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Tag: NBA

  • NBA working out unified approach on DD Olympics footage issue

    NBA working out unified approach on DD Olympics footage issue

    NEW DELHI: News broadcasters have begun deliberations informally to work out a common strategy to counter the letter received by them from Doordarshan regarding unauthorised use of footage relating to the Beijing Olympics, for which the public broadcaster has sole rights.

    While private channels have to mandatorily share their signals relating to sports events involving India with Doordarshan under a Parliamentary act, there is no such provision for Doordarshan to share its content.

    Sources in the public broadcaster confirmed in answer to a question by indiantelevision.com that it had informally been approached by some sports channels including ESPN and Zee Sports before the games began, but not by news channels.

    The NBA has convened a meeting early next week, to frame a joint response to Prasar Bharti on the issue of payment for Olympic footage.

    The sports editor of a news channel, who didn’t want to be named, said he did not expect anything to come out of the meeting as there was lack of unity among broadcasters.

    Meanwhile, it is understood that some news channels have already agreed to pay the Rs 500 per second demanded by Doordarshan. However, Doordarshan has permitted free footage of up to one minute a day for purposes of news bulletins.

    It is understood that Prasar Bharti is particularly irked by the fact that some news channels broadcast the entire inaugural ceremony live by using their own commentators without any prior agreement.

    DD sources said that all news channels were being monitored and will be sent bills immediately after the games are over.

    Sources in the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) said there would be a united approach to the whole issue, but refused to give details.

    Though no official figures are available for the current Olympics, the public broadcaster’s rates for the 2004 Olympics had been – after an initial high figure – $ 5,000 for up to five hours of footage during the entire games; $ 4,000 for five hours to 25 hours; and $ 3,000 for more than 25 hours.

    The News Access Rules set by DD which was sent out to all networks in India at that time stipulated “The duration of Olympic material used in any one programme should not exceed a total of two minutes. The duration of any one particular Olympic event shall not exceed 30 seconds’.

    However, some satellite channels had later exceeded this time and had also agreed after much argument to pay wherever they exceeded the guidelines.

    According to DD deputy director general – sports Ashok Jailkhani, few channels approached DD, and anyone wanting to use the signals is required to come to an agreement to use the rights as DD has spent a huge amount to buy the rights.

    DD was therefore keeping a close watch on the situation as the signals were being used though no news channel had approached the broadcaster.

  • NBA to put in place content code based on self-regulation within 4 weeks

    NBA to put in place content code based on self-regulation within 4 weeks

    NEW DELHI: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) will put systems in place for a content code based on self- regulation for news television channels within four weeks.

    “The Information and Broadcasting ministry is only entitled to give the licence and the rest should be left to the industry. NBA has worked out an answer to the Content Code where it has dealt with redressal mechanism, the details of which would be released in another four week’s time”, said TV Today Network CEO and NBA president G Krishnan while speaking at the second edition of the NT Summit, organised by Indiantelevision.com.

    The morning session on “The Commercial Imperative” focused on striking the right balance between the editorial and commercial imperatives.

    Distribution was emerging as a large cost that was hurting news broadcasters, speakers at the session agreed.

    “News channels are paying Rs 5 billion as carriage fee. The surge in distribution costs is killing the industry,” says Krishnan.

    The news TV business is raking in over Rs 10 billion in revenues and is employing over 25,000 people directly,” Krishnan added.

    The distribution issues, however, need to be sorted out. Times Now CEO Chintamani Rao blamed the huge pressure on cost of distribution as the major force impeding the growth process of the industry.

    Digicable CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli said digitalisation through Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) and Cas was the only way out. “In analogue mode, a cable operator has a capacity to carry 70 to 80 channels. However the numbers of channels are increasing every day. So till the time complete digitalisation takes place, the situation will remain grim.”

    Kohli blamed the government for not coming out with policies on Cas extension and HITS. “We applied for HITS licence but the government said the policy was not ready yet,” he said.

    The market was being spoilt by new entrants from across all sectors. The ministry of information and broadcasting ministry recently cleared 33 licences for news channels.

    “A multi-media approach can only help succeed in this clutter. Single news channels will find it very difficult to exist,” said CNN IBN and IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

    While the commercial aspect is imperative, it should not be forgotten that news is a unique product which is built over a period of time and is known for its credibility and genuineness, Sardesai added. “The ‘Chinese wall’ between content advertisements and content should be maintained.”

    Star News CEO Ashok Venkataramani added, “Commercial side of the news business is very important..”

    The market has to rule. Zee News CEO Barun Das said that there was space for real news, evident from the success that the relaunched Zee News channel is enjoying.

    Tam India CEO L V Krishnan stated that news channels have drawn in new audiences and advertisers. The afternoon slot, for example, used to barely have any viewership. But now it has opened up women audiences. “Almost 44 per cent of viewership in the afternoon comes through women. There are 3400 new advertisers that have flocked in.”

    India TV COO Rohit Bansal stressed on the reason behind showing news and non news programmes, “The family audiences have certain choices, likes or dislikes; depending on that we create our programmes. We are also scoring on real news. The ministry of Information and Broadcasting looks at us as hard as it looks at any channel. And till date we have never faced a situation where we had to apologise for showing distressing content. As a news channel our job is to satisfy the regulator, advertisers and viewers and we are all trying our best to maintain the balance.”

  • NBA condemns attack on media in Ahmedabad

    NBA condemns attack on media in Ahmedabad

    NEW DELHI: News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has condemned the attack on journalists and media persons who were covering the Ahmedabad bandh on 18 July. The bandh was called following the mysterious death of two boys residing in the ashram of religious guru Asaram Bapu.

    NBA says, “With more than 15 journalists being seriously injured, channels like Aajtak, Times Now and TV 18’s OB vans and television equipments were damaged completely”.

    NBA President and Aajtak CEO G Krishnan said that journalists and media workers provide a service that is essential for any democratic society and keep the public informed. There can be no acceptable reason for attacking the men and women who help make possible the fundamental right of freedom of expression. And preventing journalists from performing their duties are violations of the freedoms enshrined in and guaranteed by the Constitution.

    Krishnan has further urged the Chief Minister and Home Minister of Gujarat to restore law and order to ensure that journalists are allowed to perform their duties in a free and fearless manner. He hoped that the state administration would take action to book the culprits and would display that no individual or individuals are beyond the law of the land.

    The supporters of spiritual guru Asaram Bapu assaulted media persons at a press conference called by Asaram Bapu’s ashram. What triggered the attack were the unreciprocated questions over the deaths of two boys Dipesh Praful Vaghela (10), and his cousin Abhishek Shantilal Vaghela (11), whose bodies were found in the riverbed near the spiritual guru’s ashram on 6 July.

    The ashram has been facing protests since then. In addition, several organisations had called for shutdown in Ahmedabad on 18 July to protest against the flawed investigation.

  • MIB to meet NBA soon on Content Code

    MIB to meet NBA soon on Content Code

    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting will soon call the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) for a meeting on the issue of the Code of Content as well as the redressal mechanism. The NBA had submitted these two documents to the Delhi High Court.

    Sources said that the NBA had submitted the documents to the court on the last date of hearing on 26 March.

    The Court had earlier asked the MIB to hold discussions with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and the Indian Media Group (IMG) regarding the issue of content code, acting on the basis of a writ filed by a person aggrieved by a sting operation.

    The court, incidentally, had not named NBA among those to be consulted before the MIB stated its position on the Content Code. The ministry had completed the consultations, leaving the NBA out.

    Now the ministry will meet the NBA also, as the Association’s documents is part of the court proceedings, sources said.

    Meanwhile, the responses of the IBF and IMG had already been taken before the MIB filed the document with the court. Only NBA will be consulted in this latest round, sources said.

  • NBA submits content code to MIB, keeps redressal under own “Authority”

    NBA submits content code to MIB, keeps redressal under own “Authority”

    NEW DELHI: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) today sent to the MIB a set of two documents, a Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards and a proposed redressal mechanism regulation, under which will be set up an Authority by NBA itself.

    The Disputes Redressal Authority will have an eminent jurist as the chairperson and six other members nominated by the NBA board by a majority decision, with three editors from broadcasters, and three other experts from various fields.

    The Authority would be set up under a proposed “News Broadcasting Standards (Disputes Redressal) Regulations.”

    The Authority keeps for itself the right to censure, warn, propose to the government punitive actions, including cancellation of licenses, or impose fines up to Rs 100,000 on any broadcaster, as it may deem fit by a majority decision, if a complaint is upheld by it.

    However, the Association has made one key exception in those falling under the Authority: in defining a “broadcaster”, it keeps out of the purview of the word any person or organisation who / which is not a member of the NBA, or a channel that runs news as a part of its overall programming and is not a 24 / 7 news channel.

    People can complain to the Authority, provided they put in Rs 1,000 as fee per complaint, and also stand a chance of being imposed a cost of Rs 10,000, in his favour or against him, the latter normally done by a judicial or quasi judicial body if a complaint is found to be of malafide intention.

    However, the Authority will be above any complaint, as an important clause under the proposed regulation says: “No suit or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Authority, the Chairperson or any Member/s thereof or any person acting under the direction of the Authority in respect of anything which is done or intended to done in good faith under these Regulations.”

    The basic Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards has more or less echoed the issues that the government’s Code, now lying with the Delhi High Court, has raised: no overt violence, no crime against women or children, nothing that fuels communal passions or hurts national security concerns, etc.

    However, there is nothing on one of the government’s key concerns: repeated use of short footage over and over again in the same news clip, which most news broadcasters feel is needed to capture eyeballs.

    Like the government’s code, the NBA code too stresses on accuracy, not speed, protection of privacy, equality (though like the government code it says it is impossible to give absolutely equal time to all parties) and other essential hallmarks of quality journalism.

    One the issue of accuracy, NBA strongly says: “Accuracy is at the heart of the news television business. Viewers of 24-hour news channels expect speed, but it is the responsibility of TV news channels to keep accuracy, and balance, as precedence over speed.”

    On the issue of stings, the NBA code says: “As a guiding principle, sting and under cover operations should be a last resort of news channels in an attempt to give the viewer comprehensive coverage of any news story.

    “News channels will not allow sex and sleaze as a means to carry out sting operations, the use of narcotics and psychotropic substances or any act of violence, intimidation, or discrimination as a justifiable means in the recording of any sting operation.”

    These issues are a part of the licensing rules of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, and these were really not the bone of contention between the NBA and the government.

    The real issue has been who will run the redrressal mechanism and control the media, on which issue the NBA says that it will be a self-regulatory system with a jury of peers, as is the case in most countries where television news journalism had matured much before it arrived in India.

    The NBA’s logic is clear, as it sets that out in the preamble: “A media that is meant to expose the lapses in government and in public life cannot obviously be regulated by government – it would lack credibility.”

    The NBA says: “There are undoubtedly limitations in any model of self governance in which compliance is entirely voluntary. However this does not suggest that such models are ineffective.”

    It adds: “A censure emanating from a jury of its peers would indisputably affect the credibility of a channel. Besides, such a process is not without its legal ramifications.”

    So far as the redressal mechanism is concerned, which was the hot debate, NBA says that the Authority will be set up through an electoral process from within itself, and the chairperson will be an eminent jurist.

    The six members with the chairperson would meet at least once in two months.

    The NBA’s proposed regulation says that written complaints would be heard and disposed off within six months.

  • IPL resolves dispute with news broadcasters

    IPL resolves dispute with news broadcasters

    NEW DELHI: Five and half minutes of news footage of the Indian Premier League will now be available on all the news channels as the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and IPL authorities have met and resolved the issue.

    The channels will have to pay nothing for up to that duration to the IPL match footage, sources said.

    Some of the news channels today, when the blackout entered its second day, started making the visual announcement in faded fonts across the screens, that IPL news will now be available.

    Times Now CEO Chintamani Rao, who is the chief negotiator for the NBA on this issue, told indiantelevision.com, “NBA and IPL have met and resolved the issues. The negotiation ended last night.”

    Asked whether the IPL authorities have agreed to give the news clippings footage free of cost, Rao refused to divulge the arrangement. “All I want to say is that we have resolved all issues and the case is closed. IPL news will be back on the news channels,” Rao said.

    However, industry sources said that though the news channels had demanded seven minutes of free news clips per match, and the IPL had refused anything gratis, the final agreement is that the news channels will get five and half minutes of free footage from all IPL matches

    This followed a protracted negotiation that lasted more than two days after the NBA went blank on IPL news from the midnight of 15 April.

    IPL had already agreed to the terms and conditions of the newspapers and news agencies regarding use of photographs taken by them at the mega sporting event.

  • NBA threatens TV blackout for IPL from midnight

    NBA threatens TV blackout for IPL from midnight

    NEW DELHI: The News Broadcasters Association has decided that it will blackout all news on the Indian Premier League (IPL) from midnight tonight as the League officials have not reacted to their demand for giving news clips free of cost, sources in NBA told indiantelevision.com.

    When contacted IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said: “NBA is not my problem, talk to Rohit Gupta at Sony. He is dealing with this.”

    But Gupta could not be contacted. Rajiv Shukla’s mobile was switched off.

    The News Broadcasters Association has issued a warning to the Indian Premier League that unless it reconsiders its prices for news coverage and concedes the NBA demands within business hours today, it will take “concrete action.”

    The warning ended around 6 pm this evening. Though NBA did not want to offer details on what “concrete action” implied, IPL sources told Indiantelevision.com earlier in the day that they have already warned of boycotting the event, which means a possible news black out on the electronic media.

    All the top brass of the electronic media met last evening to come to a decision on this.

  • Govt case for administered content code gains ground

    Govt case for administered content code gains ground

    Big Brother will soon not just be watching but acting, and news broadcasters will have nowhere to hide because they will not have much of a case to defend. That is a hard truth that otherwise responsible heads of news networks accede to in private but refuse to acknowledge in public.

    The first practical signs of that came on 4 February. The spark: coverage of the political skirmishes over ‘outsiders crowding out locals’ in Mumbai city.

    Invoking for the first time the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, the Mumbai Police reportedly ordered transmission of two news channels – Sahara Mumbai and India TV – be stopped “for repeatedly telecasting clippings of tension between workers of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP)”. Cable operators were directed to stop transmission of the two channels for 24 hours from the time they received a copy of the order.

    Joint commissioner of police (law and order) KL Prasad was quoted in an Indian Express report as saying, “We have issued an order under Section 19 of the Act, which specifically states that ‘half truths’ cannot be spread.”

    The ‘half truth’, Prasad said, was in the manner in which the channels tried to depict through pictures, videos and words that ‘Mumbai is tense’. “A situation controlled in 20 minutes was made to look as if it was still happening,” Prasad pointed out.

    Sahara Mumbai head Rajeev Bajaj’s reaction was on expected lines: “If an order has been passed, we will fight it out in court.”

    The 4th February action by the authorities becomes even more relevant if we keep in mind the fact that the I&B ministry is already majorly upset with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) for having failed to meet their own stated deadline of 31 January for submitting a Content Code.

    “They have sent us nothing, despite the fact that they themselves had set the deadline and we think they are not interested,” senior I&B officials complained.

    The government is worried about the excessive repetitions of shots of violence – whether against women, or communal in nature and says, “This is really dangerous and the editors must now take a call on this.”

    Incidentally, the ministry is also gearing up to meet a Delhi High Court deadline on sitting down with the Indian Newspaper Society, the Indian Media Group and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation to thrash out depiction of violence and obscenity in the media.

    Hearing a writ petition requesting the court to pass an order to tell the ministry to take action on such depictions, the court had given an interim order on 14 December, for the organisations and the ministry to thrash out issues and report to the court within 10 weeks.

    The government feels that the NBA is wasting time and that the ministry would have to soon come out with its Code.

    So just what is it that forces otherwise responsible news channel heads to do what is so patently against all norms of even the most basic of journalistic practices?

    A one line answer could of course be, ‘The low road is the easy road to ratings riches’. An already cluttered market getting ever more crowded by the day and with no regulation to govern conduct, it’s easy to see why most channels are taking this route.

    There is another factor at work here that is worth a mention. Which is that the tabloid news channel proposition is a viable entry strategy for those without the deep pockets that are required for launching an entertainment channel. So in essence these channels are not too far removed from entertainment channels, with a whole load of extremely low cost fictional content to offer as well in addition to the regular fare that is principally infotainment rather than news.

    There is an added intrinsic logic that we believe is driving this obsession with the bizarre and the salacious as far as the ‘tabloidised’ Hindi news channels are concerned. It might well be that these channels are filling a real and existing need gap for the Hindi male viewer looking for entertainment.

    After all, where does the Hindi heartland male viewer get his daily dose of TV entertainment if we accept that Hindi GECs are targeted mainly at women? Where else but Hindi news channels – which might explain why the preponderance of sex, crime, and the plain bizarre is working for Hindi news channels.

    Coming back to where all this started, the present situation is clearly becoming more and more untenable. Something has to give. The sad part of this is that it will likely be the government giving a bull in a China shop solution that will be to the detriment of all news broadcasters; and more importantly, the public at large.

  • Deadline passes, still no Content Code; govt says editors must take a call

    Deadline passes, still no Content Code; govt says editors must take a call

    NEW DELHI: The deadline has passed. Now the information & broadcasting ministry is seriously upset that the News Broadcasters Association has not sent them any communiqué – let alone the Content Code they had promised to give – and say that the editors will have to take a call, especially about excessive repetition of shots of violence.

    “NBA had themselves said they would give their draft by 31 January, and though there is nothing sacrosanct about that date, we could wait for a day or two,” a ministry official said.

    The official also pointed out that repetition of violent and obscene shots is a dangerous thing, as they make the less educated audience – the vast majority – think that that is the reality. “The editor will have to take a call on that, this cannot be allowed,” he added.

    NBA secretary general and spokesperson Annie Joseph could not be contacted despite several calls on her mobile, and another senior member o NBA committee declined to comment, saying that could come from only Joseph.

    However, industry sources said that the draft is still being discussed and the attempt is to make it inclusive and representative across the country, and hence, it would take a longer time, as this could not be rushed through.

    Officials also informed that they are gearing to meet a Delhi High Court deadline on informing the court about the outcome of meetings with the Indian Newspaper Society, Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Indian Media Group on issues of violence and obscenity.

    The court has specifically named these three organisations and not included the NBA in its list of organisations to be consulted, the official stated.

    A writ petition filed by an individual asking the court to issue an order to the government to implement the content code. On 14 December, the court passed an interim order, asking the organisations and the government to thrash out the issues and report to it within 10 weeks, and that process is on, the official said.

    Senior officials said, “NBA is not interested in filing their draft Content Code, and though nothing concrete has been decided as the next course of action, the government will soon decide what to do.”

    The government has only two options: drop the entire issue, or take up their own content code and possibly revise certain segments that had been found to be repugnant by NBA, and issue the code.

    Dropping the content code altogether is not a plausible course of action for even if the government wanted to, the judiciary has clearly indicated in many cases that it is not happy with the content on TV news channels.

  • Swarup tells NBA to submit Code by its 31 January deadline

    NEW DELHI: The information and broadcasting ministry today said that news broadcasters must meet the deadline set by themselves for 31 January 2008 and submit their draft content code to the government.

    I&B secretary Asha Swarup stressed on the media to act fast, and buttressed her statement by saying, “There is no need for you to question the government’s intentions, but if industry does not come out with its content code the courts will do it for you.”

    This was obviously in reference to the suggestion made by the Delhi High Court recently while hearing a case on a fake sting operation that the I&B ministry could form a committee to vet and clear every sting operation before it goes on air.

    The government has no intention whatsoever for curbing the freedom of the press,, she reiterated, but adding that some regulation has to be in place and it could easily come from the NBA.

    “We have taken them very seriously and hope they will stick to the deadline, and are looking forward to the draft,” she said while addressing a panel discussion on regulatory issues at the Assocham Global Media and Entertainment Summit, Focus 2007.

    Interestingly, Swarup was reacting to a comment from Pavan Duggal, chairman, Assocham cyberlaw committee, that regulation for the media in the digital era is already there in the Information Technology Act.

    She said the this was brought to her notice for the first time and the ministry would see if amending that law would be enough to set up the regulatory system for the broadcast media.

    Duggal had pointed out in his presentation that already there are provisions (Sections 4 and 79) under the IT Act, 2004, which should govern the media in the digital environment.

    The ministry remains open to all suggestions regarding the broadcasting regulation she said, arguing that people have misunderstood the draft that the ministry had floated for public debate.

    “I wonder whether the people who have been protesting so vehemently have carefully read the draft, because in it we have said three things, ‘that the regulator will be a body outside the government, that the need is to have a uniform standard, and the third point relates to the constitution of the regulator’.

    “We are prepared to consider any document which leads to the media governing itself, and if you want to change the manner of constituting the regulator to make it independent, we are ready for any discussion even on that,” she said.

    It may be recalled that during the Digital Summit organised by indiantelevision.com earlier this year, also attended by Ofcom chairman Lord Curry, Swarup had said after discussions with him that the ministry was considering how to take lessons from Ofcom to set up an independent regulator.

    She reiterated that she had no hesitation with the media bringing in its own code, reminding the audience that the Advertising Services Council of India is an independent body and had brought in their own code “which the government adopted”, saying the same could be possible with the NBA code.

    She accepted the suggestion of Ashok Mansukhani, president, Hinduja Ventures Ltd, that in the current situation, legislation should be facilitative and light and added that taking into consideration the converged environment, the government could look at a converged bill as well for the media to include all platforms under one regulator.

    She said that she has talked individually to many top broadcasters and they have said they will draft their own code, but nothing has happened.

    “Now they have said they will do that by January 31, and we hope they will do so,” Swarup said.