ITV

Tag: I&B intervention

  • Adult film ban on TV: Cable operators seek I&B intervention

    MUMBAI: The Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI), the Delhi-based cable TV operators association, has sent a memorandum to I&B minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, expressing their inability to follow the recent Bombay High Court order banning adult films on television.
    The petition, signed by COFI president Roop Sharma, requests for government intervention to apply for modification of the order and amendment of Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 accordingly.
    COFI argues out that, implementation of the High Court’s direction to cable operators to carry only the films which are sanctioned by the C.B.F.C for unrestricted public exhibition may create lot of practical difficulties since cable operators / MSOs have absolutely no control over the programmes / films that are being transmitted by the broadcasters.
    “There are about 150 entertainment channels which transmit their programmes on 24X7 basis. Most of these channels as a part of their programs show Movies at different times of the day to cater for their international market in other countries too. In addition there are exclusive Movie Channels which throughout 24 hrs transmit only Movies. None of the Broadcasters give any list of their minute by minute programming to Cable Operators/MSOs. The programme lists that appear in the newspapers are seldom correct and do not give the last moment changes,” points out COFI.
    “It is submitted that cable operator can exercise control only on the movies telecast through its local VCR channels from its headend/control room and in case a cable operator is found to have telecasted an “A” rated movie through its VCR channel, then the said cable operator is definitely liable for punitive actions under the provisions of Cable Network Regulation Act,” the memo adds.
    In the petition, COFI also stresses on the necessity of implementing CAS at the earliest so that subscribers can be empowered to control the content coming on their television sets. It also requests the ministry to notify the relevant amendment in the Cable Network Regulation Act as has been mentioned in the downlinking guidelines.

    Also read:

    Impossible to police adult films on TV: cable ops 

    Bombay High Court bans adult films on TV

  • Consumer body seeks I&B intervention on CAS

    Consumer body seeks I&B intervention on CAS

    MUMBAI: Even as the Mumbai High Court decision on the cable industry issues involving consumers, broadcasters and cable operators is pending, a Mumbai based consumer activist organisation has decided to appeal directly to union minister of state for information and broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad.

    Consumer Action Network (CAN) president Ahmad M Abdi has written a letter to the minister urging him to take necessary steps to protect the interest of consumers under the conditional access system (CAS) regime. CAN is a consumer activist organisation comprising of lawyers registered under the Society Registration Act, 1860.

    According to the letter, a copy of which is with the indiantelevision.com team, the following issues need to be sorted out:

    * The ministry must constitute a regulatory authority. The consumer has got no resource to file complaints to grievances in the absence of one. Till the conversions commission becomes a reality, an adhoc regulatory authority should be in place where multifarious issues relating to the industry can be sorted out.

    * The ministry must look into the fact that the broadcasters are bundling their pay channels as bouquets and pressuring the consumer to subscribe to the entire bouquet by pricing the popular individual higher. This practice adopted by the broadcasters is prima facie unfair, unreasonable and exploitative in nature and it is duty of the government to regulate and check such types of practices in public interest.

    * The bouquet of “free-to-air” (FTA) channels should include the right mix of entertainment, news, sports, music and children’s programmes which can accessed by the consumer who pays the FTA bouquet price of Rs 72 per month.

    * The I&B ministry must urge the finance ministry to exempt cable TV service of FTA bouquet from the service tax net. The reason being that cable TV is the basic source of information and entertainment to the common masses as well as the economically weaker section of the society.

    * The state governments must yield to the request from consumer bodies that the FTA cable TV service should become exempt from the purview of entertainment tax.

    * The ministry must develop a mechanism to counter the probable exploitation of the consumers by the cable operators or multi-system operators (MSOs). There are fears that the cable trade could pressure consumers to subscribers to pay channels along with FTA channels – refusing to provide FTA channels alone. It must be mandatory to provide cable TV service as per demand rather than force.