ITV

Tag: MediaPro

  • MEDIAPRO Selects Tedial for Corporate MAM Implementation

    MEDIAPRO Selects Tedial for Corporate MAM Implementation

    MUMBAI: Tedial, the leading independent MAM technology solutions specialist, has been selected by MEDIAPRO, a leader in the European audiovisual sector, to provide its Corporate MAM system for internal use within the MEDIAPRO Group of companies worldwide. System deployment is scheduled to begin in September 2019.

    The solution, a multisite MAM, will provide several nodes that will be distributed worldwide to MEDIAPRO Group’s companies including Spain, LATAM, North America, France, and more. The solution will enable MEDIAPRO operators to find and access content distributed within each site facilitating the exploitation and distribution of media content.

    The first site to become part of the corporate MAM is Globomedia, one of the first content producers in Europe, based in Madrid. Globomedia will digitize all its content, which will be allocated in the Tedial MAM. This site will be followed by the other MEDIAPRO Group of companies worldwide.

    Jordi Pañella CEO of UNITECNIC, the systems integration company of MEDIAPRO says, “We selected Tedial’s Corporate MAM solution as it’s the best fit for our global plans moving forward. By providing multisite MAM our operators across the world can very easily share content between sites enabling a fully integrated production approach.”

    Esther Mesas, CSO/CMO, Tedial adds, “We are delighted to announce this project at IBC 2019. MEDIAPRO is a global brand with sites around the world. Our corporate MAM will increase productivity, significantly improve workflows and reduce costs.”

    MEDIAPRO is a multimedia communications group based in Spain with branch offices in Spain, LATAM, USA, Canada, France, and other countries around the world. Founded in 1994 in Barcelona, the company is involved in movie and television production as well as media (beIN Sports), with operations worldwide through its 58 offices distributed across 36 countries on 4 continents.

  • Amazon could bid for La Liga media rights

    Amazon could bid for La Liga media rights

    MUMBAI: Global tournament and league rights are no longer only within the reach of big broadcasters. Social networks and e-commerce portals too are now in the running to stake a claim in rights acquisition. One of the big names that come to the mind is Amazon. After acquiring a package of 20 football matches from the English Premier League, industry observers are now predicting that the Jeff Bezos-owned company will turn its attention to the Spanish market and seek to acquire minority lots of La Liga football TV rights over the next three seasons, Advanced Television reports.

    La Liga has four lots of football TV rights for sale after granting majority of the rights to Telefónica. The Spanish telecommunications company has outbid its main rival Mediapro for the bulk of broadcast rights to La Liga, the top-flight of Spanish soccer, in an auction that raised €3.4 billion (US$3.98 billion).

    Telefonica was awarded the two main packages, for nine matches each week in the recent auction. Mediapro got the right to one match each week, along with highlights and broadcasts in public spaces such as bars and restaurants. However, rights to Spain’s Copa del Rey were not included in the package offering.

    In India, Sony Pictures Network (SPN) owned the telecast rights until 20 May 2018.

    La Liga hopes to get €120 million for these rights, which will be added to €980 million paid by Telefónica and €160 million already paid by Mediapro.

    La Liga may still meet its target with the sale of the four packages that were withdrawn (only four out of eight have been awarded) to new companies like Amazon, Facebook or Netflix.

  • Digicable part pays dues to MediaPro

    Digicable part pays dues to MediaPro

    NEW DELHI: Digicable Network India Pvt. Ltd has handed over three post-dated cheques for Rs 25 lakh each as part of the total payment of Rs 9.52 crore to MediaPro Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd.

    The cheques were accepted by MediaPro counsel Tejveer Singh Bhatia “without prejudice to his rights and contentions” in the presence of member B B Srivastava of the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on 9 August 2016.

    But Bhatia said in the event of any of the cheques not being honoured for payment, the Tribunal may seriously consider attachment of the judgment debtor’s headend.

    The cheques dated 16 August 2016, 31 August 2016 and 30 September 2016 were handed over by Digicable Network counsel Diggaj Pathak.

    The matter was listed for 14 September 2016 by which time additional cheques as well as the revised schedule, if any, for expeditious liquidation of the decretal amount would also be given, the Tribunal said.

  • Digicable part pays dues to MediaPro

    Digicable part pays dues to MediaPro

    NEW DELHI: Digicable Network India Pvt. Ltd has handed over three post-dated cheques for Rs 25 lakh each as part of the total payment of Rs 9.52 crore to MediaPro Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd.

    The cheques were accepted by MediaPro counsel Tejveer Singh Bhatia “without prejudice to his rights and contentions” in the presence of member B B Srivastava of the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on 9 August 2016.

    But Bhatia said in the event of any of the cheques not being honoured for payment, the Tribunal may seriously consider attachment of the judgment debtor’s headend.

    The cheques dated 16 August 2016, 31 August 2016 and 30 September 2016 were handed over by Digicable Network counsel Diggaj Pathak.

    The matter was listed for 14 September 2016 by which time additional cheques as well as the revised schedule, if any, for expeditious liquidation of the decretal amount would also be given, the Tribunal said.

  • TS Panesar quits Star India as EVP Distribution

    TS Panesar quits Star India as EVP Distribution

    MUMBAI: Star India’s EVP for distribution TS Panesar has decided to move on to the company sources told indiantelevision.com.

    He is currently serving his notice period and will move out of the company at the end of the month.

    Panesar had been entrusted with the responsibility of handling distribution for national DTH and digital addressable systems (DAS) earlier this year when the JV between Star and Zee- MediaPro was broken.

    He was earlier ESPN Software India VP for affiliate sales.

    Industry sources hinted that Panesar could be moving to Discovery Networks.

     

  • MSOs prepared to accept RIO if broadcasters assure parity, MSOs’ counsel tell TDSAT

    MSOs prepared to accept RIO if broadcasters assure parity, MSOs’ counsel tell TDSAT

    NEW DELHI: An agreement under reference interconnect offer (RIO) is acceptable if there is parity to all, Hathway counsel Arun Kathpalia and Bhaskar Networks counsel Navin Chawla told the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) in the cases linked to Taj TV signals for Zee and Turner and Star India’s signals to Hathway and other multi-system operators (MSOs).

     

    Earlier, both Star India counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, on behalf of the case against Hathway and counsel Amit Sibal appearing on behalf of Star India in the petition by Bhaskar Networks of Jabalpur indicated that they were prepared to give affidavits with the assurance of parity.

     

    However, counsel were divided on when the agreements should commence and wanted the Tribunal to decide the matter in the light of clause 5(16) of the DAS interconnect regulations.

     

    Dwivedi said that since the last agreement ended in June, any agreement will only be till June irrespective of the date when it commences. He said there had been delay only on the part of Hathway in proceeding with the negotiations. Sibal also said there could be no concession on the date.

     

    Kathpalia however said that the agreement will be for one year from the date it commences. However, he said this was subject to the interpretation given by the Tribunal to clause 5(16).

     

    At one stage, Kathpalia argued that Star India wanted to give RIO agreement to all MSOs whereas Hathway had been negotiating on the basis of cost per subscriber (CPS).

     

    Referring to Star Sports’ feed to Bhaskar, Sibal said that MediaPro wrote to all MSOs asking them to approach the broadcasters individually. Star India had on 19 May written to Bhaskar to negotiate for a new agreement, but had not mentioned RIO since clause 5(3) provides for negotiations or RIO.

     

    He said Bhaskar did not respond till 2 July when Star India disconnected the signals and insisted that the broadcaster should have given one month’s notice. A fresh notice was given on 1 August for terminating channels.

     

    Siblal said Bhaskar’s case appeared to be that the rate of Rs 39 for the sports channel was not reasonable. He said this figure cannot be a benchmark as it was not the basis for negotiation. 

     

    At one stage, Justice Aftab Alam said RIO defines the parameters of the limitation of the figure. Member Kuldeep Singh asked why MSOs should have any objection if there was no discrimination in the RIO.

  • Regulations skewed against broadcasters: Star India counsel Dwivedi

    Regulations skewed against broadcasters: Star India counsel Dwivedi

    NEW DELHI: Noting that the Telecommunications (Broadcasting and Cable) Interconnection (Digital Addressable System) Regulations 2012 ‘are skewed’ against the broadcaster in every respect’, Star counsel Rakesh Dwivedi said today that there are provisions only for ‘must provide’ and not ‘must carry’.

     

    Thus, the broadcaster does not get paid by a multisystem operator (MSO) for providing the channels, but only when a subscriber wants to take it from the MSO.

     

    Furthermore, Clause 5 is clear that no broadcaster can compel a MSO to provide his channel to the subscriber and gives an option to the subscriber to choose the channel he wants, Dwivedi said in the ongoing hearing before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal in the cases linked to Taj TV signals for Turner and Zee TV.

     

    The Regulations also say that if a broadcaster insisted on a placement of his channel, it would amount to unreasonable terms. The same applied to creation of bouquets by the broadcaster.  

     

    Referring to the charge that the RIO does not mention bouquet, Dwivedi said there is no question of a bouquet, adding that there would be no point in creating bouquets if the MSO has the right to unbundle it.

     

    Furthermore, offering all the channels of the broadcaster does not amount to a bouquet, because even the dictionaries define ‘bouquet’ as an assortment out of which the subscriber can choose.

     

    Even in the case of MediaPro, Dwivedi said no bouquets had been offered and if MediaPro on its own offered any channels in the form of bouquets, it said so.

     

    Referring to the arguments advanced on behalf of the MSOs, he said there was no reference to being reasonable in clause five which was confined to mutual negotiations and this reference was only with reference to the Reference Interconnect Offer.

     

    He said that it was also necessary to understand that an RIO was only an offer and not an agreement or contract and therefore ‘cannot be judged on the anvil’.

     

    Even otherwise, the MSOs had not challenged the RIO but that it should have been brought in only after negotiations fail. 

     

    At the outset, Dwivedi said the charge against Star and Zee was that they were conspiring with other MSOs because of the closeness to Den and to drive the petitioner MSOs out of business. He also denied the contentions made by the petitioner MSOs that certain other MSOs were being given greater discounts.

  • RIO forms basis for final deal, agree Taj and Hathway

    RIO forms basis for final deal, agree Taj and Hathway

    NEW DELHI: Taj Television contended before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal today that though initial signals can be given by the broadcaster or distributor to the multi system operator initially on the basis of mutual negotiation, but this ultimately has to translate into an agreement under the Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO).

     

    Responding to an argument by Taj Television that the RIO had to be signed within 30 days, counsel for Hathway said that the date limit applies to modifications in existing RIO agreements, but the deal between Taj and Hathway had to be a new one since MediaPro had stopped distribution of Zee TV and Turner channels.

     

    Earlier, the Tribunal had fixed for final disposal from 25 August the ‘deep-rooted’ dispute between Hathway and Taj, noting that this would require interpretation of certain clauses of some of the statutory regulations.

     

    TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh had said: ‘Unfortunately, the dispute between the two sides is playing out in highly aggressive way and one may add in a rather unpleasant manner. It seems to be affecting a large number of people in viewing their favourite TV channels. The disputants themselves are approaching the Tribunal on a weekly basis complaining against the actions of each other and seeking some interim directions of the Tribunal consuming a lot of time on arguments on miscellaneous applications.  It is, therefore, in the larger interest to finally dispose of these cases after hearing all sides at an early date.”

     

    The Tribunal noted that the dispute has arisen at a stage when the earlier fixed fee agreement between the parties has come to end and they are unable to come to agreed terms for a fresh agreement and under the circumstances the MSO has no option but to take the broadcasters’ channels on their RIO terms.

     

    Hathway counsel Arun Kathpalia who concluded his initial arguments today said Hathway has only 10 per cent of the total collections that Taj Television makes from different MSOs. Hathway was paying Rs 85 crore for all channels including Turner (while the figure excluding Turner was Rs 62 crore).

     

    He also said that Hathway had been wrongly accused of making changes in the composition of the packages. In any case, the MSO was not offering the channels on a standalone basis and so the provision under the Quality of Services regulations did not apply to them.

     

    When talks between the two parties failed, he said the RIO was forwarded on 25 January and was to be effective from February.

     

    However,Star Sports Counsel Rakesh Dwivedi said the RIO had been accepted by Hathway in November last year which was revised by Hathway in January this year. Dwivedi wanted to know why the RIO should be made effective from February 2014 when the Subscriber Register had been supplied by Hathway in December last year.  Furthermore, no facts had been shown by Hathway to show the end of pleadings.

    Further arguments will continue tomorrow with counsel for Star expected to conclude his arguments and Hathway responding to them.

  • Hathway can bundle Star channels: TDSAT

    Hathway can bundle Star channels: TDSAT

    MUMBAI: The Star India and Hathway Cable & Datacom case regarding the former’s various channels has got an interim relief from the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). 

     

    As per the order passed on 28 July, TDSAT has asked both Hathway and Star India to enter into cost per subscriber (CPS) deals, starting August. According to this deal, the multi system operator (MSO) will pay Rs 27 per subscriber to the broadcaster for its entire bouquet, which includes entertainment and sports.

     

    It can be noted that earlier Hathway had two separate deals with the broadcaster- one for its sports channels handled separately and the other for the entertainment channels, which was handled by the now dissolved joint venture MediaPro.

     

    The Rs 27 CPS deal is a mid way arrangement proposed by TDSAT as against Hathway’s demand for Rs 22 per subscriber deal and Star’s Rs 31 per subscriber deal.  This means that the MSO has to pay an additional amount for the sports channels now, on a set top box deal, as compared to the RIO deal earlier.

     

    In its interim order, TDSAT has also clarified that Hathway has all the right to bundle the channels the way it feels right. However, the MSO will have to include at least one channel in one/any bouquets that it offers to its subscribers. 

     

    The issue had gained magnitude when Hathway decided to remove Star Sports channels from its base pack to create a separate sports pack and also provide them a-la-carte. The broadcaster objected to this move and took the MSO to the court.

     

    Meanwhile, the court has asked Hathway to clear its dues from April to July this year. This can be calculated at Rs 23 per subscriber for its entertainment channels and RIO for its sports channels together. While Star claims that this amounts to a total of Rs 27 crore, according to Hathway officials, the price is still being worked out. The total amount has to be paid by 30 August. A Hathway official says, “We are disappointed with this particular point as we believe that Rs 23 is much higher than the amount we would have actually paid to Star India as per the agreement between Star and Zee for price sharing after the split of MediaPro.”

     

    A source from Star India says, “Hathway was not paying us because of lack of clarity in the payment deals of sports and entertainment together. With this order, the integrated CPS has been recognised.”

     

    However, both parties agree that this case cannot be taken as a basis for future deals with others. According to officials from both Hathway and Star, the Rs 27 CPS deal cannot be applied to other distribution platform operators.

     

    The case will next be heard on 11 August.

  • “With Taj Television, we bring the best of channels to our customers”

    “With Taj Television, we bring the best of channels to our customers”

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment has got on board a subsidiary company that will handle the distribution of the entire Zee Network in the form of Taj Television India. It will distribute channels of both Zee Entertainment as well as Zee Media.

     

    This apart, it will act as an agent for Turner International India channels as well. The latest addition and the start for Taj Television is the new general entertainment channel Zindagi.

     

    Commenting on the development, Zee MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, “I am very pleased to announce that Taj Television, which earlier was distributing Ten Sports channels, will now distribute all the channels of Zee Entertainment and Zee Media Corporation, while also representing Turner channels as its authorized agent. I would like to thank all our DTH and Cable partners who have been part of our growth journey and look forward to their continued support to Taj Television.”

     

    Arun Kumar Kapoor who was earlier CEO of MediaPro, Zee’s distribution JV with Star India, will be the CEO at Taj Television too. Rajesh Sethi will continue to be CEO for the sports broadcasting network of Zee which includes the Ten brand of channels.

     

    Said Kapoor, “Zee has been the pioneer in Indian television and has the experience and leadership capability to shape the future of pay revenues in India. With Taj Television being created as the distribution entity for the network, we bring together the best of television channels to our customers. We are confident that the new channel Zindagi will really connect with the viewers and help grow Taj Television offering even stronger. We are committed to quality and achieving leadership through fair and transparent business practices.”

     

    Taj Television president Atul Das commented, “With digitization having been completed in Phase I and Phase II cities in India, we now look forward to its implementation in rest of the country. Taj Television would aim to create a harmonious relationship within the ecosystem and create value for all stakeholders. With a leading portfolio of television channels, both in the national and regional space and with a powerful portfolio of sports programming, we are excited about the future of pay revenues in the country.”

     

    Taj Television has a list of 47 channels. Taj Television distributes Zee’s well-known brands like Zee TV, Zee Cinema, &pictures, Ten Sports, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zing and a powerful repertoire of regional language channels including Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Tamizh, besides the HD channels like Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Zee Studio HD and Ten HD. Taj Television also distributes channels of Zee Media Corporation with two national and eight regional channels. Taj is also distributing channels in the kid’s space and English movie segment, including HBO, Cartoon Network, Pogo, CNN and Warner Brothers as an authorised agent of Turner International.