ITV

Tag: Doordarshan

  • Final phase STB seeding is 35% even as deadline nears

    NEW DELHI: Even as the country has set a deadline of 31 March this year for full digitisation of cable TV, a Parliamentary Committee has been told that only 35 per cent seeding of set-top boxes (P-IV) has been achieved in rural India though the Parliament was told last week that 66.79 per cent (P III & IV) seeding had been achieved in the last two phases minus Tamil Nadu.

    Admitting that digitisation in the first phase is total minus Chennai, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology which also examines issues relating to the information and broadcasting ministry has been told that digitisation has also not been done in one city – Coimbatore – of Phase II in view of court cases though the other 37 cities having more than one million population and spanning 14 states and one union territory had been covered.

    The committee recommended that the I and B Ministry follow up the issue of financial and technical viability in rural and remote areas, promote and increase share of iCAS (Indian Conditional Access System) to leverage ‘Make in India’ programme, popularise Doordarshan Free Dish in small town/cities/rural and remote areas, address the legitimate concerns of domestic STB producers and rigorously pursue interoperability of STB with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

    The committee therefore expressed the hope that the I and B Ministry will be able to meet the targets of cable TV digitisation as almost all the pending cases have now been dismissed and there is no stay in any case except in case of Chennai and Coimbatore.

    Cable TV Digitisation in Phase III and Phase IV areas was to be achieved by 31 December 2015 and 31 December 2016 respectively, now extended to 31 January 2017 and 31 March 2017.

    Interoperability: TRAI working with IIT Bombay

    It was told that technical interoperability, as envisaged in the existing Direct to Home Guidelines has so far not proved to be effective due to various techno-commercial issues. The TRAI has decided to collaborate on the issue of technical interoperability with the Department of Electrical Engineering of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B).

    To ensure commercial interoperability TRAI has notified tariff orders and this has been challenged by a couple of DTH operators in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal and the matter is sub judice.

    The Committee was given to understand that after the roll out of iCAS in January 2016, about 10 million STBs have been installed by multi-system operators out of which about 300,000 are with iCAS, which gives a market share of about 3%.

  • DD national channel had a weekly viewership of 172 million in ’16

    NEW DELHI: The gross viewership of Doordarshan’s national channel in 2016 was 172 million per week as compared to 133 million per week in 2015 and 155 million per week in 2014.

    Minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore has told the Parliament that the computation had been done under the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS).

    Being a public service broadcaster, the minister said in reply to a question that the pubcaster cannot therefore be guided purely by Commercial motive to produce high TRP ratings programmes.

    Section 12 of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990, the primary duty of the Corporation is to organise and conduct public broadcasting services to inform, educate and entertain the public.

    In accordance with these objectives, Doordarshan produces programmes encompassing the objectives of public service broadcasting.

    He said that DD telecasts a variety of programmes for viewers in rural areas through its entire network of 23 Satellite channels (24X7) including six National, one International, and 16 RLSS (Regional Language Satellite Services) channels.

    Apart from this, Doordarshan has launched DD Kisan Channel to meet the special requirement of farmers and viewers in rural areas. Its programme content includes core agriculture, weather, rural development and entertainment for the benefit of viewers in general and farming and rural community in particular.

  • Prasar Bharati’s main role is of pubcaster, not revenue generator, says Rathore

    NEW DELHI: Stressing that revenue generation is not the main objective of Prasar Bharati, the Parliament was today told that the pubcaster is generating its revenue through Internal Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR) to meet its operating expenses.

    Minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said in reply to a question that the government was providing 100 per cent salary support to Prasar Bharati, apart from plan grant for creation of capital assets and content development.

    He said that Prasar Bharati’s primary mandate was to organise and conduct public broadcasting service with the intent to inform, educate and entertain the public and to ensure a balanced development of broadcasting on radio and television in the country.

    Listing various achievements as an outcome of measures taken in recent years, he said the capability of the direct to home platform FreeDish had been increased from 59 to 104 TV channels of which 80 are already on air, and orders had been placed for implementation of Indian Conditional Access System (iCAS).

    (DD sources told indiantelevision.com that these 80 were on MPEG-2 , while the remainder will be on MPEG-4 which has been tested and the auction process to fill those slots has already been initiated.)

    Apart from DD Kisan, the minister added, that 24-hour Doordarshan channels had been launched in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Saptagiri from Vijaywada.

    The technical facility for launch of new TV Channel DD Arunprabha for the north east had been completed.

    Earth stations had been set up at Indore, Rajkot, Vijayawada and Jalpaiguri and the earth station at Leh, Chandigarh, Hisar, Panaji, and Port Blair (except RF equipment) had been modernised.

    Other steps included:

    High Definition television (HDTV) studios set up at Delhi and Mumbai; digitisation of 39 studios; commissioning of a permanent studio set up at Dehradun; multichannel automated playback facility set up and installation of multi camera studio production facility in HDTV format in progress at Central Production Centre in Delhi; Media Asset Management for archive system set up at Kolkata; HDTV outside broadcast (OB) vans supplied at Delhi and Mumbai; and six Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) vans deployed.

    Referring to status of transmitters, he said 19 digital High Power Transmitters (Digital Video Broadcasting-and Generation Terrestrial) (DVB-T2) had been supplied and 16 digital HPTs commissioned; four HDTV transmitters supplied and installed; a HPT commissioned in Cannanore, apart from a Very Low Power Transmitter (VLPT) at Joginder Nagar.

    Ageing HPTs had been replaced by new 10 KW HPTs at 14 locations and 111 auto-mode LPTs supplied & commissioned.

  • MIB taking up EMMC contractual workers issues on top priority

    MUMBAI: Several hundreds contractual workers of the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC), which falls under the ministry of information and broadcasting yesterday protested in New Delhi. They were demanding increase in the duration of their contract period as well as wage hike.

    However, a ministry official said the demands raised by EMMC employees were “not new, and they are being taken up with top priority” by the ministry.

    In a memorandum to the information and broadcasting minister Venkaiah Naidu, the employees demanded raise in their salaries alleging that they had not got any hike in the last three years while the Central government employees were getting wages as per 7th Pay Commission recommendations. They also claimed that a majority of them had working there for around 7-8 years.

    The protesters, demonstrating outside the Shastri Bhawan, said that they were employed on contractual basis for three months. For the last three times, they claimed, that they were assessed on the basis of a written test while, earlier it was done on the basis of work. The employees said the workers in similar media organisations such as Doordarshan News were employed on a year’s contract, and were judged on the basis of work.

  • DD Arunprabha: Bids invited for channel packaging

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has invited applications for an agency to undertake the channel packaging work for its new northeast channel, DD Arunprabha.

    A tender was released today (10 March 2017) and the last bid date is 1 May 2017 evening at 3.00 pm. There will be a pre-bid meeting on 30 March 2017.

    The technical bids will be opened on 2 May 2017 at 3.30 pm.

    The date of presentation and the date of opening of the financial bids will be announced later. Online registration will be done on e-tendering website.

    Activation of registration may take 24 hours or more subject to the submission of all relevant documents required in the process, Doordarshan said.

    Meanwhile, the reference for proposal and details thereof are available on the pubcaster’s website as well as e-tendering websites.

    Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had earlier announced that a new dedicated Doordarshan channel Arunprabha would be launched erly this year.

    The channel would showcase richness, variety and diversity of local culture and would seamlessly integrate North East with the entire country.

    Also Read :

    North-East plan: DD channel Arun Prabha launch in early Jan; 90% subsidy for community radio

    DD 24×7 north-east channel starts on 25 December; Rs 7 crore allocated

    DD Arunprabha invites proposals in seven categories

    N-E programmes can be submitted  for DD Arunprabha till 31 Jan

     

  • Efficient management: DD implements online scheduling, billing & payment

    MUMBAI: Doordarshan has implemented the Broadcast Air Time Traffic Scheduler (BATS) for online commercial scheduling & billing as well as for payment through SBI gateway.

    This is a major initiative for bringing transparency and credibility in Doordarshan operations. In Phase-I , BATS has been made operational for DD National channel and DD Kisan channel. In Phase-II BATS is ready and live for DD News, DD Urdu, DD Bharati and DD Sports.

    It would be operational by March 2017. In Phase-III, BATS will be implemented in 16 Major Regional Kendras by July 2017.

    BATS has many advantages as the entire commercial billing and scheduling can be done online through user friendly and well protected software. The delay in preparation of bills, issue of telecast certificate, co-ordination in preparation of FPC & Inserting Commercials is no more. Keeping record of all the documents is now easier. This has resulted in faster communication among Programme Wing, Marketing Divisions and DCS apart from minimising scope of error.

    Apart from having a provision to generate commercial bill cum telecast certificate it has the provision to pay the bill online through SBI gateway thus it is very useful for Advertising Agencies/ Accredited Agencies too for online verification of bills and payments. With minimum human intervention and cross -checks, it would be a step further towards efficient management practices by the public broadcasters.

    This also is a step forward for enhancing transparency and credibility.

    Also Read:

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/terrestrial/doordarshan-employs-german-innovator-for-upgrading-news-studios-170225

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/terrestrial/freedishs-first-e-auction-after-upgradation-in-mar-170206

  • Doordarshan employs German innovator for upgrading news studios

    MUMBAI: India’s largest broadcast operation, Doordarshan (DD) reaches around 92% of the population and 81% of its territory. Government-funded, it is also the largest terrestrial network in the world, and among the largest in terms of studios and transmitters with more than 90 studios and relay stations spread across the Indian subcontinent. 

    In keeping with this standing, Doordarshan does not make equipment investments lightly, as was seen when it included Lawo mixing technology in a recent TV news studio upgrade at its New Delhi broadcast center.

    Systems integration for the Doordarshan Central Production Centre (CPC) project is being handled by Sun Broadcast, and has introduced the broadcaster to German technical innovator, Lawo.

    “We won the tender with a 40-fader mc²36 with 96+96 DSP channels – the first mc² series mixing console in DD,” confirms Tan Boon Siong, Lawo Sales Director for SE Asia. “As well as price, we won on our ability to meet all the technical requirements laid down by Doordarshan.”

    Planning for the work began in mid-2015, with the contract awarded 12 months later. The console order was placed with Lawo in October 2016. Presently, the installation is well underway with completion of commissioning set for the end of March.

    Providing national, regional and local programming, Doordarshan currently operates around 21 channels including DD News, DD National, DD Sport and DD Bharati. The refurbished studio will provide fully integrated operation with new and more advanced technology for DD News than DD has previously has at its disposal.

    Key to the selection of the mc²36 mixing system for the project was Lawo’s product reputation, customer support and German build quality. “We have complied with all the technical requirements of the studio design technical team,” says Tan Boon Siong. “Now the installation is nearly complete, with parameter verification, performance testing expected to take one year for the approval process.”

    Also Read:

    FreeDish’s first e-auction after upgradation in Mar

    TRAI for pvt players in DTT, suggests capping of transmitters

    Expedite Prasar CEO appointment, govt urged

    No plan to turn AIR, DD into corporate entities

  • No plan to turn AIR, DD into corporate entities

    No plan to turn AIR, DD into corporate entities

    NEW DELHI: The government is not considering any proposal to make Doordarshan and All India Radio as separate corporate entities, the Parliament was told.

    Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the two organisations are being professionalised in accordance with the recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee submitted three years ago.

    He said that a panel of secretaries had been set up to examine the report and suggest other ways to modernise the organisations. But, the panel had not submitted any report so far, Rathore said.

    (Prasar Bharati Board had set up committees earlier to go into the various recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee and some action has already been initiated, Ministry sources told indianteleision.com.)

    Prasar Bharati was established as an autonomous corporation on 23 November 1997 under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990. The Act provided full functional autonomy to Prasar Bharati. The general superintendence, direction and management of Prasar Bharati is vested in the Prasar Bharati Board which exercises all powers and does all acts and things on behalf of the Corporation, as enshrined in the Act including disciplinary and full supervisory powers over its employees.

    Prasar Bharati being the public broadcaster has been mandated to organize and conduct public broadcasting services with the intent to inform, educate and entertain the public. Since Public Broadcasting is largely non-commercial, the Government continues to financially support Prasar Bharati.

    Also Read:

    Expedite Prasar CEO appointment, govt urged

    Budget ’17: Prasar Bharati grant-in-aid down, film sector’s aid up

    Overhaul and strengthening of DD in full swing

  • Hinduja Group media head Mansukhani spells out priorities

    Hinduja Group media head Mansukhani spells out priorities

    NEW DELHI: The new CEO  & MD of Hinduja Media Group Ashok Mansukhani, a veteran of Indian media industry, has already got his priorities etched out and expressed willingness to work along with all stakeholders of the sector for the overall growth and mutual benefits.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, the bureaucrat-turned-corporate-executive Mansukhani said priorities included getting digital rollout of Indian TV services “back on track”, push for promotion of digitisation and increased education of consumers, explore how some of his cable segment colleagues could benefit from digitisation and last, but not the least, to work towards bringing other segments of the media and entertainment sector, including regulators and policy-makers, together so a conducive environment for a mature dialogue could be created.

    Indirectly admitting that digitisation had hit roadblocks in the last 12-18 months owing to several reasons, Mansukhani said while the third phase of digitisation is coming to an end, edges in the fourth and last phase need to be ironed out. “At the end of the day, it’s a matter of 73 million homes in small towns and hamlets in the last phase of digitisation and we cannot take the task lightly,” he explained.

    Mansukhani, a former Indian Revenue Service government official, has seen the Indian media industry (specifically the electronic medium) grow from staid Doordarshan days to the present vibrant — and possibly a bit chaotic — stage of evolution when the country has over 800 private sector licensed TV channels, several distribution platforms and approximately 50,000 cable operators. His stints at the pubcaster’s headquarters in New Delhi’s Mandi House area, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and later in the private sector with the Hinduja Group, puts him in a unique position.

    According to Mansukhani, who now will be heading the media assets of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, including MSO company IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd (IMCL) and the HITS venture, the Indian media and TV industry is at a critical stage of development and hinted increased litigation and face-off with the regulator and policy-makers could be detrimental  for the industry, which needs to come together to voice the genuine and common concerns of the industry.

    “I would also like to see and explore how we can help cable operator colleagues and others benefit from digitisation,” Mansukhani said, adding that a more concerted effort needs to be put in by stakeholders, including broadcasters, distribution platforms and the regulator, to educate consumers, especially those in small towns, about the long term benefit of digitisation despite the monthly outflow in subscription fee increasing a bit.

    “Consumer education is very important in general and especially for the fourth phase (of digitisation) homes. All of us need to support this education process as it would be beneficial for all stakeholders,” he said.

    Mansukhani comes in place of Tony D’Silva, who joined the Hinduja Group on 1 August 2012 as the president of Hinduja Ventures Limited and strategised the group’s media businesses. D’Silva had expressed a desire to demit office after completion of his contract on 31 January 2017 to pursue “other interests and spend more time with his family,” according to an official statement from the Hinduja Group.

    However, it needs to be seen how Mansukhani grows the comparatively new HITS business carried out under a separate group company, apart from tackling the challenges of IMCL, an MSO.

    ALSO READ:

    Ashok Mansukhani takes over as IMCL CEO & MD

    Distribution vet Tony D’silva departs from IMCL

  • Hinduja Group media head Mansukhani spells out priorities

    Hinduja Group media head Mansukhani spells out priorities

    NEW DELHI: The new CEO  & MD of Hinduja Media Group Ashok Mansukhani, a veteran of Indian media industry, has already got his priorities etched out and expressed willingness to work along with all stakeholders of the sector for the overall growth and mutual benefits.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, the bureaucrat-turned-corporate-executive Mansukhani said priorities included getting digital rollout of Indian TV services “back on track”, push for promotion of digitisation and increased education of consumers, explore how some of his cable segment colleagues could benefit from digitisation and last, but not the least, to work towards bringing other segments of the media and entertainment sector, including regulators and policy-makers, together so a conducive environment for a mature dialogue could be created.

    Indirectly admitting that digitisation had hit roadblocks in the last 12-18 months owing to several reasons, Mansukhani said while the third phase of digitisation is coming to an end, edges in the fourth and last phase need to be ironed out. “At the end of the day, it’s a matter of 73 million homes in small towns and hamlets in the last phase of digitisation and we cannot take the task lightly,” he explained.

    Mansukhani, a former Indian Revenue Service government official, has seen the Indian media industry (specifically the electronic medium) grow from staid Doordarshan days to the present vibrant — and possibly a bit chaotic — stage of evolution when the country has over 800 private sector licensed TV channels, several distribution platforms and approximately 50,000 cable operators. His stints at the pubcaster’s headquarters in New Delhi’s Mandi House area, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and later in the private sector with the Hinduja Group, puts him in a unique position.

    According to Mansukhani, who now will be heading the media assets of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, including MSO company IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd (IMCL) and the HITS venture, the Indian media and TV industry is at a critical stage of development and hinted increased litigation and face-off with the regulator and policy-makers could be detrimental  for the industry, which needs to come together to voice the genuine and common concerns of the industry.

    “I would also like to see and explore how we can help cable operator colleagues and others benefit from digitisation,” Mansukhani said, adding that a more concerted effort needs to be put in by stakeholders, including broadcasters, distribution platforms and the regulator, to educate consumers, especially those in small towns, about the long term benefit of digitisation despite the monthly outflow in subscription fee increasing a bit.

    “Consumer education is very important in general and especially for the fourth phase (of digitisation) homes. All of us need to support this education process as it would be beneficial for all stakeholders,” he said.

    Mansukhani comes in place of Tony D’Silva, who joined the Hinduja Group on 1 August 2012 as the president of Hinduja Ventures Limited and strategised the group’s media businesses. D’Silva had expressed a desire to demit office after completion of his contract on 31 January 2017 to pursue “other interests and spend more time with his family,” according to an official statement from the Hinduja Group.

    However, it needs to be seen how Mansukhani grows the comparatively new HITS business carried out under a separate group company, apart from tackling the challenges of IMCL, an MSO.

    ALSO READ:

    Ashok Mansukhani takes over as IMCL CEO & MD

    Distribution vet Tony D’silva departs from IMCL