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Tag: Home Cable Network

  • TV ad-cap case in Delhi HC deferred till Jan ’18, Home Cable matter to come up too

    TV ad-cap case in Delhi HC deferred till Jan ’18, Home Cable matter to come up too

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has again adjourned the hearing of the case of ad cap on television channels, this time to early next year, as the concerned bench was hearing part-heard matter.

    On 21 April 2017, the matter, which will now be heard on 16 January, 2018, had been put off by the concerned bench for the same reason. Earlier, on 12 January 2017, it had been put of as the then Chief Justice G Rohini did not sit that day. The matter had come up today before the acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice Jayant Nath.

    In the hearing on 29 March 2016, a plea was made on behalf of the information and broadcasting ministry that a proposal was being contemplated to amend the relevant provision relating to limiting ads to 12 minutes an hour.

    (Thus, the hearing has been pending for almost three years since then information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley in January 2015 had said at a public function that he did not see the need for any kind caps on the media.)

    When the case comes up next, the court is also expected to take up an application by the intervenor — Home Cable Network Pvt Ltd — seeking vacation of the order that had stayed action against (ad cap rule) ‘violating’ television channels.

    On 13 May 2016, the court had agreed to take up vacation of stay at the next hearing. The court had, on 11 February 2016, agreed to take up the application by Discovery Communications to intervene in the matter.

    Earlier, on 27 November 2015, the court presided over by the chief justice had said the matter had been pending for sometime and, therefore, it would hear and conclude the case in the next hearing.

    On that day, the MIB had informed the court that it was in talks with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and other stakeholders on the issue of the advertising cap. This was the first time that the ministry had put in an appearance in the petition filed by the NBA against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and others.

    The case, filed by NBA and others against TRAI and the Union Government, had been adjourned from time to time on the plea that the government and the broadcasters are in talks on this issue.

    The court has already directed that the order that TRAI would not take any action against any channel pending the disposal of the petition would continue to be in force. At an earlier hearing, the court had, at the regulator’s instance, directed that all channels keep a record of the advertisements run by them.

    The NBA had challenged the ad-cap rule, contending that TRAI does not have jurisdiction to regulate commercial airtime on television channels. Apart from the NBA, petitions had been filed by Sarthak Entertainment, Pioneer Channel Factory, E24 Glamorous, Sun TV Network, TV Vision, B4U Broadband, 9X Media, Kalaignar, Celebrities Management, Eanadu Television and Raj Television.

    Meanwhile, a separate petition filed in the high court by Vikki Choudhry and Home Cable Network, which too will be heard on the next date, seeks to charge MIB with dereliction of duties in taking action against the ‘offending’ pay TV broadcasters for violating the terms and conditions of the licenses/permission for uplinking and downlinking.

    The court had in June last year asked the ministry to file its reply in four weeks in this matter. A notice was issued only to the ministry, although the petition also listed several other broadcasting companies as respondents.

    Also read:   

    TV adcaps case in Delhi HC deferred to 20 April

    Cap on TV ads, challenge to stay ‘action against channels’ hearing put off

    137 GEC and news pay channels violated ad cap rule in second quarter

     

  • TRAI tariff order withdrawal: Star India joins ZEEL in appeal

    TRAI tariff order withdrawal: Star India joins ZEEL in appeal

    NEW DELHI: Star India Pvt Ltd has been impleaded as a party in two appeals challenging the withdrawal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India of two inflation-linked Tariff Amendment Orders issued by it in 2014 and set aside by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.

    Observing that the adjudication in the matter will affect the whole sector especially broadcasters and distributors, Tribunal Member B B Srivastava said in his order of 28 September 2016 gave Star one week to file its affidavit and asked TRAI to reply within ten days of that.

    The Tribunal listed for 9 November 2016 the further hearing of the two appeals filed by Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd against the withdrawal of the TRAI tariff orders of 9 May this year.

    Earlier, Star counsel Gopal Jain said the Secvtion 8A of the Civil Procedure Code was clear that any party or parties that may be affected by a court decision could be impleaded and heard.

    However, TRAI counsel Kirtiman Singh said that Section 14A (3) of the TRAI Act provides a period of thirty days for filing an appeal. But he noted that a proviso says that the Tribunal can take note if there is sufficient reason for this.

    Observing that there is healthy growth in the industry with rise in revenues outstripping the increasing inflation over the years, TRAI had decided that two inflation-linked Tariff Amendment Orders issued by it in 2014 and set aside by the Tribunal are not required at present.

    Earlier, the Supreme Court had on an appeal from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and another party also upheld the TDSAT order setting aside the amendments in two tariff orders which had sought to put an inflation-linked hike of 27.5 per cent on addressable and non-addressable systems.

    Holding the Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Eleventh Amendment) Order 2014 of March 2014 and ‘The Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Thirteenth Amendment) Order 2014 of December that year were ‘untenable’, the Tribunal had said it thought TRAI “will be well advised to have a fresh look at the various tariff orders in a holistic manner and come out with a comprehensive tariff order in supersession of all the earlier tariff orders.”

    In its directives withdrawing the orders, TRAI said: “During analysisof relevant data and the impact of various factors on the issue ofinflation linked hikes in tariff ceilings at the wholesale levels”, it had observed that the “annual revenues that actually accrued to the broadcasters had surpassed the estimated revenues that should have accrued to them after taking into account the year-on-year inflation as calculated using the GDP deflator. The compounded annual growth rate of the revenues accruing year-on-year to the broadcasters has also witnessed a positive growth. More importantly, this growth has kept well ahead of the estimate revenues compensated for the year-on-year change in the inflation using the GDP deflator.”

    The tariff hike had been challenged by Home Cable Network and the Centre for Transforming India, with Lucknow 9 Cable Network, Good Media News India Pvt Ltd, Sikkim Digital Network and Cable Combine Communication Siliguri as intervenors. Later, Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF) supported the order as intervener while the other interveners who were Direct to Home (DTH) operators, Multi System Operators (MSOs), Association of Cable Operators/Cable Operators opposed the order on the same grounds as the Appellants.

  • TRAI tariff order withdrawal: Star India joins ZEEL in appeal

    TRAI tariff order withdrawal: Star India joins ZEEL in appeal

    NEW DELHI: Star India Pvt Ltd has been impleaded as a party in two appeals challenging the withdrawal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India of two inflation-linked Tariff Amendment Orders issued by it in 2014 and set aside by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.

    Observing that the adjudication in the matter will affect the whole sector especially broadcasters and distributors, Tribunal Member B B Srivastava said in his order of 28 September 2016 gave Star one week to file its affidavit and asked TRAI to reply within ten days of that.

    The Tribunal listed for 9 November 2016 the further hearing of the two appeals filed by Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd against the withdrawal of the TRAI tariff orders of 9 May this year.

    Earlier, Star counsel Gopal Jain said the Secvtion 8A of the Civil Procedure Code was clear that any party or parties that may be affected by a court decision could be impleaded and heard.

    However, TRAI counsel Kirtiman Singh said that Section 14A (3) of the TRAI Act provides a period of thirty days for filing an appeal. But he noted that a proviso says that the Tribunal can take note if there is sufficient reason for this.

    Observing that there is healthy growth in the industry with rise in revenues outstripping the increasing inflation over the years, TRAI had decided that two inflation-linked Tariff Amendment Orders issued by it in 2014 and set aside by the Tribunal are not required at present.

    Earlier, the Supreme Court had on an appeal from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and another party also upheld the TDSAT order setting aside the amendments in two tariff orders which had sought to put an inflation-linked hike of 27.5 per cent on addressable and non-addressable systems.

    Holding the Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Eleventh Amendment) Order 2014 of March 2014 and ‘The Telecommunication (Broadcasting & Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Thirteenth Amendment) Order 2014 of December that year were ‘untenable’, the Tribunal had said it thought TRAI “will be well advised to have a fresh look at the various tariff orders in a holistic manner and come out with a comprehensive tariff order in supersession of all the earlier tariff orders.”

    In its directives withdrawing the orders, TRAI said: “During analysisof relevant data and the impact of various factors on the issue ofinflation linked hikes in tariff ceilings at the wholesale levels”, it had observed that the “annual revenues that actually accrued to the broadcasters had surpassed the estimated revenues that should have accrued to them after taking into account the year-on-year inflation as calculated using the GDP deflator. The compounded annual growth rate of the revenues accruing year-on-year to the broadcasters has also witnessed a positive growth. More importantly, this growth has kept well ahead of the estimate revenues compensated for the year-on-year change in the inflation using the GDP deflator.”

    The tariff hike had been challenged by Home Cable Network and the Centre for Transforming India, with Lucknow 9 Cable Network, Good Media News India Pvt Ltd, Sikkim Digital Network and Cable Combine Communication Siliguri as intervenors. Later, Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF) supported the order as intervener while the other interveners who were Direct to Home (DTH) operators, Multi System Operators (MSOs), Association of Cable Operators/Cable Operators opposed the order on the same grounds as the Appellants.

  • Adcap case put off to 29 March; Discovery moves for intervention, Home Cable seeks early hearing

    Adcap case put off to 29 March; Discovery moves for intervention, Home Cable seeks early hearing

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today adjourned the hearing of the adcap (advertising cap) challenge to 29 March, when it will also take up the application by Discovery Communications to intervene in the matter.

    While the matter was listed for today, it was put off to another date in view of pending cases before the court.

    In the last hearing on 27 November, the Court chaired by Chief Justice G Rohini said the matter had been pending for some time and therefore it will hear and conclude the case in the next hearing.

    On that day, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had informed the Court that it was in talks with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and other stakeholders on the issue of the advertising cap of 12 minutes per hour. This was the first time that the Ministry had put in an appearance in the petition filed by the NBA and others against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and others.

    On an oral plea by intervenor Home Cable Network Pvt Ltd counsel Vivek Sarin for early hearing, the Court directed him to file a written application with the relevant contentions for early hearing, saying that the court would consider it.

    Even as Discovery Communications sought to press its plea for being impleaded as an intervenor, the Court said this would also be considered at the next hearing.

    Home Cable Network was permitted to intervene on 5 January and the Court had agreed to consider contentions on whether pay channels should be permitted to carry commercials in view of subscription fee charged by them. Sarin had told the court that the petitioners had not disclosed that broadcasters had given their consent to observe the 10+2 ad cap rule under the Cable Television Network Regulation Rules 1994 and the Act that followed a year later and also under the Uplink and Downlink Guidelines.

    He also said pay TV broadcasters should not be allowed to take ads as they charged subscription fee.

    The case, filed by 9X Media, NBA and others against TRAI and the Union Government, has so far been adjourned from time to time on the plea that the government and the broadcasters are in talks on this issue.

    Indiantelevision.com has learnt that this comes in the wake of a statement made by Minister Arun Jaitley in January last year that there should be no ad cap in the print or electronic media. However, no instructions have been issued in this regard by the Minister so far.

    The Court has already directed that the order that TRAI will not take any action against any channel pending the petition will continue. In an earlier hearing, the Court had, at the regulator’s instance, directed that all channels keep a record of the advertisements run by them.

    The NBA had challenged the ad cap rule, contending that TRAI does not have jurisdiction to regulate commercial airtime on television channels.

    Apart from the NBA, the petitions have been filed by Sarthak Entertainment, Pioneer Channel Factory, E24 Glamoru, Sun TV Network, TV Vision, B4U Broadband, 9X Media, Kalaignar, Celebrities Management, Eanadu Television and Raj Television.

    Meanwhile, according to information available with this website, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Delhi is already hearing a case on this issue against 15 broadcasters. It is further learnt that officials of these channels have obtained bail and the matter is pending before the Magistrate.

  • Adcap case put off to 29 March; Discovery moves for intervention, Home Cable seeks early hearing

    Adcap case put off to 29 March; Discovery moves for intervention, Home Cable seeks early hearing

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today adjourned the hearing of the adcap (advertising cap) challenge to 29 March, when it will also take up the application by Discovery Communications to intervene in the matter.

    While the matter was listed for today, it was put off to another date in view of pending cases before the court.

    In the last hearing on 27 November, the Court chaired by Chief Justice G Rohini said the matter had been pending for some time and therefore it will hear and conclude the case in the next hearing.

    On that day, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had informed the Court that it was in talks with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and other stakeholders on the issue of the advertising cap of 12 minutes per hour. This was the first time that the Ministry had put in an appearance in the petition filed by the NBA and others against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and others.

    On an oral plea by intervenor Home Cable Network Pvt Ltd counsel Vivek Sarin for early hearing, the Court directed him to file a written application with the relevant contentions for early hearing, saying that the court would consider it.

    Even as Discovery Communications sought to press its plea for being impleaded as an intervenor, the Court said this would also be considered at the next hearing.

    Home Cable Network was permitted to intervene on 5 January and the Court had agreed to consider contentions on whether pay channels should be permitted to carry commercials in view of subscription fee charged by them. Sarin had told the court that the petitioners had not disclosed that broadcasters had given their consent to observe the 10+2 ad cap rule under the Cable Television Network Regulation Rules 1994 and the Act that followed a year later and also under the Uplink and Downlink Guidelines.

    He also said pay TV broadcasters should not be allowed to take ads as they charged subscription fee.

    The case, filed by 9X Media, NBA and others against TRAI and the Union Government, has so far been adjourned from time to time on the plea that the government and the broadcasters are in talks on this issue.

    Indiantelevision.com has learnt that this comes in the wake of a statement made by Minister Arun Jaitley in January last year that there should be no ad cap in the print or electronic media. However, no instructions have been issued in this regard by the Minister so far.

    The Court has already directed that the order that TRAI will not take any action against any channel pending the petition will continue. In an earlier hearing, the Court had, at the regulator’s instance, directed that all channels keep a record of the advertisements run by them.

    The NBA had challenged the ad cap rule, contending that TRAI does not have jurisdiction to regulate commercial airtime on television channels.

    Apart from the NBA, the petitions have been filed by Sarthak Entertainment, Pioneer Channel Factory, E24 Glamoru, Sun TV Network, TV Vision, B4U Broadband, 9X Media, Kalaignar, Celebrities Management, Eanadu Television and Raj Television.

    Meanwhile, according to information available with this website, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Delhi is already hearing a case on this issue against 15 broadcasters. It is further learnt that officials of these channels have obtained bail and the matter is pending before the Magistrate.

  • Adcap case to be heard on 11 February, MIB informs Court matter under discussion with broadcasters

    Adcap case to be heard on 11 February, MIB informs Court matter under discussion with broadcasters

    NEW DELHI, 27 November: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry today informed the Delhi High Court that it was in talks with the News Broadcasters Association and other stakeholders on the issue of the advertising cap of 12 minutes per hour.

     

    Consequently, the Court put off hearing of the matter to 11 February. This is the first time that the Ministry has put in an appearance in the petition filed by the News Broadcasters and others against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and others.

     

    The Bench observed that the matter had been pending for some time and therefore it will hear and conclude the case in the next hearing.

     

    Counsel for NBA Nisha Bhambhani also said that talks were on with the Ministry in this regard.

     

    Meanwhile in an intervention MSO Home Cable Network (P) Ltd said it wanted to intervene as it was directly affected by the outcome of the present petition. Lawyer Vivek Sarin appearing for Home Cable said in the intervention application that “the ordinary subscribers are unduly burdened with unjustified charges when the cost of operating the channels can be recovered from the advertisement revenue. The said cost includes notional profits also.”

     

    The application wanted the NBA petition to be dismissed and added: “The Pay channel broadcasters are profiteering at the expense of subscribers and the DPO’s. There is no justification for changing monthly subscription when commercial advertisements are inserted. The Standards of Quality of Service (Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems) Regulations 2012 (with Amendments thereafter) is justified to the extent they are applicable to Pay Channels. The pay channel broadcasters cannot charge the subscription fee while inserting commercials into the content or in the alternative, the subscribers have to be compensated for the revenue earned on the basis of their being subscribers of the channels.”

     

    In the last two hearings on 8 and 23 September, the NBA had sought the adjournment on the ground that the matter was under discussion with the Ministry to seek certain clarifications.

     

    (It is learnt by indiantelevision.com that this comes in the wake of a statement made by Minister Arun Jaitley in January this year that there should be no ad cap in the print or electronic media, However, no instructions have been issued in this regard by the Minister so far,).

    The order that TRAI will not take any action against any channel pending the petition will continue. In an earlier hearing, the Court had, at the regulator’s instance, directed that all channels keep a record of the advertisements run by them.
      
    The NBA had challenged the ad cap rule, contending that TRAI does not have jurisdiction to regulate commercial airtime on television channels.
     
    Apart from the NBA, the petitions have been filed by Sarthak Entertainment, Pioneer Channel Factory, E24 Glamoru, Sun TV Network, TV Vision, B4U Broadband, 9X Media, Kalaignar, Celebrities Management, Eanadu Television and Raj Television.
     

    The news and regional broadcasters fear that the capping of commercial airtime will curtail their ad revenues. They also argue that the ad cap must be brought only after the benefits of cable TV digitisation start showing. 

     

     Meanwhile, TRAI had three months earlier released results of their records which show that around 36 news channels apart from 105 General Entertainment Channels are violating the ad cap by telecast ads of more than 12 minutes an hour.

  • Delhi MSO urges TRAI to draw up comprehensive DAS tariff order pronto

    Delhi MSO urges TRAI to draw up comprehensive DAS tariff order pronto

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi based multi system operator (MSO) Home Cable Network has urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to fix the digital addressable system (DAS) tariff as early as possible in consonance with the directive of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (TDSAT) order of 28 April. 

     

    This had become all the more imperative in the light of the Supreme Court dismissing the appeal by Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and others challenging the TDSAT directive, it said. 

     

    Home Cable Network had filed the appeal in TDSAT against the TRAI tariff orders, and IBF had appealed when the Tribunal upheld the appeal.

     

    In a letter to TRAI chairman R S Sharma, Home Cable Network managing director Vikki Choudhary said the exercise needs to be conducted keeping in view the interest of the consumers at large and to ensure a level playing field, on non-discriminatory terms with parity in conducting this business. 

     

    “In view of this, we request the Industry Regulator TRAI to re-notify its letter to Pay Broadcasters dated 23 July, 2015 requesting the rates for their respective Pay TV channels with prescribed MRP as well, along with the duration of Advertisements shown on their respective Pay TV Channels,” Choudhary said. 

     

    He said these issues had been adversely affecting the industry for the past three years and therefore the exercise needed to be completed in a time-bound manner, so the innovations continue with doing business.

     

    In its order upheld by the apex court, TDSAT had said TRAI “will be well advised to have a fresh look at the various tariff orders in a holistic manner and come out with a comprehensive tariff order in supersession of all the earlier tariff orders.” 

     

    “While doing so, it may consider all the agreements and relevant data available with it. It may consider differentiating between content which is of a monopolistic nature as against that which is shown by other channels also. It may also consider classifying the content into premium and basic tiers,” the Tribunal had added.

  • Eros International partners with Home Cable Network for movies on broadband

    Eros International partners with Home Cable Network for movies on broadband

    MUMBAI: After announcing a partnership with India’s leading multi system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable & Datacom, Eros International has announced another deal with MSO Home Cable Network.

     

    The deal involves Home Cable and ErosNow, the online entertainment service of Eros International. The subscription-based broadband streaming service of the MSO will enable its subscribers to view content from the Eros library of films and music on multiple devices such as TVs, PCs, laptops, tablets and mobiles.

     

    ErosNow CEO Rishika Lulla said, “ErosNow is the only unique online streaming service in the world to offer both current and classic Bollywood blockbusters, music videos and popular television shows. We are pleased to be partnering with a leading player like Home Cable and make our extensive film content available to their vast subscriber base. With this pairing we continue to extend the reach of ErosNow as a leading digital entertainment brand.”

     

    The online platform currently offers thousands of new and catalogue movies from Eros as well as other Bollywood studios. This includes a large selection of premium TV content syndicated from TV studios as well as thousands of music videos and audio tracks.

     

    Home Cable has services in the Delhi-NCR region and delivers 50mbps broadband to its subscribers. The service will be offered at a monthly subscription price with a base price for unlimited viewing of movies.

     

    Prior to this, ErosNow teamed up with Hathway Broadband for making its content available to its customers on smart TVs, PCs, laptops, tablets and mobiles.

  • Home Cable Network approaches TRAI against Star Sports

    Home Cable Network approaches TRAI against Star Sports

    MUMBAI: Delhi-based multi-system operator (MSO) Home Cable Network, which has for long been facing issues with Star Sports channels, has now written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seeking its intervention in the resolution of the matter, which first arose in November 2013, after the interconnection agreement between the MSO and Star Sports expired on 31 October, 2013.

     

    Home Cable Network, in its letter to TRAI, has said that since expiry of the agreement with Star Sports, it has found abnormalities in the rates charged by the broadcaster. “We have been making representations to Star Sports executives, informing them that the rates charged on a per subscriber basis are not at par with the rates being charged by the network to various other MSOs. Due to this, our business is getting adversely affected,” reads the letter, a copy of which is in the possession of indiantelevision.com.

     

    “We have always been asked by Star Sports representatives to either sign on the exaggerated subscriber base with CPS rates or sign up on RIO rates which again are five to ten times higher as compared to the rates offered by them to favoured MSOs,” the letter further states.

     

    The move comes after the 10 February release of the TRAI regulation on content aggregators. “It was in this regulation that TRAI itself noticed irregularities in interconnection agreements. The regulation was an eye-opener, wherein MSOs like us were informed that the rates being charged from non-vertically integrated DPOs were in some cases higher by 62 per cent as compared to vertically integrated DPOs.

     

    The TRAI also brought to our notice that the rates charged by broadcasters to smaller, non-vertically integrated DPOs were higher by about 85 per cent as compared to vertically integrated DPOs,” said Home Cable Network managing director Vikki Choudhry.

     

    He informed that Home Cable Network has approached TRAI under clause 5.11 of the “Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection (Digital Addressable Cable Television Systems) Regulations, 2012” to facilitate the “process of entering into an agreement between Home Cable and Star Sports with just and equitable terms and conditions which help in creating a level playing field between the competing MSOs.

     

    The MSO has given a period of seven to ten days to TRAI to respond to its letter. “After the expiry of this tenure, we will approach The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against Star Sports,” Choudhry said.

     

    In the case against Star Sports channels, Home Cable Network plans to make TRAI respondent number one and Star Sports respondent number two. “If TRAI is unable to create level playing fields, MSOs will start making the regulator a party in the disputes with the broadcaster,” Choudhry concluded.