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Tag: MSO

  • GTPL Hathway share up as FII / FPI limit raised to 49 pc

    GTPL Hathway share up as FII / FPI limit raised to 49 pc

    MUMBAI: The share price of GTPL Hathway, a leading regional multi-system operator (MSO) which offers cable television and broadband services, rose 2.60 per cent to Rs 132 at 11:05am on the BSE after the central bank of India — RBI — raised foreign investment limit to 49 per cent from 24 per cent, earlier.

    The shares were listed on the stock exchanges on 4 July 2017, debuting on a flat note at Rs 170 compared with the IPO price of Rs 170. On a yearly basis, the price of GTPL Hathway has lost 23.46 per cent.

    The stock of GTPL Hathway, which recently pocketed Rs 480-mn Gujarat govt contracts, had touched a high of Rs 134 and a low of Rs 130.50 during the day. It was on 11 July that the stock climbed a record high of Rs 190.30 and hit a record low of Rs 126.60 on 24 August 2017.

    The stock had underperformed the market in the past month till 7 September 2017, falling 10.57 per cent when compared with 0.42 per cent overall decline in the Sensex.

    The Reserve Bank notified after market hours on 7 August 2017 that the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Foreign Portfolios Investors (FPIs) investment limit under Portfolio Investment Scheme in GTPL Hathway has increased to 49 per cent of its paid-up capital.

    Recently, GTPL Hathway was awarded a work order by Gujarat Informatics Limited an estimated sum of Rs. 290 million for a five-year contract.  Additionally, it was awarded with a work order by the home department, government of Gujarat, worth Rs 190 million.

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  • MIB tells MSOs: Report on cable ops and subs grievance redressal mechanism

    MIB tells MSOs: Report on cable ops and subs grievance redressal mechanism

    NEW DELHI: All multi-system operators have been asked to send to the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) details of the grievance redressal mechanism drawn up by them to hear complaints of cable operators and subscribers.

    Pointing out that this is mandatory under Rule 12(2) of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994 for every cable operator and multi-system operator, the ministry has sought a report by 25 September 2017 from all MSOs.

    At the outset, the note says that during the implementation of Digital Addressable System (DAS) which became operational from 1 April this year, a large number of complaints have been received on the following issues:

    i)                   Non-issuance of payment receipts/computer bills,

    ii)                Abrupt stoppage of services and/or channels by cable operators without any notice,

    iii)              No fixed price of STBs- different operators charge different rates,

    iv)              Non-filling up of CAF,

    v)                 Non-operationalisation of toll-free number for redressal of consumer grievances,

    vi)              Non-creation of web-site for logging of complaints

    vii)            Not providing a-la-carte choice of channels

    viii)         Nodal officer name not notified

    Rule 12(2) says MSOs and LCOs “shall devise a mechanism for grievance redressal of subscribers in respect of the services offered by them in such manner as may be specified by the Authority and inform the details thereof to the subscribers through the cable service or the website or any other appropriate means and such information shall also include the address and telephone number where a subscriber can file a complaint and the time period within which grievances are to be addressed, the manner of communication of the redressal to a subscriber and the feedback thereon from the subscriber.”

    It added that under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regulations on Consumers Complaint Redressal (Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems) Regulations 2012 dated 14 May 2012, every MSO and the linked LCOs should have to:

    i)      establish a ‘web-based complaint monitoring system’ to enable the consumers to monitor the status of their complaints

    ii)    establish a complaint centre in his service area and publicise the toll-free Consumer Care Number.

    iii)  appoint or designate one or more Nodal Officers in every state in which it is providing its service.

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  • MIB seeks all new MSO applications online

    MIB seeks all new MSO applications online

    NEW DELHI: Multi-system operators seeking registration for distribution of digital addressable signals to cable television networks can only do so online from 1 September 2017.

    In a directive, the information and broadcasting ministry has said that MSOs can apply on broadcastseva.gov.in and digitalindiamib.com. The directive says it had earlier on 1 May this year given the facility to apply both online and offline (physical submission) but had decided to stop taking offline applications.

    It noted that a number of applications had in fact been received online since then. The procedure for submission of applications online is available on these two websites.

    The total number of registered MSOs as on 31 July was 1455. Early this year, the government had said all provisional multi-system operators will be deemed as having regular licence.

    Faced with just less than one month to go before total switch-off of analogue signals, the government had on 6 March 2017 decided to treat all MSOs as permanent but with condition that the period of 10 years commences from the date they got registered as provisional MSOs.

    However, if the continuation of registration of any MSO is at any time found to be or considered detrimental to the security of the State then the registration so granted is liable to be cancelled/suspended, the order placed on the Ministry website specified. All other terms and conditions depicted in the provisional registration letters will continue to apply.

    Earlier, on 27 January 2017, it had been decided that all registered MSOs are free to operate in any part of the country, irrespective of registration for specified DAS notified areas granted by this Ministry.

    However, they have to submit the details of Headend, SMS, subscribers list and a self-certificate that they are carrying all the mandatory TV Channels, within six months from date of issuance of MSO registration, to the Ministry, failing which the MSO registration is liable to cancelled/suspended.

    Hence, all deemed regular registered MSOs also are required to submit the details to the Ministry within six months.

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  • Den receives Law Tribunal nod for restructuring

    Den receives Law Tribunal nod for restructuring

    BENGALURU: Indian multi system operator (MSO) Den Network Limited (Den) and wired broadband internet services provider has informed the bourses today (Friday) that the National Company Law Tribunal has approved a composite a composite scheme of arrangement for merger of 23 subsidiaries and demerger of one subsidiary.

    On 16 February 2017, the board of directors of Den had informed the stock exchanges that its board had mooted merger of 23 of its subsidiaries in the cable business into one wholly owned subsidiary. The merger would lead to the strengthening of the single brand leading to a stronger market presence, providing customers with a seamless on-board experience and remove any other brand perceptions/distinctions in the consumers’ minds. The merger would also result in economics of scale and reduce administrative and regulatory compliances; would help in more focused operational efforts, realizing synergies in terms of compliance, governance, administrative and cost synergies explained the company.

    Den said that the broadband demerger would enable a focused attention on the ISP business and achieve structural and operational efficiency, enhanced competitiveness and greater accountability besides accelerating value creation for shareholders. The company felt that the separation would allow the company to aggressively focus on significant growth potential for high speed data and related services in India; and that Den intended in taking the lead in driving wireline broadband penetration in India.

    This was followed up with further details about the merger / demerger that were submitted to the stock exchanges on 5 September 2016.

  • Hinduja Ventures PAT rises marginally Q1FY18, Nxt Digital HITS 640 districts

    NEW DELHI: Hinduja Ventures Ltd (HVL)  on Thursday announced  standalone net profit after tax of Rs. 255 million for three months ended 30 June 2017 as against Rs. 242.1 million during the same period a period ago.. The net PAT for the period ended grew by 5.33 per cent.

    The total income for the period under review stood at Rs. 506.6 million as against Rs. 619.1 million for the same period a year ago.

    The board of HVL at its meeting held on 10 August 2017 approved un-audited standalone financial results for the quarter ended 30 June 2017.

    HVL is the holding company of big Indian integrated media entities comprising MSO IndusInd Media & Communications Limited (IMCL) and Grant Investrade Limited (GIL) that has launched the HITS digital platform under brand name NXT Digital.

    The company in a statement claimed the HITS platform is making good progress in its expansion plans in the rural markets. The services, being now provided in all the states of the country and 640 districts, are available in more than 1,000 locations. The company claimed that GIL has also been successful in getting more than 97 per cent of its operators/customers on a pre-paid payment mode.

    According to HVL, IMCL is continuing to consolidate its position in phase I and II markets on its own, while its joint ventures too were progressing well. As part of cost rationalisation and improvement in efficiency, IMCL has outsourced the management of its extensive fibre network so that it gets optimized in a focused way.

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  • Supreme Court stays order on entertainment tax by LCOs

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today stayed an order of the Entertainment Department of Delhi Government that entertainment tax should be paid by local cable operators with effect from 1 April 2013.

    The division bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Navin Sinha issued notice to multi-system operators and the Delhi Government to file their replies and listed the matter to come up on 1 September 2017.

    It was alleged by some associations of local cable operators – All Local Cable Operators Assciation, All Delhi Local Cable Operator Association, Cable Operators Welfare Association and Walled City Cable Operators Association — that they had earlier been paying entertainment tax to the MSOs but this had not been deposited with the Delhi Government.

    Meanwhile, some MSOs had approached the Delhi High Court challenging a directive of the Government of 17 December 2012 relating to DAS. In its ex-parte order, the Court on 9 March this year said that MSOs who had subscribers directly linked to them would pay the tax while the LCOs would pay for the subscribers linked to them.

    Consequently the Delhi Government had issued notices to the LCOs to deposit the tax from 1 April 2013 onwards.

    The LCOs thus alleged that this amounted to double taxation as they had already paid the entertainment tax to some of the MSOs who allegedly did not pay to the Government.

    Until 1997, the LCOs had been paying the tax but later this was passed on to MSOs to be paid. Later the Aam Aadmi Party government had doubled the tax from Rs 20 to Rs 40 in 2014.

  • 37 new MSOs in 45 days takes total to 1421, seven among 59 cases sub-judice

    NEW DELHI: In an attempt to give a spurt to digitisation, as many as 37 multi-system operators were registered during May and the first fortnight of June to take the total number to 1421.

    Following the decision of the government to deem all provisional multi-system operators as having regular licence and giving a provisional licence to the Tamil Nadu Arasu TV Corporation, there is a composite list instead of separate lists for provisional or permanent (ten year) licencees.

    In addition, the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has released a list of 59 MSOs, of which seven are pending in courts and the others have been treated as closed. Faced with just less than a month before the switch-off of analogue signals, the government had, on 6 March 2017, decided to treat all MSOs as permanent but with the condition that the period of 10 years commences from the date they got registered as provisional MSOs.

    However, if the continuation of registration of any MSO is at any time found to be or considered detrimental to the security of the state, then the registration so granted is liable to be cancelled/suspended, the order placed on the ministry’s website specified. All other terms and conditions stated in the provisional registration letter(s) will continue to apply.

    Earlier, on 27 January 2017, it was decided that all registered MSOs are free to operate in any part of the country, irrespective of registration for specified DAS notified areas. However, they have to submit the details of Headend, SMS, subscribers list and a self-certificate that they are carrying all the mandatory TV Channels, within six months from date of issuance of MSO registration, to the ministry, failing which the MSO registration is liable to cancelled/suspended.

    Hence, all deemed regular registered MSOs also are required to submit the details to the ministry within six months.

    The Tamil Nadu-Government-run TACTV was granted provisional licence on 18 April 2017 to operate as a MSO in the state on the condition that it switches off analogue signals in the state within three months which has now been extended to 17 August 2017.

    The MIB had then told indiantelevision.com that it had been made clear that the provisional licence was subject to the Centre taking a final decision on the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that no government-owned body should be permitted in the field of running or distributing television channels. TRAI had, in 2008, 2012 and 2014, held that state governments and political parties should not be permitted to own TV channels or distribution channels.

    In Tamil Nadu where there is a court stay in operation since Phase I, TACTV had warned MSOs and LCOs against switching off analogue signals anywhere in the state after 31 March 2017.

    Arasu had been granted provisional licence in 2006 at the time of the Conditional Access System on certain conditions based on the TRAI report but this had not been renewed when Digital Addressable System came into force.

    Also read

    Including Arasu, total number of MSOs goes up to 1376, to ensure DAS implementation

  • Tata Elxsi provides CoE for Airtel Internet TV

    MUMBAI: Connected Home Center of Excellence (CoE) of Tata Elxsi, a global design and technology services company which works with leading MSOs, content providers and studios to develop innovative services and applications that create subscriber stickiness, has leveraged deep domain expertise for video, IoT and smart home services. It has also leveraged the experience of open source middleware such as RDK and Android TV, and solution accelerators to support rapid development and deployment of next-generation Connected Home services.

    The Connected Home CoE has successfully worked with leading service providers across the world, enabling the launch of new value-added services in the home context, including OTT, IoT-based security, surveillance and healthcare.

    With increasing demand from consumers for a seamless and connected viewing experience across traditional TV and OTT, operators are considering Android TV as the middleware platform for next-generation set-top boxes and home gateways.

    The latest project executed by the team is Airtel’s Internet TV. Tata Elxsi is proud to be associated with Airtel, as a technology partner for system integration for the Internet TV.

    Tata Elxsi, backed by 25 years of engineering experience and specialisation in video and OTT service delivery, developed and integrated key software components to ensure that the Android TV application suite provides a seamless user experience whether the viewer accesses online or offline content. This includes the OTA (Over the Air) upgrade module, a smart UI, customized Android TV launcher and software optimizations to future-proof the service.

    Airtel Digital TV CEO Sunil Taldar said, “Tata Elxsi has been a valuable partner in our latest innovation – Internet TV. Their engineering and integration expertise in the OTT segment has helped us in building a world-class product.”

    Tata Elxsi VP and head – broadcast business unit K P Sreekumar said, “We congratulate Airtel on the successful launch of the Internet TV. We are proud to be associated with Airtel for India’s first hybrid DTH-TV deployment using Android TV middleware. We believe that the solution has set a new benchmark for next-generation TV service delivery.”

  • Hathway builds brand Special, adds two service categories

    MUMBAI: Hathway Digital, a leading MSO, has announced the introduction of ‘Play My Play’ – an exclusive and first-ever kind of service on television featuring full-length plays for Hathway’s theatre-loving patrons, and ‘Hare Krsna’ focused on eternal well-being by bringing out the deep learnings associated with ISKCON.

    Hare Krsna will be available initially only in Maharashtra with a subsequent rollout across India. Available under the Hathway Special brand, subscribers can view Hare Krsna and Play My Play at no additional cost for the first month starting 15 June. Later, a nominal price of Rs. 40 for Play My Play and Rs. 25 for Hare Krsna will be charged on a monthly basis. Hathway Special was launched earlier in February which made Hathway the first among MSOs to launch VAS.

    Play My Play will bring to Indian homes the leisure of watching over 350 of the best and never before seen plays produced and dramatised for Indian theatre. The 24×7 service will screen plays in English, Hindi, across a range of genres and will feature plays by renowned writers like Premchand, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Shakesphere, Manto in addition to popular Bollywood writers like Piyush Mishra, D P Sinha, Danish Iqbal, Badal Sarkar and many more. Khidki, Perfect Wedding, Roop Aroop, Aik Machine Kabadi Ki, Aurangzeb, and Gang of Girls are a few plays available on Play My Play.

    Hare Krsna on the other hand will be catering to the spiritually inclined and focus on transformation and wellbeing of its followers. This service will feature International music festivals, documentaries, human interest stories on how ISKCON has transformed lives, the most vivid and assorted Rath-Yatras from around the world, complete recitals of the Bhagavad Gita, lessons on SATVIK cooking, Kirtans, etc. It will also have a special section dedicated to kids with animated stories on Lord Krsna.

    Hathway Video Business CEO T.S. Panesar said, “The success and continued positive response we have been receiving for Hathway Special reiterates the fact that we are living up to our promise of delivering unique v-added service. With the two launches, we will be adding two categories of services under the brand. We will continue to expand our service categories.”

  • LCN issue: TRAI mandate a victory for us, says NBA

    MUMBAI: Ashish Bagga, President, News Broadcasters Association (NBA) stated that in a major victory for the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a mandate against Multi System Operators (MSOs) regarding usage of multiple LCNs. This mandate was released within two weeks by TRAI on representations made by NBA.

    NBA had filed a complaint with TRAI against unethical distribution practices adopted by a new entrant in the English news genre: Republic TV, to boost its Rating Points (TVTs). NBA had also appealed to BARC not to release data for the English general news category for Week 19, 2017 as the rating was corrupted due to unfair distribution tactics. Consequently, major English news Channels who are also members of the NBA had opted out of the measuring system to protect themselves from being measured in a non-level playing field and had clarified that they would return only after the unethical practices had been stopped.

    After a series of discussions and complaints to BARC and TRAI, the English news broadcasters have resumed their Watermark last Friday night subjecting themselves to ongoing measurements as they were sufficiently satisfied that due to TRAI’s intervention the malpractices were discontinued. This was confirmed by most MSOs.

    Bagga stated that the NBA’s stance today stands vindicated. Not only had TRAI released this important mandate, it had also aggressively followed up with MSOs about putting a stop to malpractices. The NBA is grateful to the TRAI for taking swift measures to stop malpractices. TRAI in its recent mandate to the Multiple System Operators (MSOs), also emphasized on ensuring that all channels falling in a particular genre appear in its (MSO’s) network’s electronic programming guide (EPG) under that genre, to make services more consumer friendly.

    As a result of TRAI’s mandate and action, the rating of Republic TV have gone down by over 50% after the malpractice was discontinued. This drop in rating brings Republic TV closer to realistic levels of weekly reach of general English news channels which is an average of 0.6 to 0.8 million.

    Bagga stated that this would not have been possible without the timely intervention of TRAI on NBA’s complaints.