ITV

Tag: DTH

  • IBF to intervene in TRAI’s SC petition on 15% discount cap

    IBF to intervene in TRAI’s SC petition on 15% discount cap

    MUMBAI: The TRAI tariff order, which remained a topic of intense debate and discussion in 2017 and 2018, is likely to dominate discourse early on in 2019 too, at least from a legal standpoint as the Supreme Court resumes work after the winter vacations.

    A source close to the development has told Indiantelevision.com that the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is set to intervene in the matter — a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the regulator seeking clarifications on 15 per cent discount cap — when it gets listed.

    All parties, including Star India, which were part of the Madras High Court proceedings, are involved in TRAI’s petition on the issue of 15 per cent cap on discount on a bouquet price or a la carte price of TV channels to consumers.

    The IBF was not originally a party, but an intervener. Hence it wasn’t incumbent upon the TRAI to make it a party in the fresh SLP. However, the IBF will now implead itself in the petition.

    Currently, the tariff order and regulations are getting implemented without the 15 per cent cap as confusion prevails over its validity, though a section of the industry is of the opinion that the Madras High Court had struck down the discount cap issue. TRAI had not issued any clarification on this while setting a roadmap earlier this year for the new tariff regime’s implementation after the Madras HC order.

    On Monday, Star India’s MD Sanjay Gupta during a media roundtable, responding to a question from Indiantelevision.com on the broadcaster’s position on the 15 per cent discount cap said, “It is up to the court to decide that. Now, as an SLP is in the SC…the courts will decide. I don’t have a view beyond that. In the current ruling, there is no discount cap. It may change going forward depending on the SC ruling.”

    Gupta, however, was confident in adapting to a new pricing structure should the SC uphold the high court’s view on the 15 per cent cap.

    “In case the court has a new ruling that discounts have changed, pricing [too] needs to change, both a-la-carte and bouquet pricing in that case, because the distance between them has to be only 15 per cent. I think we are still awaiting the court’s decision and if we need to adapt to it, then we’ll adapt to it. But there will be a shift again in pricing if that comes through,” he added.

    TRAI’s petition demands that the SC set aside the portion of the high court judgment that frowns on the 15 per cent cap on discounts on bouquet prices of TV channels.   

    The Madras High Court, while upholding most of the TRAI tariff order — issued middle of 2016 and challenged by Star India and Vijay TV later that year on grounds of overstepping of jurisdiction — had struck down as arbitrary almost 18 months later the 15 per cent cap on bouquet prices.

    With the case finally disposed of by the Supreme Court earlier this year, upholding the high court’s views, TRAI had issued a notification stating that India’s broadcast and cable industry stakeholders implement its tariff regime in phases and report on compliance.

  • TV still has headroom for monetising from underpenetrated areas

    TV still has headroom for monetising from underpenetrated areas

    GOA: With the advent of OTT platforms, technological disruptions and change in content consumption trends, traditional linear TV has been facing a difficult time. Moreover, demonetisation and inclusion of GST also came as additional challenges in the recent past, with effects that lingered for long, while the biggest disruption – the new tariff order – is on the way. Due to the rapid changes, traditional players in the ecosystem are changing their strategy to stay profitable.

    In this scenario, Video and Broadband Summit 2018 held a session on monetising TV in times of transition. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) chief growth officer Ashish Sehgal, TAM India CEO LV Krishnan, KPMG India media and entertainment partner, deal advisory and head, Girish Menon took part in the session which was moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder and CEO Anil Wanvari.

    Wanvari kick-started the session asking what the monetisation trend in TV industry was in the last nine months. Menon, whose organisation KPMG published a report two months ago on the entire ecosystem, spoke about the increasing interest levels, contribution and demand from rural and regional markets on the advertising side which ensures that there is a growing deeper demand. He added that if someone is able to optimally monetise those options, the opportunities fairly exist for ad growth. He also added that a fair amount of traction in the FTA market is attracting brands there. On the subscription side, Menon said there’s enough headroom for growth as till now only 65-66 per cent households are penetrated by TV in India.

    ZEEL's Sehgal also endorsed Menon’s view on the growth opportunities for TV. “Across the industry, there has been a healthy double-digit growth which is happening. Even if you talk about the demonetisation and GST period, which stunted growth, even then the industry grew in single digit. It’s not like it had gone back to a certain level and then grew back,” Sehgal commented on the growth of the TV industry.

    Asked about tariff order, he said they still need to see how it’s going to pan out. But he mentioned that broadcasters like Zee and Star have come out with consumer-friendly packages which will help in ARPU growth. While he was asked whether users will start cutting cords if the price of subscription packages goes up too much, he answered that there’s no other better option available. According to him, to get the amount of content available on cable or DTH, users need to subscribe to ten other platforms.

    TAM India CEO Krishnan also agreed with Sehgal on the growth side of TV. He said that in the first 9 months of this year, TV showed around 11 per cent growth. Owing to the assembly elections, the growth may reach up to 12-13 per cent at the end of the year. Moreover, he added, it is the real revenue growth, not only volume growth.

    While the moderator asked if TV has got its real value, Krishnan said it definitely has brought in value itself from advertising and subscription. He also spoke about opportunities in hyperlocal advertising which is very much prevalent in print. There were 130,000 new advertisers just in the last 9 months compared to 2017 on the print medium which is coming from hyper-local editions of newspapers. But when that is being monitored in the adex data, those advertisers are still not translated into advertising on television or radio or digital yet.

    “On the other hand if I look at exclusive advertisers happening on digital and on TV it’s very comparable. There are around close to 16,000 advertisers uniquely positioned only on TV and around 12,000 unique advertisers on the digital adex. Now they are just 10 per cent of the overall volume that’s coming into print. If that translates slowly into regional television or digital OTT platforms for advertising, imagine the growth that TV and OTT can get,” he added.

    Sehgal believes that certain TV genres aren't getting a fair deal. “Average price across the genres are increasing. Yes, I would say there are certain genres which are still underpriced. For example, south channels are 90 per cent penetrated in terms of television. They are still underpriced. This pricing needs to be corrected. Kids' channels segment is underpriced. Hindi movie genre is highly underpriced while the value input behind purchasing movies is high, from advertising as well as subscriptions you are still not getting the value back,” he said.

    Where all the experts agreed was that sports content and TV premieres get higher value but when it was asked if it’s enough compared to other countries they said it’s linked to the purchasing power of the country. Moreover, they also said the growth rate in India is much higher than the US or China. It was also said that the pay-TV ecosystem in most of the developed markets are subscription led not ad led. India is always going to be a market where the rates of advertisement will be low but the fact is given the level of demand there is in the country from a consumption perspective, the growth will also be much higher than what can be seen globally.

    While most of the players work on volume rather than value, Sehgal said ZEE is working on the mix. “We have to start working with the real mix – how to get value and volume both together. Today, we are going 2X with the market only because we are not only getting the volume but also value. My price point from what it was last year to this year has increased in every channel. Now somewhere it has increased more and somewhere it has not increased more,” Sehgal said.

    On the question of how TV, cable or DTH can be monetised better, the experts think they should not shy away from the competition coming from digital. They think investment in technology, going back to advertisers with more value proposition is important. Though TV cannot engage like digital, they think brand building on TV is easiest. Unless a brand advertises on TV, building awareness becomes difficult.

  • Sony channels back on Tata Sky after a two-month blackout

    Sony channels back on Tata Sky after a two-month blackout

    MUMBAI: All’s well that ends well. A commercial dispute between Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and India’s DTH premier operator Tata Sky has finally been resolved mutually. All Sony channels, which were dropped from the satellite platform, have returned after two-month partial blackout — much to the relief of the consumers.

    According to industry sources, the terms and conditions of the contract between the broadcaster (SPNI) and the DTH operator (Tata Sky) were mutually resolved, though the exact nature of the financial deal has not been revealed.  

    On 1 October 2018, Tata Sky pulled off 22 SPN channels from the platform, which evoked massive anger among consumers. The DTH platform had retained some of the Sony channels on a-la-carte rates, though.

    According to Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal, commercial negotiations with the broadcaster had broken down as deals being sought by SPNI would have forced the distribution platform to hike prices for the consumers. Sony, meanwhile, had claimed that the decision by the leading DTH platform was “unilateral”.

    Earlier, SPN had issued a disconnection notice to Tata Sky on 7 September 2018, which was followed by a public notice on 10 September 2018 detailing the same.

    According to a PTI report, SPNI's three-year contract with Tata Sky had expired on 31 July 2018. After the contract got over, Tata Sky had asked for an extension so the deal could come through and it also tried to reach a new pricing deal after 31 July 2018. The talks had failed at this point.

    Later, the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal TDSAT heard a case relating to commercial dispute on 11 October 2018 and advised the parties concerned to take four weeks to try and reach a mutually acceptable negotiated agreement.

  • Amazon qualifies Mybox’s AVS provider with set-top-box solution

    Amazon qualifies Mybox’s AVS provider with set-top-box solution

    MUMBAI: MyBox Technologies, a Hero Electronix venture, specializing in the research and development and manufacturing of set-top boxes, has announced that it is now an Alexa Voice Service (AVS) solution provider and has collaborated with Amazon.

    The company enables cable and DTH operators to bring Alexa to compatible, pre-existing set-top boxes. Paired with MyBox’s hub and microphone-equipped remote control, customers will have access to Alexa and the ability to control smart home devices, play music, shop for household goods, and more – hands-free.  

    MyBox Technologies MD Amit Kharbanda said, “Becoming one of the first Indian solution providers for the Alexa Voice Service is a matter of great pride and honor for MyBox. Collaborating with Amazon, MyBox’s world-class R&D team has created a set-top box with rich voice functionality. With Alexa now part of the TV environment, MyBox is committed to bringing new voice-forward video experiences to TV viewers.”

  • Dish TV’s Jawahar Goel writes to TRAI on rationalizing DTH costs, taxes

    Dish TV’s Jawahar Goel writes to TRAI on rationalizing DTH costs, taxes

    MUMBAI: Even as the Indian government is readying a new DTH policy, aimed at providing some succor to the financially beleaguered sector, Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel has written to the broadcast and telecom regulator TRAI exhorting it to rationalize costs and taxes being levied presently on the operators.

    “With regard to our request for allowing deduction of the subscription amount paid to the broadcaster for determining the DTH license fee, it is stated that DTH services operators have been regularly appraising the TRAI and MIB [Ministry of Information and Broadcasting] on the matter of the heavy cost they have been incurring for the provision of the services,” Goel points out in a recent letter.

    According to the communication, reviewed by Indiantelevision.com, Indian DTH operators not only pay taxes to the tune of 33 per cent, but also cough up around 30- 35 per cent of their revenue as content cost. There are huge investments in subsidizing the consumer premises equipment to the consumers of which the STB being the major component, the letter states.

    Pushing for a major reduction in annual license fee to 6-8 per cent of the gross revenue of an operator, Goyal, who had earlier too bemoaned neglect of the sector by the government, contends that the principle of application of license fee on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) should be similar to what is done for the telecom sector.

    “The AGR in case of DTH service should mean total revenue as reflected in the audited accounts from the operation of DTH, as reduced by (a) subscription fee charges passed on to the pay channel broadcasters (b) sale of hardware including integrated receiver decoder required for connectivity at the consumer  premise, [and] service/entertainment   tax  actually  paid to  the  Central/State  government  if gross revenue had included them,” Goel argues in his missive to the regulator.

    This is not the first time that the feisty Goel has fired salvos at the government and the regulator. Not only has he raised issues pertaining to the DTH sector, but has also voiced his concern on general matters relating to the Indian entertainment and broadcast sectors as Dish TV and its other siblings have had to grapple in recent times with lackluster economy and government apathy.

    In an effort to garner more support from the regulator, Dish TV highlights that a consultation paper on the DTH sector prepared by TRAI had acknowledged the satellite platforms needed a level playing field vis-a-vis cable operators who paid no license fee. “The DTH services are subjected to multiple taxation, which inter-alia includes service tax @ 12.36 per cent, entertainment tax at different rates by State governments and VAT@ 12.5 per cent. In addition, if license fee @10 per cent is also added, the cumulative taxation would come to a significant amount, which leads to high incidence of levies and taxes for DTH service[s],” Goel contends.

    “Since the Government is in the process of finalizing the terms and conditions of the new DTH license, we would sincerely request you [TRAI] to kindly issue necessary recommendation to the government of India in this regard before such terms and conditions are laid down”, Goel concludes making a case for rationalization of taxes on DTH operators, especially as new content delivery techs like OTT invade Indian shores.

    Meanwhile, sources in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) tell Indiantelevision.com that the much-discussed new DTH policy is being given final touches before it’s sent to the Cabinet for approval.

    “Ideally we would have liked to send the new DTH policy to the Cabinet for approval within 2018 itself, but various government processes, like getting feedbacks from various ministries, could push finalization of the policy to early 2019,” a source in MIB said, adding the government is likely to provide some relief to the sector, though major reduction in the license fee seems unlikely.

  • Airtel Digital TV & JOP Network partner to launch ‘Hollywood Masala’ – a collection of blockbuster Hollywood movies in Hindi

    Airtel Digital TV & JOP Network partner to launch ‘Hollywood Masala’ – a collection of blockbuster Hollywood movies in Hindi

    MUMBAI: Airtel Digital TV, the DTH arm of Bharti Airtel and JOP Network Pvt Ltd, India’s leading content house, today joined hands to launch an innovative channel – Hollywood Masala, which offers a collection of premium Hollywood movies dubbed in Hindi. The first-of-its-kind channel will enable customers to enjoy Hollywood blockbusters in Hindi.

    The ad free service will be available on channel number 188 on Airtel Digital TV at just Rs. 45/- per month. The channel will showcase movies from across genres including Action, Comedy, Romance, Sci – Fi, Drama and Horror, catering to the unique preferences of customers.  Airtel DTH customers can now enjoy popular Hollywood movies like Da Vinci Code, Social Network, The Smurfs, Batman Vs Superman, The Adventures of Tintin et al. amongst others, in Hindi.

    Urvi Agarwal – Director, JOP Network Pvt Ltd, said “We are glad to launch Hollywood Masala – a service that showcases premium Hollywood blockbuster movies on a platform like Airtel Digital TV, one of the largest DTH players in our country. The service is targeted at the Indian masses of all age groups who enjoy watching Hollywood movies but in their preferred language – Hindi!”

    Richa Kalra, Product Manager – DTH, Bharti Airtel said, “At Airtel, customer delight is pivotal for us and we are always innovating for newer ways to enrich their lives. The launch of Hollywood Masala is in line with this endeavor and aims to offer customers the joy of watching their favorite Hollywood blockbusters in Hindi without any language hindrance.”

  • Indian DTH equipments worth Rs 7.83 cr seized by Pakistan authorities

    Indian DTH equipments worth Rs 7.83 cr seized by Pakistan authorities

    MUMBAI: Pakistan authorities have seized a large quantity of smuggled Indian direct-to-home (DTH) equipment worth Rs 7.83 crore from various markets in a countrywide crackdown against illegal devices according to a report published by dawn.com. The report, in line with a suo motu case relating to easy availability of Indian DTH or magic box in the Pakistani market, was submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

    The Customs Department and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested 39 people and 30 FIRs had been lodged during the crackdown and was informed to a two-judge bench headed by Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan.

    The report was furnished before the apex court through Additional Attorney General Nayyar Abbas Rizvi, stating that the nationwide enforcement operations has ended the commercial sale and availability of smuggled DTH equipment in the local markets.

    The apex court had constituted a committee during the last hearing, which consists of member (customs), the FIA's additional director general and a member of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to find out the source of smuggled goods and to take steps to curb the smuggling.

    The report recalled that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has also enhanced enforcement measures adopted by the customs field formations which resulted in seizures of goods and other contraband items, including DTH equipment worth Rs 2480 crore during 2017-18.

    However, the report conceded that mere enforcement measures would not be sufficient to completely root out the transportation or availability of DTH equipment used for illegal broadcasting of Indian content in the country. Therefore, a holistic strategy needs to be worked out by all agencies/regulators to address this issue.

    The report pointed out that, in the absence of local DTH, the subscribers were opting for other illegal means, which include Indian DTH services. However, the report called for support from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for blocking the internet protocols addresses of the websites which were either running the illegal C-Line/CC-CAM or advertising the illegal Indian DTH in Pakistan. 

  • MIB extends feedback deadline date on mandatory sports feed sharing norms

    MIB extends feedback deadline date on mandatory sports feed sharing norms

    MUMBAI: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has extended the deadline to give feedback on the draft sports broadcasting signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) (Amendment) Bill, 2018 till 31 December 2018. In an earlier notification dated 17 October, it said that feedback must be given within a month to enable telecast of “Sporting events of national importance’ on mandatory channels of Doordarshan via cable/DTH/ IPTV operators.

    As per provisions of the Sports Act, the live feed received by Prasar Bharati from the content rights owners or holders is only for the purpose of re-transmission of the said signals on Doordarshan’s own terrestrial and DTH network (DD FreeDish) and not for
    cable operators or other distribution networks. The ad sales is also done by private companies after taking the pubcaster into confidence with the additional ad revenue shared between the rights holding TV channel and DD.

    Viewers, who do not have DD FreeDish [pubcaster Doordarshan’s FTA DTH platform] or Doordarshan’s terrestrial network, are either unable to watch these sporting events of national importance or are compelled to watch these sporting events on highly priced sports channels.

    Additonally, private DTH platforms and MSOs/LCOs were barred from showing DD's non-terrestrial channels that re-transmitted the shared feeds, after the August 2017 Supreme Court ruling, for the duration of that particular event and it was stressed upon also by Prasar Bharati fearing adverse reaction from the apex court.

    The extension notice reads: “Reference this Ministry's earlier notice dated 17.1 0.201 8 seeking feedback / comments on Draft Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) (Amendment) Bill, 2018, it is informed that the deadline for receiving feedback/comments from General Public/Stakeholders on the said draft Bill, 2018 to enable telecast of 'Sporting events of National importance'on mandatory channels of Doordarshan via Cable /DTH /IPTV Operators has been extended by this Ministry till 31 .12.2018.”

  • Business news most benefited genre in Chrome DM week 44

    Business news most benefited genre in Chrome DM week 44

    MUMBAI: With a growth of 0.99 per cent, the business news genre in six metros, marked the highest opportunity to see (OTS) among all categories in week 44 of Chrome Data Analytics and Media. 

    In the business news genre, Zee Business gained the highest OTS with 86.3 per cent growth in six metros, followed by sports genre garnering second position in All India 1 Lakh+ market with 0.91 per cent growth. DD Sports garnered the highest OTS in the sports genre with 93.5 per cent.

    OTS is the actual census-based percentage connectivity of a channel spread across 81 million homes, as reported by Chrome DM, across analogue cable, digital cable and DTH. 

    The third position in the gainer’s list of OTS was grabbed by English news in six metros with 0.69 per cent. Loksabha TV raked in the highest OTS in the English news genre with 97.6 per cent. English GECs stood at fourth position in six metros with 0.36 per cent by Colors Infinity gaining the highest OTS with 59.3 per cent. In the fifth position, religious genre secured 0.30 per cent growth in the HSM excluding less than one lakh market. Aastha channel garnered the highest OTS with 98.2 per cent. 

  • Ex-Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera aims for kids’ channel

    Ex-Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera aims for kids’ channel

    MUMBAI: He ran a successful DTH business in Videocon d2h up until it was merged with Dish TV. And now he’s off to establish an independent identity. Former Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera has set up his own company One Take Media (OTM) that specialises in content production, global content acquisition and distribution, providing value added services (VAS) to global DTH/cable TV and OTT platforms.

    As per data published by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the Indian DTH industry has around 8-10 million VAS subscribers availing the services in some form. DTH alone generates around $80 million as annual VAS revenue which is bound to touch $200 million by the year 2020. Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Khera says that there are still gaps to be filled as far as content is concerned which is available on platforms such as OTT, DTH and cable. “We are identifying that gap and we are introducing that as the VAS services,” he says.

    The company sees kids’ genre as the fourth largest after movies, entertainment and others and plans to launch a channel in the near future. “I have a long term plan to start a kids’ channel as we have a very sufficient library for kids’ content,” he says.

    Khera said that he has kept one library separately for the channel and it will contain both original and acquired content. He denied disclosing the production houses that OTM has acquired the content from due to the NDA agreement with them. He said, “We have acquired the content from various Indian and foreign production houses. We have our own IP in animation rhymes which is called Nyra World and as far as languages are concerned, we will be looking at the largest sector which is the Hindi speaking market,” he explains.

    Premium content from foreign countries will be dubbed and shown in Hindi. The initial experiment will be to offer both acquired and original content to understand the audience. OTM has Kids1st TV, a channel targeting 2-6 years of kids, Cartoony TV–TV series in comedy, entertainment and adventure for the kids in the age group of 4-11 years old and Cartoony Movies for all age groups.

    Khera says the company is working with telecom clients based in Africa and MENA region besides OTT customers in Singapore and Malaysia. In India, it is working with Dish TV. “There are several telecom companies around the world. We have Indonesia Telecom where they have their app and MENA region telecom like Ooredoo. We are also in discussion with Etisalat and in Nigeria, we have the telecom company called Tingo for our kids and cooking content (The Great Indian Global Kitchen) that we own the IP for,” he reveals.

    Recently in India, the company signed a content deal with multi system operator (MSO) and headend in the sky (HITS) platform IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd (IMCL) to launch VAS. As part of the partnership, OTM will provide ad-free and unique content to IMCL subscribers. The subscription-based services are available to all InDigital subscribers. The unique services from OTM include animated cartoon series in Hindi for various age groups of kids across three services, nursery rhymes, TV series and animated Hindi movies. Other services are celebrity chef-based cooking shows, songs and Bhojpuri, Tamil and Telugu movies. Other unique services also include Hollywood and South Indian movies dubbed in Hindi.

    Khera said that as far as Hollywood cooking content is concerned, the company is in talks with Airtel DTH. Also being the first company to dub Turkish and Korean content in Hindi, he feels that there is a great pull for this content. “We want to provide the global content experience to the Indian customers. There is no demand as such but being in the media company for so many years, I believe it has a great pull,” he says.