ITV

Tag: Eenadu Television

  • Eenadu TV no longer an associate; NW18 assigns voting rights to promoter

    Eenadu TV no longer an associate; NW18 assigns voting rights to promoter

    MUMBAI: In a pivotal move linked to the grand consolidation of India’s entertainment landscape, Eenadu TV is no longer an associate, as Network 18 has assigned its 24.5 per cent voting rights in the broadcaster to ETPL’s promoter and continues to retain its economic rights. The transaction, completed at 2:06 p.m. on 7 July, effectively ends ETPL’s status as an associate of the media conglomerate.

    Network18 informed the Bombay stock exchange about this change via a regulatory filing. 

    The assignment of voting rights—mandated under a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order dated 27 August 2024—was part of the conditions for the greenlighting of the blockbuster merger between Viacom18 (now Studio18 Media Pvt  Ltd) and Star India (now JioStar India Pvt Ltd).

    Though stripped of control, Network18 retains full economic interest in the 24.5 per cent stake. The company said the promoter of ETPL has no ties to Network18’s promoter group, and the deal doesn’t qualify as a related-party transaction.

    As of 31 March 2025, ETPL accounted for a hefty 32.61 per cent of Network18’s consolidated net worth. But despite the shift in status, the company claims there will be no hit to its balance sheet, thanks to a fair valuation mechanism under prevailing accounting standards.

  • NTO 2.0: ETV publishes new RIO effective 1 December

    NTO 2.0: ETV publishes new RIO effective 1 December

    Mumbai: Eenadu TV (ETV) has published its reference interconnection offer (RIO) issued under telecommunications (broadcasting and cable) services interconnection (addressable systems) regulations, 2017 for all distribution platforms. The new RIO will be effective from 1 December onwards. 

    The tariffs for TV channels mentioned in the RIO adhere to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) new tariff order (NTO) 2.0.

    The channel operates 24 channels and is offering three bouquets to viewers. Its Telugu general entertainment channel ETV Telugu and ETV HD are priced greater than Rs 12. As per new tariff regime 2.0 order, Trai has mandated that a channel’s MRP must not exceed Rs 12 for it to be included in any bouquet.

    The implementation of the new tariff order 2.0 is on hold as broadcasters under the aegis of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) have challenged the Trai order in the Supreme Court. The final hearing on the matter is scheduled for 30 November.

  • TDSAT directs four broadcasters to sign pact & give signals to Chirala LCO

    TDSAT directs four broadcasters to sign pact & give signals to Chirala LCO

    NEW DELHI: Four broadcasters namely Eenadu Television, Maa TV, Sun Distribution Services and Taj TV have been directed by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to enter into interconnect agreements with Chirala Cable Network for retransmission of their respective signals in 14 panchayats.

     

    TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava gave the directive after examining a survey report submitted by the Advocate Commissioner Tushar Singh who had been appointed on 1 December last by the Tribunal to go to the rural areas around Chirala town and conduct a survey.

     

    According to the survey, the cable network has 2150 households in the area, the Advocate Commissioner had visited 10 houses in each of the rural areas listed by the network as his subscribers and also 10 others not in the list and found that even among those not in the list, there were four or five of the 150 houses visited by him who were receiving signals from the network as well as other local cable operator. Thus, the Tribunal raised the SLR figure by 2.5 per cent.

       

    The broadcasters were directed to execute the agreement not later than two weeks and to supply their signals to the network immediately thereafter. 

     

    Disposing of the four petitions by Chirala Cable Network, the Tribunal made clear that any variation in the SLR during the period of the agreement may take place only as provided under the Regulations. 

     

    The Tribunal accepted the report of 7 January, which showed that the network had the connectivity of 2081 as claimed by the network, apart from those not listed by it.

     

    The detailed survey report submitted by Singh, which the Tribunal said was made properly and reflects the true position, thus confirms the petitioner’s assertion that it has the connectivity of 2081 connections in the 14 panchayats. 

     

    “If we take into account the five houses not mentioned in the petitioner’s SLR that were receiving the petitioner’s signals, the SLR submitted by the petitioner may be increased by 2.5 per cent. We direct that the petitioner’s SLR be taken as 2150.”

     

    The Advocate Commissioner was directed to give copies of the expense account to the counsel representing four broadcasters who will to make proportionate payments to petitioner’s counsel B S Sai or the client within 10 days.

  • MIB sends TV channels’ list to Home Ministry for fresh security clearance

    MIB sends TV channels’ list to Home Ministry for fresh security clearance

    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has forwarded a list of 82 TV channels, teleports and news agencies to the Home Ministry for a fresh round of security clearance as their initial ten-year licenses expire.

     

    Last week, the Home Ministry had also agreed to examine all cases of multi-system operators (MSOs) awaiting security clearance to get licenses for digital addressable system. MIB secretary Bimal Julka told Indiantelevision.com that the initial license was for ten years. Julka will also be meeting concerned officials of the Home Ministry in this regard.

     

    If found suitable, permission will be granted for renewal for an interim period up to 31 December, 2015 or till the final decision on channels’ application for renewal of permission is taken, whichever is earlier.

     

    However, TV channels, teleports, news agencies and MSOs have been asked to furnish an affidavit to the effect that the company will abide by all the provisions of the latest Uplinking/ Downlinking Guidelines and other relevant instructions/ modifications issued from time to time.

     

    All applicants have been asked to send the information to the MIB along with supporting documents within l5 days to enable it to proceed further in the matter.

     

    Prominent names among those whose cases are coming up for renewal include several channels of Bennett, Coleman & Co., Eenadu Television, Panorama Television, Prism TV, Television Eighteen India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Zee Media Corporation (erstwhile Zee News), IBN18 Broadcast and Times Global Broadcasting Company.

     

    Broadcasters may also enclose the details of Board of Directors (BOD) and latest Share Holding Pattern (SHP) including foreign direct investment (FDI) component, if any, duly accompanied by requisite approval of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board (FIPB).

     

    The companies were also asked to ensure submission of the annual renewal fee for both Uplinking and Downlinking at rates as applicable as per Guidelines and for the period that may be due.

     

    For full list of TV channels, Teleports and News Agencies, click here.

     

  • IndiaCast issues disconnection notice to IMCL

    IndiaCast issues disconnection notice to IMCL

    MUMBAI: Three weeks from now, viewers with cable connection of IndusInd Media and Communications (IMCL) might not be able to view a number of channels.

     

    IndiaCast has issued a public notice against the MSO regarding various channels of TV18, Eenadu Television and UTV Entertainment Television, for whom it acts as an agent. The notice reads that consumers in DAS notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot, Nasik, Nagpur, Pune, Bengaluru, Mysore, Hyderabad, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Pimpri Chinchwad and Agra that all or some of the channels from the Indiacast group are likely to be disconnected. The notice was published in leading dailies across cities on 19 August.

     

    The reasons for the disconnection are that the MSO has failed to execute the reference interconnection offer, not paid dues to the broadcaster, demanding illegal and high carriage fees and have failed to furnish subscriber reports.

     

    According to a source, the agreement between IMCL and IndiaCast had expired on 31 March, post which the MSO did not execute a fresh agreement. It also stopped giving subscription revenues and subscriber report from April onwards.

     

    IMCL currently enjoys about 2 million digital subscribers in DAS I and DAS II areas. However, the source adds that the subscriber base is not in its best operational health and is yet demanding excessive carriage fees. While the earlier deal between the two had been on carriage fees, the source adds that it is revisiting its proposition now.

     

    The channels that will be disconnected include all of Network 18’s channels such as Colors, CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNN-IBN, IBN7, CNBC Bajaar, CNBC TV18 Prime HD, History TV19, History TV 18 HD, IBN Lokmat, MTV, MTV Indies, Rishtey, Nick, Vh1, Sonic, Comedy Central, Nick Junior, Colors HD, ETV Gujarati, ETV Marathi, ETV Bangla, ETV Kannada, ETV Oriya, ETV Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, ETV MP Chattishgarh, ETV Rajasthan, ETV Urdu, ETV News Kannada, ETV Bihar Jharkhand, ETV, ETV Andhra Pradesh, UTV Movies, UTV Stars, UTV World Movies, Disney Channel and Disney XD.

     

    Earlier this month, the MSO had put a scroll on its home page regarding disconnection of NDTV channels. Even then, a senior NDTV official had said that the MSO was demanding high carriage fees for a small subscriber base.

  • Amagi Media Labs enables ETV to generate custom feed for Singapore

    Amagi Media Labs enables ETV to generate custom feed for Singapore

    MUMBAI: Geo-targetted advertising was started in India by Amagi Media Labs that enabled channels to have particular ads in particular regions. But it didn’t just stop there. It has also started creating local feeds for channels that want to air in other countries.

     

    According to Amagi, at times, certain shows are not allowed to be aired in other countries due to broadcast regulations, so it is replaced with regional shows. Local content to cater to local audiences can also help in getting targeted advertising in the country.

     

    In the latest move, the channel has partnered with Eenadu Television to provide custom feed for ETV Telugu in Singapore through Amagi’s cloud enabled broadcast solution. Amagi’s localisation platform at SingTel’s Mio TV will be doing the job for the channel. Earlier, another Telugu network had done the same in Singapore. Maa Network’s Maa TV and Maa Movies also aired local shows to its viewers in Singapore earlier this year.

     

    ETV Telugu wanted to bring their linear feed to Singapore and it was asked to opt out of two hours of its programming. Using Amagi’s cloud based platform, they have been able to create a local feed for Singapore audiences. “We had a requirement to replace couple of hours of programming on every day basis for our distributor in Singapore while justifying the RoIs,” said Eenadu TV vice president Bapineedu.

     

    Amagi’s technology helps channels save a lot of resources of creating a new feed using satellite or fiber.

     

     “The system is designed in a manner such that the content masking process works in parallel to the satellite broadcast’s processes and scheduling,” said Amagi co-founder and CTO Srividhya S. “Unlike the traditional triggering mechanism used, Amagi’s barcoding based approach offers workflow flexibilities and 100 per cent accuracy in identifying and replacing content assets.”

     

    Recently Amagi has perked up on its geo targeted advertising for Nickelodeon and HUL as well as Zee TV.

  • ETV channels to go pay, price at Rs 10

    ETV channels to go pay, price at Rs 10

    MUMBAI: Eenadu Television is taking its Bengali general entertainment channel pay with effect from 1 February. The other channels in the network will also go pay in a phased manner.

    ETV Bangla will be priced at Rs 10 a month per subscriber. “Our Bengali channel is going pay from 1 February. The other channels in the network will follow suit,” a senior ETV executive confirms.
    ETV Kannada and ETV Marathi are likely to go pay by March. All the ETV channels will be priced similarly at Rs 10.

    In the Cas (conditional access system) areas of Mumbai and Kolkata, ETV has not yet decided whether it should stay free-to-air (FTA). “We haven’t taken a call yet whether ETV Bangla will be FTA in the Cas notified areas of Kolkata. Similarly, we have to decide about ETV Marathi in the Cas region of Mumbai when we take the channel pay,” the executive said.

    Last year ETV had taken its Telugu channels – ETV Telugu and ETV2 – pay and priced it together at Rs 10. ETV has a bouquet of 12 regional channels including ETV Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

    Private investment firm Blackstone Group recently announced it would pump in $ 275 million (approximately Rs 12.38 billion) to acquire a stake in Ushodaya Enterprises Limited (UEL), the holding company that manages Ramoji Rao’s media assets. UEL owns Eenadu, the third largest newspaper, and ETV, the fourth largest private television broadcasting network in the country.