ITV

Tag: I&B ministry

  • PMO unlikely to intervene in Sun TV case

    PMO unlikely to intervene in Sun TV case

    MUMBAI: There seems to be no respite for Kalanithi Maran owned Sun TV Network, as the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is unlikely to intervene on the issue of withdrawal of security clearance to the 33 channels of the network.

     

    According to a PTI report, the PMO is not keen on over-ruling the Home Ministry’s decision of withdrawing the security clearance given to Sun TV Network, on grounds of the ongoing criminal probes against promoter Kalanithi Maran and his brother and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

     

    It can be noted that Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley had recently met the Prime Minister to take his opinion, after the Attorney General ruled in favour of Sun TV Network and the Ministry of Home Affairs decided to not budge from its stand of not giving security clearance to the Chennai based broadcast network.

     

    According to the report, the key reason for the PMO’s unwillingness to get involved in the Sun TV issue is the CBI probe that the Maran brothers were facing over alleged allotment of 300 high-speed BSNL telephone lines to their installations when Dayanidhi Maran was Telecom Minister. 

    Last week, the CBI questioned Dayanidhi Maran for 22 hours spread over three days in connection with the case.

  • Arun Jaitley to meet PM to discuss Sun TV issues

    Arun Jaitley to meet PM to discuss Sun TV issues

    MUMBAI: India’s Finance and Information & Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 July, 2015 to discuss the security clearance issue for Kalanithi Maran owned Sun TV’s 33 television channels and FM radio stations.

     

    The issue has assumed urgency given that the entire auction process of FM phase III has been held up with the I&B Ministry not convening a meeting of the application review committee. All the other 28 companies, barring those affiliated to Maran’s Sun TV Network, that had applied for the auction and migration from phase II to phase III, have been granted security clearance. 

     

    According to an Indian Express report, what has also stumped the I&B Ministry is the Union Home Ministry’s stance with respect to the print publications of the Sun TV Group.

     

    In response to the I&B Ministry’s query regarding the fate of the newspapers and magazines from the Sun stable such as Dinakaran, Kumudham and Murasoli, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said print publications “do not fall under the ambit of national security clearance.”

     

    At a recent meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Law Secretary is said to have pointed out that such a move would go against the spirit of Article 19 (1) of the Constitution on freedom of speech. This was subsequently reiterated in an opinion obtained from the Attorney General’s office. But the PMO had opined in the meeting then that once security clearance has been denied, there was no need perhaps to seek even the AG’s opinion.

     

    In his letter to Singh dated 1 April following the denial of security clearance on 30 March to Sun TV’s FM radio channels, Jaitley had said this was likely to be challenged in the court. “Such a situation will result in unnecessary embarrassment besides eliminating a large group from the FM channels. In view of the above mentioned position, it is felt necessary to request your indulgence for reconsidering the decision,” the letter stated.

  • Surya Prakash becomes first Prasar Bharati chairman to get salary

    Surya Prakash becomes first Prasar Bharati chairman to get salary

    NEW DELHI: For the first time since the Prasar Bharati came into existence in 1997, the chairman of its board has been made a full-time member with a fat salary of Rs 1lakh a month.

     

    Until now, the chairman like other part-time members received an allowance every time he attended a board meeting, and were not entitled to a salary. In the case of the chairman, he received Rs 5000 for each meeting.

     

    Under the new notification issued on 5 June, the chairman Dr A Surya Prakash who is a veteran journalist is entitled to receive Rs 10,000 per day subject to the overall monthly ceiling of Rs 1 lakh per month, for those days in a month when he is required to “perform any official work or duty” in the discharge of his functions as chairman of Prasar Bharati, including attending meetings.

     

    Interestingly, the notification amending the “Prasar Bharati Salary, Allowances, and other conditions of the chairman, whole-time and part-time members rules 2000” has been made retrospective from the day Prakash was appointed chairman on 29 October 2014. It is learnt that a senior official of Prasar Bharati had in fact written a letter to the Ministry in this connection on 20 January this year.

     

    The amendment says the payment of daily allowance will be for those “days when he is required to perform any official work or duty in the discharge of his functions as chairman of Prasar Bharati, including the attendance of the meeting of the Prasar Bharati Board or its committees.”

     

    The amendment makes it clear that meeting allowance will be admissible for the Prasar Bharati Board or its committees.

     

    Prasar Bharati sources said this was because he was the first chairman – a government appointee from the Vivekananda Foundation – who had been attending office almost daily even before the notification.

     

    Furthermore the sources said that although the board has had a journalist – Mrinal Pande – as chairperson before, this is the first time that the pubcaster has a journalist who has experience in electronic media.

     

    When contacted, Prakash told indiantelevision.com that it would not be appropriate for him to say anything about this since it is a government decision.

     

    Prakash will now also be entitled to an official vehicle, something no earlier chairman has had, although Prasar Bharati source said that the courtesy of pick and drop was always extended to the chairman and part-time members for the board meetings.

     

    While the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act was passed in 1990, it was notified only in September 1997.

     

    The Board shall consist of a chairman; one executive member; one member (Finance); one member (Personnel); and six part-time members.

     

    In addition, the Directors-General of All India Radio and Doordarshan are ex-officio members. The board has one representative of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to be nominated by that Ministry; and two representatives of the employees of the Corporation, of whom one shall be elected by the engineering staff from amongst themselves and one shall be elected by the other employee from amongst themselves. 

  • 191 MSOs get 10 year licences under DAS for specified areas, 7 allowed to cover more areas

    191 MSOs get 10 year licences under DAS for specified areas, 7 allowed to cover more areas

    NEW DELHI: Pursuant to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) urging the Home Ministry to expedite security clearances if digital addressable system (DAS) deadline for phase III has to be achieved, the past 10 weeks have seen a quantum jump in the number of multi-system operators (MSOs) getting 10 year registration: from 169 as on 10 April to 191 as of 22 June 2015.

     

    While there have been licences given, there are a few who have lost their licences. These include – SR Cable of Bangalore ceasing activity, and the Sun-owned Kal Cables of Chennai and Digicable Network India of Mumbai being refused security clearance.

     

    Some others have had their areas modified. These include one in Maharashtra (JPR Channel of Mumbai to cover pan India), Madhya Pradesh (CAN Digital of Indore to also cover Bhopal and Indore), Barak Communication of Assam (to cover more areas in the state), Delhi Distribution Company (to cover Pan India), Technobile Systems of Haryana (to cover more areas in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Haryana and Rajasthan) and Sea TV Network of Agra, and Novabase Digital Entertainment of Delhi that have got revised licences.

     

    Most of these MSOs had been given provisional permission earlier.

  • TRAI asks MSOs to devise rational channel rates for phase III

    TRAI asks MSOs to devise rational channel rates for phase III

    MUMBAI: Close to 61 multi system operators (MSOs) have approached the broadcaster for signing of interconnect agreements. The statistics were revealed at the eighth task force meeting by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) advisor Sunil Kumar Singhal.

     

    Of these, according to the report received by Singhal, while the broadcasters have given their replies to the MSOs, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) is yet to be signed. The TRAI through its meetings with the MSOs and broadcasters, has identified four core issues relating to interconnect agreements. These are:

     

    1. While the MSOs are expressing interest for getting signals from broadcasters, they are being asked for more information, which is taking time. “Now with the intervention of TRAI, broadcasters have formalized their formats and have placed them on their websites so that all MSOs can submit requests at one go and the agreement signed,” informed Singhal.

     

    2. The distributors of several broadcasters in a state are also MSOs and that has led to conflict of interest with the MSOs. “We have been able to address this by seeking the details of the core team of the broadcasters to be approached for getting the signals and the broadcasters have provided such details also on their websites,” he said.

     

    3. The third point was related to pending dispute between MSOs in DAS areas which are both old as well as new. “These disputes need to be resolved mutually as TRAI would not intervene in such disputes,” he opined.

     

    4. There are differences between MSOs and broadcasters on the rate of channels.   “The larger MSOs are in negotiations with broadcasters to finalise the prices and it is indicated that they will be in a position to finalise them by mid June,” he said.

     

    Meanwhile, TRAI has asked the MSOs to devise means to have rational rates for phase III areas, as the rates for phase I and II cannot be workable in the remaining phases.

     

    The TRAI advisor also informed the task force meeting that there was confusion between both MSOs and broadcasters which related to the modus operandi for entering into agreements during the transition period.  The TRAI advisor said that the MSOs and broadcasters were business entities who should know how to communicate with each other in order to expedite and facilitate their business interests. The TRAI has asked the stakeholders to not repeat the mistakes of phase I and II by deploying pre-activated STBs.

     

    The representative of the MSOs, during the meeting said that whatever be the rate declared by broadcasters, TRAI should come out with a non-discriminative clause which should not push packages but allow the channels to be on a-la-carte basis. “We have been insisting on a-la-carte and not bundling of channels and any delay in the implementation of DAS will result in losses to both MSOs and broadcasters,” informed the TRAI advisor.

     

    According to a MSO representative, the packaging of channels should be monitored by TRAI. “The LCOs should be trained to spread DAS amongst the consumers as they are close to the consumers and can speedup this process,” opined the MSO representative.

     

    Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) additional secretary JS Mathur, who was also chairing the meeting said that the publicity campaign for the cutoff date for phase III should start now.

     

    According to Siti Cable Network’s Anil Malhotra, while the target rate of seeding set top boxes (STBs) requires to be around 2 to 3 lakh per day, the present rate of seeding is about 20-30 thousand boxes which is way short and logistic support has to be planned out in order to step-up the pace of seeding.

     

    During the meeting, a representative from BIS raised the issue of hacking of STBs and said that a request has been received from some broadcasters to strengthen the BIS Standard of STBs.

  • Sun TV may approach Court on issue of security clearance, Centre moves new case against Kal Cables

    Sun TV may approach Court on issue of security clearance, Centre moves new case against Kal Cables

    NEW DELHI: Amid reports that Sun TV Group may be compelled to approach Courts of law following the view of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that it should not have been denied security clearance, it is understood that the Home Ministry has again approached the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) for its viewpoint before giving a final order.

     

    Reacting to this, a Sun TV official told indiantelevision.com, “Our consistent view has been that the TV and radio broadcast business of Sun TV Network Ltd cannot be put in any jeopardy on the ground that the promoter is facing charges in another case. Till such time the case is decided, the cardinal principle of presumed innocent till pronounced guilty shall apply. Any deviation from this time honoured tradition of law will be a violation of natural justice.”

     

    Asked about moving the courts, the spokesperson said: “Considering that our stand has been vindicated by the Attorney General, we hope that all clearances will be restored and we will not be compelled to seek any legal remedies. We wait to hear more from the government authorities.”

     

    Meanwhile the PMO office, reportedly has also decided to stay with the Home Ministries decision to deny security clearance to the 33 channels under Sun TV Network. 

     

    The network has still not received anything in writing from either the I&B nor the Home Ministries. Furthermore, the uncertainty is affecting the position of the Group in the stock market.

     

    Sun TV Network with 33 TV and around 40 radio channels is one of the largest media groups in the country with a reach to more than 95 million households in the country.

     

    Home Ministry officials say their investigation shows serious charges of money laundering against Kalanithi Maran, the owner of Sun TV Network.

     

    Home Ministry officials made it clear that neither the Ministry nor Home Minister Rajnath Singh will directly reply to the letter from Maran.

     

    Rohatgi is of the view that there is a difference between corruption charges and national security as neither the owner nor the Network was a threat to the nation’s security. The opinion was given after the I&B Ministry had sought his opinion on the matter even as the Law Ministry failed to take a decision.

     

    Rohatgi had said that mere filing of criminal charges in economic offences, in which trial courts were yet to frame charges against the accused, could not be a ground to infer that they had posed threat to national security because of the alleged offences. 

     

    It is also learnt that though it had been castigated in September last year for encroaching on the freedom of the media, the I and B Ministry has moved the Madras High Court against quashing of its order cancelling the multi-system operator’s licence. The matter has been listed befor the High Court on 1 July.

     

    Justice V Ramasubramanian of the High Court in September had quashed the cancellation on the ground that no show-cause notice had been issued to the company. 

     

  • Sun TV woes continue as MHA disagrees with AG, denies security clearance

    Sun TV woes continue as MHA disagrees with AG, denies security clearance

    MUMBAI: Even after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that denying security clearance to Sun TV Network was wrong, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said that it does not agree with Attorney General’s opinion on the issue.

     

    According to MHA officials, their investigation shows serious charges of money laundering against Kalanithi Maran, the owner of Sun TV Network. In the light of this, MHA took the decision to deny it security clearance after high-level consultations. The MHA has now asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) to give its decision, post which; it will further take a final call.  

     

    It can be noted that Rohatgi had said that the MHA denying security clearance to Sun TV on basis of corruption charges was wrong, as neither the owner nor the Network was a threat to the nation’s security. The opinion was given after the I&B Ministry had sought for the Attorney General’s opinion on the matter.

     

    Typically, when views of two ministries differ on a subject matter, the Attorney General’s opinion is sought. However, his judgment is not binding.

     

    As per media reports, while the I&B Ministry is assessing Rohatgi’s opinion, in case there is still disagreement between the two ministries, one could well see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervening into the matter.

  • Attorney General okays Sun TV security clearance; stock up 8%

    Attorney General okays Sun TV security clearance; stock up 8%

    MUMBAI: Kalanithi Maran can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. This after the Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi has asked the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry to give security clearance to the 33 channels of Sun TV Network.

     

    After the I&B Ministry sought his opinion on the matter, Rohatgi said that denial of security clearance to Sun TV by MHA was wrong.

     

    It can be noted that the Home Ministry had denied the proposal to grant security clearance to the network on grounds that its promoter – Kalanithi Maran – was being investigated for criminal cases by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

     

    As is known, the CBI had alleged Dayanidhi Maran of misusing his office as Union Telecom Minister to engineer the sale of Aircel to Malaysia’s Maxis Group in 2006. Maran was accused of corruption and illegal gratification worth more than Rs 700 crore, which allegedly was invested in a media company that is part of the Sun Group, owned by Dayanidhi Maran’s brother Kalanithi Maran.

     

    It can be noted that in April, the ED had issued an order to both the Maran brothers to attach properties and assets worth Rs 742.58 crore belonging to them.

     

    Kalanithi Maran in his argument had said that while most TV companies have criminal cases pending against them or against their directors or promoters, only his company was singled out and security clearance refused.

     

    Earlier this week the MHA had said that it had no plans to reply to the letter written by Maran where he had said that his company was never involved in any anti-national or criminal activity and that there was no justification for refusal of the clearance to his television channels.

     

    Buoyed by the reports of this development, the Sun TV stock on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) shot up by 7.86 per cent at the end of the day’s trade on Friday. The stock, which opened at Rs 309.25 touched an intra-day high of Rs 342.30 and closed at Rs 333.55 at the end of the day’s trade.

  • MIB warns MSOs, LCOs against removing mandatory channels

    MIB warns MSOs, LCOs against removing mandatory channels

    NEW DELHI: The Government today warned all multi-system operators (MSO) and local cable operators (LCO) of action if they failed to carry the mandatory channels of Doordarshan, Rajya Sabha TV and Lok Sabha TV.

     

    Noting that it had been found that many MSOs and LCOs were not carrying mandatory channels notified by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) under different notifications, a note posted on the Ministry’s website said this was a violation of Section 8 of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995.

     

    Non-carriage of mandatory channels was liable to attract Section Il, Section 12 and Section 8 of the Cable Act.

     

    Any violation of Section 8 of the Cable Act shall invite such action as provided in the Cable TV Act and the Rules framed thereunder as well as the terms and conditions stipulated in the MSO permission, as the case may be.

     

    DD alleges DD Bharati taken off by Tata Sky

     

    Meanwhile in a separate note, Doordarshan said that its cultural channel DD Bharati had been taken off by DTH operator Tata Sky from 13 June till date without any official information. “This accounts to a serious violation from Tata Sky’s end,” the note said.

     

    Prasar Bharati had already moved the Ministry in this regard, and requested it to initiate action against the DTH operator.

     

    DD Bharati and some other Doordarshan channels including DD UP, DD MP, DD Bihar & DD Rajasthan are not being carried by Tata Sky on its network, which amounts to violation of the Government rules, DD said.

     

    Doordarshan reiterated that it is obligatory for every DTH operator to carry all Doordarshan channels, irrespective of any bouquet(s) or a-la-carte channel(s) being subscribed by subscribers. The DTH operators have to place the channels in the respective genre and display them in full television screen.

     

     

    The notification of 5 and 6 September, 2013 and 25 May, 2015 had specified a list of channels that are to be mandatorily carried by DTH operators, MSOs and cable operators on their cable TV networks.

     

    In areas where cable TV digitization has been completed, it is obligatory for the cable operators to carry 23 channels of Doordarshan including Kisan Channel, besides Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha channels. 

     

    In other areas, the cable operators are required to carry eight channels of Doordarshan, in addition to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha channels.

  • MIB issues provisional MSO licence to Reliance Jio

    MIB issues provisional MSO licence to Reliance Jio

    MUMBAI: The wait is finally over for the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio, as the company has finally got the provisional multi system operator (MSO) licence from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B). The licence was given on 17 June, 2015. 

     

    While I&B Ministry sources refused to comment on giving any such provisional licence, a source from the company confirmed the news saying, “We got the provisional MSO licence on 17 June.” 

     

    The telecom arm of Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio had applied for pan-India MSO licence in January 2015.

     

    This comes soon after the I&B Ministry decided to give provisional licence to MSOs who had applied for licences to operate in phase III. It can be recalled that in October 2014, the Ministry had decided to do away with the system of granting provisional licences and only giving permanent licences in order to ensure that only serious players entered the phase III and IV markets. 

     

    While, the Ministry had then said that it along with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will process the MSO security clearance within 90 days, the same has not been followed. This resulted in the I&B going back to granting provisional licences.

     

    Through a notice on 11 June, 2015, the Ministry accepted the delay in granting of security clearance by the MHA and so asked the close to 700 MSO licence applicants to file their application in an affidavit. Through the affidavit, the applicants had to commit that they have no criminal cases pending against them, and that they will shut down if they are refused security clearance. 

     

    “While we have got the provisional licence, now the MHA will come up with its guidelines, which we will need to follow to get the permanent licence. The reason that a provisional licence has been given is because the MHA was taking a lot of time to give security clearance,” said the source from the company.

     

    It can be noted that two of the pioneers of Indian cable TV sector: K Jayaraman and SN Sharma have already joined Reliance Jio and will be spearheading its business in the country.  

     

    Reliance Jio 4G rollout

     

    In its recent annual general meeting, Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh D Ambani informed that the ambitious 4G project will launch in December 2015 and that 2016-17 would be the first full year of commercial operations for Jio.

     

    After expending money to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore in acquiring spectrum rights across the country, the company is targeting to provide 4G services across India with an investment of more than Rs 70,000 crore.