the Trai Act and through Notification dated 9th January, 2004, the scope of the definition ‘telecommunication services’ has been expanded to include the ‘broadcasting and cable services’ also.

    “Thus, for all purposes, broadcasting and cable services are now telecommunication services,” the document delineates, hence the demand for being treated at par with the IT industry, so far as excise and customs are concerned.

    Therefore, the incentives/concessions granted to the IT sector, should be ipso-facto extended to broadcasting/cable services also and this may find a mention in all relevant notifications/circulars.

    “For example, as of now, Customs Duty+CVD+Cess for broadcast equipment is 36.64 per cent, whereas it is only 21.32 per cent for computers and four per cent for cellphones,” the document says.

    “Now in the convergence era the same STB / modem can be used for cable, DTH, IPTV and even cellphones. Therefore, Customs Duty on broadcast equipments should be at par with the IT Industry.

    IBF says also that Customs Duty on STBs was reduced to zero per cent in 2005, however CVD, Cess charges and additional duty comes to 21.32 per cent

    “In the interest of millions of TV households, the Government should exempt CVD, Cess charges and additional duty on STBs for next 10 years,” it has told the Finance Ministry, adding that in order to promote indigenous production, Excise Duty may also be exempted for a period of 10 years.

    The private Indian broadcasting Industry started only in 1992, and is still in a nascent stage.

    To meet the demands of the people, a large number of new TV channels are being launched and many of them have not been able to reach profit-making stage, explains IBF.

    The Industry is, therefore, not in a position to take the burden of Service Tax.

    The IBF document gives a detailed account of revenue and tax burden of the broadcasting industry last fuscal:

    The Total Electronic Media Advertising Revenue – Rs. 6,100 Crs. Prasar Bharti Advertising Revenue – Rs. 960 Crs.
    Private Channels Advertising Revenue – Rs. 5,140 Crs.

    Total Service Tax @ 12.24% on Rs. 6,100 Crs. – Rs. 747 Crs. 

    Service Tax Liability of Prasar Bharti – Rs. 118 Crs.
    Service Tax Liability of Other Channels – Rs. 629 Crs.

    Though service tax is levied on broadcasting media, print media is not attracting service tax even though it enjoys a larger share of advertising revenue.

    Total Estimated Advt. revenue (F.Y. 05-06) Rs. 13,300 Crs. (approx.)
    Print Media Rs. 7,200 Crs. (54%)

    Electronic Media Rs. 6,100 Crs. (46%)

    “Further, just like a page of the newspaper, the television screen is only a carrier of programmes and the broadcasting media should also, therefore, be exempted from Service Tax,” IBF has argued.

    In fact, IBF has pointed out the advantage of its medium vis-?-vis the print medium, saying that television industry is one step ahead of print media in providing information and education to the illiterates.

    It says that for the illiterate persons, visuals and the spoken word carry the education and information where the written word fails. In fact, the broadcast media is the only means to reach the illiterates which constitute 40% of our adult population and a significant number of youngsters, says IBF.

    “We would like to, therefore, highlight this discrimination against broadcasting media which has not been removed in spite of our repeated representations,” IBF has asserted in its memorandum.

    The IBF feels that news and current affairs channels do yeomen service to the nation and all are free-to-air, whose only source of revenue is advertisement.

    These require huge investments in infrastructure, human resource, etc.

    There are already more than 35 news channels and more are being launched every month, leading to scramble for the limited ad revenue pie. Service Tax on these channels therefore slowly lead to their deaths, IBF says.

    Ad spend to GDP ratio for India is one of the lowest at 0.34 per cent.

    It is 1.3 pet cent for USA, 1.0 per cent for Australia and even our neighbouring countries in South East Asia like Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore etc enjoy a high ratio of 0.8 to 1.0 per cent, IBF has shown in re document.

    While this indicates the potential available, but without government’s support like Service Tax holiday on advertisement revenue, the potential cannot be exploited to desired extent

    IBF has also argued that Service Tax pulls down consumption and hence economic growth. Lower consumption means lower overall tax revenues.

    “Service Tax is an unfair disadvantage for new Indian and foreign investors,” IBF has said.

    The Central Government vide Notification 6/2005 dated March 1, 2005 has granted an exemption to the service providers (small cable operators) whose aggregate value of taxable service for a financial year does not exceed Rupees Four Lakhs.

    Subscription revenue forms a significant portion of the revenue earned by any broadcasting company/agency and contributes to defraying the huge expense incurred on providing high quality content to the C&S viewing population.

    “It would be appreciated that the position adopted by cable operators (of not paying the service tax to the Broadcasters for service received by them) is causing irreparable harm to the operations of broadcasting fraternity; and is indeed causing revenue leakage to the government,” IBF says.
  • Tata Sky files case against Sun TV in Delhi High Court

    Tata Sky files case against Sun TV in Delhi High Court

    NEW DELHI: Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellite TV operator Tata Sky has approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to broadcaster Sun TV to share its feed. TataSky had filed the petition in this regard on 22 February.

    The petition said that though Tata Sky had filed a petition with TDSAT, the Tribunal was delaying issuing the necessary orders, due to which TataSky was not getting the feed from Sun TV, as a cosequence of which it was losing business.

    In its petition in the High Court, Tata Sky has alleged that Sun TV was violating the regulations of broadcast and cable sector regulator Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). A Bench comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice J P Singh asked Sun TV to file its reply and posted the matter for further hearing on 13 March.

    Tata Sky has contended that as per section 3.2 of Trai Regulations, no broadcaster can deny signals to any DTH operator or service provider.

    However, Sun TV has refused to do so by quoting very high rates. This amounted to violation of broadcasting guidelines of Trai, Tata Sky alleged.

    The company also said by such denial Sun TV, controlled by Kalanidhi Maran, was depriving its customers in the southern region from viewing many regional channels.

    It is learnt that TDSAT had asked Tata Sky to file written submissions and the case is still pending with TDSAT, but the DTH player meanwhile decided to approach the High Court.

  • Veteran journalist and ex-editor of ‘TOI’ Sham Lal is dead

    Veteran journalist and ex-editor of ‘TOI’ Sham Lal is dead

    NEW DELHI: Renowned journalist and former editor of The Times of India Sham Lal passed away this morning. He was 95.

    Lal is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. One of his daughters Neena Vyas is a journalist, working with the Hindu.

    For the last several years, Lal had been writing regularly for The Telegraph and occasionally for the literary journal Biblio: A Review of Books.

    Information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi condoled Lal’s passing away in a message: “I am deeply pained to learn about the sudden demise of veteran journalist Sham Lal. He was a thorough professional who would never compromise on the quality of his ‘report’ and was highly respected for his upright writing. Widely read and incredibly lucid, Sham Lal had a deep understanding of a wide range of subjects varying from politics to education to neo-liberalism. His sterling qualities of heart, endeared him to all who came in contact with him. His demise is a great loss for the country.”

    Born in 1912, Lal took a master’s degree in English Literature in 1933. He joined the Hindustan Times in 1934 and moved to The Times of India early in 1950. He became the editor of TOI in 1967 and retired in 1978.

  • Veteran journalist and ex-editor of ‘TOI’ Sham Lal is dead

    Veteran journalist and ex-editor of ‘TOI’ Sham Lal is dead

    NEW DELHI: Renowned journalist and former editor of The Times of India Sham Lal passed away this morning. He was 95.

    Lal is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. One of his daughters Neena Vyas is a journalist, working with the Hindu.

    For the last several years, Lal had been writing regularly for The Telegraph and occasionally for the literary journal Biblio: A Review of Books.

    Information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi condoled Lal’s passing away in a message: “I am deeply pained to learn about the sudden demise of veteran journalist Sham Lal. He was a thorough professional who would never compromise on the quality of his ‘report’ and was highly respected for his upright writing. Widely read and incredibly lucid, Sham Lal had a deep understanding of a wide range of subjects varying from politics to education to neo-liberalism. His sterling qualities of heart, endeared him to all who came in contact with him. His demise is a great loss for the country.”

    Born in 1912, Lal took a master’s degree in English Literature in 1933. He joined the Hindustan Times in 1934 and moved to The Times of India early in 1950. He became the editor of TOI in 1967 and retired in 1978.

  • India, Germany sign co-production agreement

    India, Germany sign co-production agreement

    NEW DELHI : India and Germany have signed an agreement on audio-visual co-production.

    Information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi and German foreign minister Dr Frank Walter Steinmeier signed the Agreement.

    The agreeement would contribute to facilitating co-operation in the film, videography, documentary, animation and audio industry in the two countries.
    Some of the salient features of the agreement are:

    – Films which are produced within the framework of this agreement shall be deemed national films. These films shall be entitled to claim the all state support benefits available to the film and video industries and the privileges granted by the provisions in force in the respective countries.

    – Contribution of the co-production partners includes at least one leading actor, one supporting actor and/or one qualified technical staff person.

    – The original soundtrack of each co-production film shall be made in Hindi language or dialect or, in English or German or in any combination of those permitted languages.

    – In the case of multilateral co-productions, the minority contribution may not be less than 10 per cent and the majority contribution may not exceed 70 per cent of the total cost of the film.

    – Even those films, which are produced in one of the two countries and where the minority contribution is limited to financial investment, may be granted co-production status according to this agreement.

    – The expenses incurred in the territories of both countries for the promotion of co-productions will be compensated within 2 years of the completion of the project.

    – A Joint Commission, which will be composed of representatives from the government and from the film, television and video industries of both countries will supervise and review the implementation and operation of the Agreement and will make the any proposals considered necessary to improve the implementation of the Agreement.

    – For approved co-productions, each country will facilitate entry into and temporary residence in its territory for technical and artistic personnel of the other country as well as the import into and export from its territory of technical and other film making equipment and materials by producers of the other country.

    – Applications for qualification of a film for co-production benefits must be made simultaneously to the competent authorities in both countries at least 30 days before the shooting begins. They should be accompanied by the final scripts and synopsis, documentary proof of having legally acquired the rights to produce the co-production and a copy of the co-production contract signed by the two co-producers for the sharing of revenues, markets, media or a combination of these.

  • Echostar buys a stake in South Korea’s TU Media

    Echostar buys a stake in South Korea’s TU Media

    MUMBAI: US satellite service provider Echostar has become the second-largest shareholder in South Korea’s TU Media.

    It operates a satellite digital mobile broadcasting (S-DMB) service.

    TU Media has raised $74.7 million.

    The company said that its largest shareholder, SK Telecom, and Echostar purchased 9.95 million new shares of TU Media to raise the company’s capital to 288.2 billion won.

    TU Media said that the partnership with Echostar would help accelerate its efforts to make inroads in overseas markets.

    In 2005, TU Media started the S-DMB service. This allows users to watch TV on a mobile device.

    The company cliams to have attracted more than 1 million subscribers for the fee-based mobile broadcasting service since its launch. It aims to raise the number to two million this year.