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Tag: CCEA

  • Prasar Bharati’s Shashi Shekhar Vempati on DD India revamp, OTT plan, TRAI tariff regime

    Prasar Bharati’s Shashi Shekhar Vempati on DD India revamp, OTT plan, TRAI tariff regime

    MUMBAI: Shashi Shekhar Vempati is the first private sector executive to have a place on the Prasar Bharati hot seat. He is also one of the youngest CEOs at the organisation and in 2017 propelled it towards becoming a corporate 21st century public broadcaster.

    The pubcaster isn’t buckling under to the digital wave. The new Prasar Bharati under his vision is ready for the digital era. Recently, Doordarshan revamped DD India to an English news channel. In the latest week’s Broadcast Audience Research Council data, DD India is ahead of all private English news channels in the core target audience of NCCS AB: Males 22+ individuals.  

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with Vempati to talk about the success of DD India after the revamp, tariff order and Doordarshan’s OTT platform plans. Here are the excerpts:

    How has DD India made it to top slot in English news list? Any change in programming line-up?

    I think this needs a little bit of clarification. We have always known that the English viewership base of DD News was always quite high, but then DD news being a bi-lingual channel over the years, was being measured and reported in the Hindi genre. So, as a result, there was no reflection in BARC data of the size of the English viewership.

    What has really changed is that last year the Prasar Bharati board took a decision that we will have an English news channel in addition to the Hindi news channel and we will eventually position it as our offering to the international space as well. The reason is India doesn’t have a strong global voice unlike BBC, Al Jazeera, Russia Today and CGTN. So, with that in mind, we re-positioned DD India as the English news channel, where the English content of the news generated by DD News will also go.

    Over the last six months, BARC has started measuring it, but they have not reported it. They started reporting it from January in the English news genre. What was already a reality is now getting publicised.

    How many hours of English content is there on the channel?

    Close to 70 per cent of the Fixed Point Chart (FPC) is English news and the rest is English documentaries as of now. But the work is in progress and over the next few weeks we will increase that and it will become a full-fledged English news channel. The next big thing will be DD News and DD India becoming full-fledged Hindi and English news channels respectively.  

    What is your point of view on mandatory sharing of sports feed with the public broadcaster? Will we see IPL this time on DD?

    See when ever such a consultation happens, MIB takes feedback of all the stake holders, so our role comes much later. At this time there is no such proposal to share IPL matches. If there is anything we will let you know.

    CCEA recently approved the ‘Broadcasting Infrastructure and network development’ scheme of Prasar Bharati. How do you plan to use the budget allocated for it?

    The scheme approved by CCEA will include some expansion, modernisation of studios and upgrading of satellite infrastructure. We have a long pending modernisation. (These are some long pending modernisation. Provisions have been kept for modernisation of existing equipment/facilities in studios which are essential to sustain the ongoing activities and also for High Definition Television (HDTV) transmitters at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.)

    What is the status of the proposed Doordarshan OTT platform? What type of content will the platform have?

    Sometime in 2019, we will get to it. Right now our priority is news. It is a little early to comment on that. Firstly, we have to get our basic digital assets in place, which is what we are doing right now with the rollout of our iOS and Android apps which happened on the budget day.

    We have about 55 or more active YouTube channels. Digitisation of the archive is happening. At some point in 2019 we will put out the OTT platform for some of the premium content and rare archive and upgraded content.

    What’s your take on the TRAI tariff order?

    I think India, as a market, is clearly innovating on pricing and this tariff order reflects that. It shows the move towards greater subscription-based revenues for the media industry and I think it is a positive move in that direction. From both consumer and the broadcaster standpoint it is a positive move. It also gives flexibility to the consumer.

  • DD Arun Prabha to launch on 9 February

    DD Arun Prabha to launch on 9 February

    MUMBAI: A fews days ago, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the launch of DD Arun Prabha channel for North East. The state will have its first dedicated 24×7 channel which will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) at Itanagar on 9 February 2019.

    Doordarshan director-general Supriya Sahu tweeted, “Congratulations Arunachal!!! Here we come. Cabinet has approved the launch of Doordarshan Arunprabha channel from Itanagar to fulfill the aspirations of the people of North east region.”

    In addition to this, 1,50,000 DTH sets have been approved for distribution in different states in the country which will help people in the border, remote, tribal and LWE areas to watch Doordarshan's DTH programmes.

    On the same day, the cabinet gave its approval to the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) regarding Prasar Bharati's "Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development" scheme at a cost of Rs 1054.52 crore for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

  • You Broadband-Vodafone proposal accepted, Atria & Netmagic FDI cleared

    NEW DELHI: The government has accepted a proposal by Vodafone India Ltd for acquisition of 100% shares of M/s You Broadband India Limited by way of transfer from resident shareholders and non-resident shareholder. A 100% foreign owned company, Vodafone, will invest Rs 550.9 million as direct investment.

    The finance ministry, on the recommendation of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board, has also accepted a post facto proposal of You Broadband India Limited for acquisition of 9,79,875 equity shares of its downstream company Digital Outsourcing Private Limited (DOPL) in lieu of issue of 20,58,759 equity shares to its resident shareholders by way of swap of shares. This does not involve any fresh inflow of FDI.

    A proposal by Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited for transfer of 0.99% of shares currently held by resident shareholders to the existing foreign investors Argan (Mauritius) Limited, Mauritius, and TA FVCI Investors Limited, Mauritius, and also for acquisition of up to 100% shares of the investee company by the foreign investors M/s Argan (Mauritius) Limited and TA FVCI Investors Limited, in future depending upon the exigencies of the remaining Indian resident shareholders. This will involve a fresh inflow of Rs 350 million in FDI.

    JC Decaux Advertising India Private Limited, an existing foreign owned company engaged in the activity of Out-of-Home advertising, has been permitted to bring in Rs 350 million for expansion of its business into telecom sector as a telecom infrastructure service provider.

    Netmagic Solutions Private Limited has been allowed to increase the foreign shareholding of the company from 81.63% to 100% by NTT Communications Corporation, Japan, with a fresh inflow of Rs 5.3383 billion FDI. FIPB has referred to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) a proposal by

    Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Limited, Singapore, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications, India, to acquire 100% shares of Reliance Global Cloud Xchange Limited. The amount involved as FDI is Rs 7.89 billion.

    (It may be recalled that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his budget on 1 February announced his proposal to scrap the FIPB.)

  • Tele-components co Twinstar to bring in Rs 9k-cr FDI

    MUMBAI: Twinstar Technologies is among the 15 proposals worth Rs 12,200 crore on Monday cleared for foreign direct investments into India. Twinstar proposal will however also require the approval of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA).

    Twinstar specialises in Optical Communications Passive Components for telecommunication and focuses on providing low-cost and high quality products for the rapidly developing FTTH market.

    The inter-ministerial body Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), led by the economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, cleared the 15 of the 24 proposals it discussed, while deferring six and rejecting three proposals. Proposals which got the green signal primarily included Twinstar’s Rs 9,000-crore proposal, Apollo Hospitals’ Rs 750 crore proposal, and a proposal of Vodafone India, an official from the finance ministry said.

    Proposals of Hindustan Aeronautics and Dr Reddy’s were also approved.

    Also Read:

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/regulators/ib-ministry/idea-star-den-among-rs-1200-cr-fdi-proposals-approved-latter-to-switch-to-investing-biz-170120

  • Prasar Bharati to be upgraded as MIB plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore in it

    Prasar Bharati to be upgraded as MIB plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore in it

    MUMBAI: The government broadcaster, Prasar Bharati is set to see a major advancement. Reportedly, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is planning to invest close to Rs 3,500 crore on upgrading the pubcaster’s broadcast infrastructure and network development, especially in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern states.

    According to a report by The Hindu Business Line, the proposal has been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee and is up for approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). “The funds are expected to be used to strengthen the transmission in border areas by augmenting the broadcast infrastructure so as to counter anti-terrorist activities, among other initiatives,” reveals the daily.

    Apart from this, the fund is also expected to be used for digitisation of transmitters and studios of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, High Definition TV, expansion of DD Direct to Home and modernisation of DD and AIR. 

    Reportedly, the Ministry is already monitoring this project through inter-ministerial meetings with representatives from the Ministries of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Defence, and the Cabinet Secretariat, among others.

    Currently, 273 TV transmitters are operational in the border districts. “In J&K, five high power TV transmitter projects are under implementation, while plans are afoot to put in more transmitters in the Indo-Nepal border,” reports the daily.

  • Prasar Bharati to be upgraded as MIB plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore in it

    Prasar Bharati to be upgraded as MIB plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore in it

    MUMBAI: The government broadcaster, Prasar Bharati is set to see a major advancement. Reportedly, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is planning to invest close to Rs 3,500 crore on upgrading the pubcaster’s broadcast infrastructure and network development, especially in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern states.

     

    According to a report by The Hindu Business Line, the proposal has been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee and is up for approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). “The funds are expected to be used to strengthen the transmission in border areas by augmenting the broadcast infrastructure so as to counter anti-terrorist activities, among other initiatives,” reveals the daily.

     

    Apart from this, the fund is also expected to be used for digitisation of transmitters and studios of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, High Definition TV, expansion of DD Direct to Home and modernisation of DD and AIR.

     

    Reportedly, the Ministry is already monitoring this project through inter-ministerial meetings with representatives from the Ministries of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Defence, and the Cabinet Secretariat, among others.

     

    Currently, 273 TV transmitters are operational in the border districts. “In J&K, five high power TV transmitter projects are under implementation, while plans are afoot to put in more transmitters in the Indo-Nepal border,” reports the daily.