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Tag: News broadcasters

  • News channels want longer security clearance period: Tewari

    News channels want longer security clearance period: Tewari

    Mumbai: News broadcasters have approached the ministry of information and broadcasting to increase the number of years they get security clearance for the channels they run. This was revealed by I&B minister Manish Tewari today in the Lok Sabha in reply to a question, says a Press Trust of India report.

     

    Current regulations put the security clearance given to a company and its directors validity period at three years, and the News Broadcasters Association has made a representation to the I&B ministry to extend it as it makes things difficult for them, disclosed Tewari.

     

    Adding to the news broadcasters woes is the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) decision that a media company should apply for fresh clearances for a new channel even if the firm has got security permissions earlier. Permissions for uplinking and downlinking of channels are issued for 10 years, and hence this has created an anomalous situation.

  • Zee News Ltd Q3 ad rev strong, no big fall in carriage fee

    Zee News Ltd Q3 ad rev strong, no big fall in carriage fee

    MUMBAI: A double-digit ad revenue growth has helped Zee News Ltd (ZNL) put up a performance better than the market expectations in the festive quarter but a top executive of the company cautioned that a significant turnaround in spending by advertisers is yet to be visible.

     

    The carriage payout to cable networks has only marginally dropped in the digitised markets and subscription growth has been subdued.

     

    ZNL’s ad revenue rose 14.8 per cent to Rs 595.6 million in the fiscal-third quarter from Rs 518.8 million a year earlier, despite a ‘significant opportunity’ loss in terms of advertising revenues from the government.

     

    “There was a better utilisation of ad inventory during the festival season and we also offered branding and event-based solutions to advertisers. But this is not to say that the ad slowdown has lifted and there is a big turnaround. We will outperform the market which is growing in single digit,” ZNL chief executive officer Alok Agrawal told Indiantelevision.com.

     

    ZNL’s ad revenue growth for the full-fiscal will be in single digit. TV news broadcasters have been fighting the government on ad rates and are not accepting DAVP (Directorate of Audio Visual Publication) advertising. “The standoff continues and NBA (News Broadcasters Association) members are not carrying DAVP ads,” said Agrawal.

     

    ZNL posted a 14.2 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 185.5 million in the third quarter ended 31 December from Rs 162.5 million a year earlier.Its operating profit (Ebidta) in the third quarter stood at Rs 196.7 million against Rs 189.7 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

     

    The news broadcaster, which has seven channels in its portfolio, reported consolidated revenues of Rs 858.4 million in the third quarter, an increase of 10.1 per cent from Rs 779.7 million a year ago.

     

    Subscription revenue stood at Rs 222 million, down 0.3 per cent from the previous quarter, and up 15.2 per cent from the earlier-year period.

     

    Operating expenditure jumped 12.2 per cent to Rs 661.7 million due to increase in employee costs and other expenses.

     

    Carriage fee has only fallen marginally in the digitised markets. “There has been no significant reduction in carriage fee in the completely digitised markets of Delhi and Mumbai. It has not definitely gone as per the plans of the news broadcasters,” said Agrawal.

  • News broadcasters on recovery path in FY’10

    Reeling under recession and intense competition in the genre, news broadcasters looked at 2009 as a year when they had to correct their business models. The chief executive officers of these companies came out with harsh prescriptions: cut jobs, reduce news gathering costs and exit from non-core businesses.

    The measures, some of which were really painful, are beginning to improve the health of their balance sheets. These companies are still not out of the woods but they are surely on recovery path. While revenues grew slowly during the fiscal ended March 2010, operational efficiencies have improved and net losses have narrowed.

    Revenue rebounds but growth path still slow

    The combined turnover of seven listed news broadcasters stood at Rs 16.53 billion in FY’10, up 7.01 per cent over the earlier year, as the advertising market eased and the recovery became stronger in the last two quarters.

    IBN18 (CNN-IBN and IBN7) and TV Today (Aaj Tak, Headlines Today Tez and Delhi Aaj Tak) grew their topline by 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively while NDTV saw a modest 5 per cent increase in its income.

    BAG Films and Media, which runs News24 and E24, and IBN Lokmat showed a revenue growth of over 121 and 258 per cent respectively, albeit on a lower base.

    TV18, however, should be worried. The company, which runs business news channels CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz, saw its revenue dip marginally by 2.35 per cent as competition in the genre put pressure on ad rates.

    Revenue (in Rs million)

    Companies tighten costs

    Companies continued to focus on cost-cutting drives, the main corrective step taken after being on an expansion overdrive. Expenses dropped to Rs 14.48 billion, from Rs 16.41 billion in FY09, falling by 11.81 per cent between the fiscals.

    BAG Films, a new entrant that was going through an investment phase in FY’09, really clamped down on costs and brought it down by almost 66 per cent.

    Expenses (in Rs million) 

    Other players who were on an austerity drive were TV18, which cut costs by 27 per cent, and NDTV (22 per cent). Only Zee News Ltd’s expenses saw a miniscule 0.01 per cent increase.

    At the operational level, the news broadcasters had a remarkable turnaround story between the two fiscals as operating profit rose 378.33 per cent in FY’10 over the year-ago period. The FY’10 operating profit stood at Rs 2.59 billion as compared to operating loss of Rs 930.82 million.

    The companies who had the highest operational efficiency in the fiscal are Zee News Ltd (Rs 812.1 million), TV18 (Rs 648.1 million) and TV Today (Rs 415.89 million).

    Operationg Profit (in Rs million)

    News broadcasters stare at losses

    Despite a drastic improvement in operational efficiencies, news broadcasters still stare at losses. The loss leaders during the fiscal were IBN18 (Rs 820.99 million), TV18 (Rs 597.3 million), IBN Lokmat (Rs 210.88 million) and NDTV (Rs 205.2 million).

    Zee News Ltd and TV Today, however, stayed profitable.

    In FY’11, most news broadcasters expect to be in the black amid restructuring, cost-cuts and operational efficiencies.
     

  • TV Today Q3 net up 57.9% to Rs 136.9 million

    TV Today Q3 net up 57.9% to Rs 136.9 million

    MUMBAI: News broadcasters have posted third-quarter profitability despite revenue crawling below double digit growth. TV Today Network said Monday its net profit surged 57.87 per cent per cent to Rs 136.92 million for the quarter ended 31 December 2009, as against Rs 86.73 million in the previous year.

    Income from operations saw a modest 7.80 per cent jump to Rs 703.58 million, as compared to Rs 652.66 million in the year-ago period.

    The company kept a tight control on the expenditure during the quarter under review. The expenses stood at Rs 572.13 million, marginally lower then Rs 579.71 million in the corresponding quarter of FY ’09.

    “Though revenues have not seen a big leap, the market is improving steadily. We are seeing positive signals from the financial and realty sectors. News channels should stand to benefit going forward,” a media analyst said.

  • Govt to set up coordination committee with news broadcasters

    Govt to set up coordination committee with news broadcasters

    NEW DELHI: Clearly alarmed by the cascading effect of what it terms as the unending coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Government today decided to set up a coordination committee with broadcasters to ensure some self-regulation to ensure balanced coverage.

    In a meeting with broadcasters presided over by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and External Affairs Anand Sharma, the broadcasters were told that their continued coverage was having a negative effect and also affecting tourism and civil aviation sectors.

    Sharma said that while the media in the country was free, it should exercise this independence with restraint and responsibility.

    Interestingly, industrialist and hotel magnate Ratan Tata is understood to have informed the Minister that many people are canceling their bookings in the Taj Hotel in Mumbai because of the repetitive showing of the scenes of the Hotel tower burning.

    Apart from I&B Secretary Sushma Singh and other officials of the Ministry, secretaries of the Ministries of Home (Internal Security), Tourism, and Civil Aviation were present.

    The 20 broadcasters present included TV Today promoter Aroon Purie and Aaj Tak news director QW Naqvi, CNN-IBN and IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai, NDTV managing editor Barkha Dutt, India TV chairman Rajat Sharma and Zee Group’s Jawahar Goel.

    The meeting comes even as news broadcasters are still to react on an advisory issued last week on the continual coverage of the terrorist attack in Mumbai.

    In addition, notices had been issued to India TV and Aaj Tak to the effect that the channel’s coverage was creating public panic. India TV had thereafter sent its reply to the Ministry.

    Aaj Tak had been accused of acting in a manner that may affect ’the integrity of the country’.

    One broadcaster described the meeting as routine and said it was the third meeting in the last two weeks.

    The news broadcasters still appear to be divided on their reaction to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s advisory to all news channels not to carry on with the coverage of the Mumbai attacks by showing the same clips which were now several days old and which only created panic.

  • 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.

  • News broadcasters look to finalise content code before month-end

    NEW DELHI: With growing pressure following the infamous Uma Khurana sting operation, broadcasters are working towards finalising their Content Code before the end of this month, and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) has convened a meeting early next week to discuss the issue.

    The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has already indicated to the information and broadcasting ministry that it will finalise its Code by the end of January. 

    The ministry is itself under a direction from the Delhi High Court to give its views on the status of an attempt to bring in a regulation. In a decision given last month, the High Court, while responding to a set of PILs, had asked the ministry to come with its response within ten weeks.

    Accordingly, the ministry has called a meeting of stakeholders in the second half of this month to take their inputs, an official said.

    According to an IBF official, a preliminary draft is ready but will be subjected to threadbare discussion at the Mumbai meeting following which a final version may be drafted to be submitted to the ministry.

    NBA claims it has already formulated its own code and a grievance redressal mechanism and handed over the draft to senior advocate and former solicitor general of India Harish Salve, who is helping the association in the preparation of the code. ”Since, we deal with the news and current affairs, our issues are very different. The IBF is drafting a code relating to entertainment programmes which would require different parameters,” an NBA official said.

    The Editors Guild is also working on a model code and a self-regulation mechanism.

    The government had prepared a Content Code with the help of various stakeholders and even placed it on the Ministry’s website mib.nic.in for comments and fixed a final date of 5 August, 2007 for this purpose, but met with stiff resistance. 

    The fake sting operation resulted in the Courts intervening and the ministry stepping up pressure for some regulation in the broadcasting sector, even as the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill remains in cold storage.

  • Govt. to consider separate content code for news broadcasters

    NEW DELHI: The information and broadcasting ministry today agreed to consider a suggestion that news channels should not be guided by the content code drawn up for broadcasters. The code is to be put up on the website of the ministry by 1 July.

    A meeting of officials of the ministry chaired by Secretary Asha Swarup today agreed to examine the need for a separate code for news channels.

    The News Broadcasters Association said that the system of Channel Auditor under the proposed content code may not work in the case of news channels where speed is of the essence.

    The officials examined the various suggestions received and shortlisted those which could be incorporated. The process of incorporating these will take a few days after which it will again be examined by the Secretary before being put on the website www.mib.nic.in.

    Though some of the broadcasters feel imposition of a code amounts to policing and infringement of their freedom, the ministry is said to be clear that the only way the proposed Broadcast Services Regulation Bill can be implemented is through the content code.

    After the final meeting of the Committee headed by Swarup on 1 June, it had been generally agreed that those members who wanted to give any further suggestions could do so by 15 June after which the final draft would be put up in the ministry website for people to send in their reactions.

    I&B ministry sources today told Indiantelevision.com that most of the suggestions received from representatives of women’s organizations and NGOs were being incorporated. After the code is put on the website, there will be some meetings with broadcasters who have expressed strong reservations, and also a seminar wherein eminent citizens and stakeholders would be asked to give their views.

    Broadcasters have objected to the procedure for redressal of complaints among other provisions. The code as drawn up stipulates a three-step procedure for self-regulation and redressal of complaints alleging violation of the programme or advertising codes.

    The first forum to hear the complaints would be a Content Auditor at the level of the programme/service providers. In case a complaint is not suitably redressed, then it will go to the next stage – respective Consumers’ Complaints Committees set up at the industry-segment level organizations.

    The third and final stage would be the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India proposed in the comprehensive Broadcast Bill to be introduced in Parliament in the monsoon session.

    Broadcasters have also expressed reservations about the provision in the draft Code that ‘the Chief Editor of the channel, by whatever designation he is known in the broadcast service producer, shall be responsible for the final decision to accept or modify the guidance given by the Content Auditor/s, and to schedule and broadcast the programme.’ They feel that whatever is broadcast should be seen as a corporate matter and not that relating to the Editor alone.

    Some of the suggestions sought to be incorporated relate to making the nature of violations more specific, particularly with regard to portrayal of women, showing of violence and the role of children in the serials and other programmes including news bulletins.

    The meeting today was attended among others by P N Vasanti from the Centre for Media Studies who along with her colleague Prawin Kumar prepared the draft Code.

    The ministry is understood to have rejected the view that there is no need for a separate ‘U/A’ (Under the Supervision of an Adult) category and this should be merged in the category ‘U’ (Universal) as far as certification of films was concerned.

    The Code as drafted stipulates that films certified as ‘U’ or ‘S’ (Specialized) can be telecast at any time. Films certified as ‘U/A’ can be shown between 8 pm and 4 pm, while films for ‘A’ (adult) audiences should only be telecast between 11 pm to 4 am.

  • News broadcasters look at innovative ad sales

    News broadcasters look at innovative ad sales

    Mumbai: Approximately Rs. 600-700 million news market in India may get radically stirred if a proposal being considered by the newly-formed News Broadcasters Association of India sees the light of day.

    According to the still-under-discussion proposal, hindi language news broadcasters with sizable market shares are looking at the pros and cons of offering a uniform advertising rate to clients.

    The proposal, reportedly mooted by a few news market leaders in India who are part of News Broadcasters Association of India, may initially exclude the english news channels from this proposed uniform approach to ad sales, which might be a stumbling block in it going through.

    Scepticism notwithstanding, one news channel head admitted that the proposal is being considered.

    “It’s (having common ad rates across hindi news channels) certainly on the agenda, but there are too many ifs and buts to be sorted out before any possibility of actual implementation,” the chief executive who did not want to be named said.

    The executive explained that the idea is to find common ground on various news broadcast-related issues, including infrastructure, distribution and, probably, ad sales too.

    Still, the revenue sharing formula being suggested too is debatable. As per an initial suggestion, after offering common ad rates, the revenue would be split amongst news channels as per respective market share in terms of viewership and ratings.

    For example, if Rs. 100 is generated through this common plank, then the bulk of it would go to the news channel boasting the largest market share and then split up as per market share percentage.

    However, another news channel head questioned the model suggested, saying the proposal may be “lofty, but the revenue share formula would throw up various questions.”

    Still, most news channels admit there’s no denying that having common approach to issues, including editorial, distribution and infrastructure, is worth exploring in the Indian market as certain expenses are spiraling.

    For instance, distribution and placement charges of news channels have increased manifold over the last two years with limited bandwidth of cable networks and mushrooming news channels.

    Presently, the major Indian news channels in hindi and English include Aaj Tak, Star News, Zee News, NDTV India, NDTV 24×7, Sahara’s eight-odd channels, India TV, CNBC TV18, Awaaz, CNN IBN and IBN7.

    The News Broadcasters Association of India is also in the process of finalizing content code for its member companies and exploring having an ombudsman on the lines of Editors’ Guild of India, which primarily oversees the print medium.

  • News broadcasters to form association

    News broadcasters to form association

    NEW DELHI: After the Indian Broadcast Federation (IBF – representing broadcasters) and the Indian Media Group (IMG – representing Indian media companies), Indian news broadcasters are forming their own “pressure group”.

    The proposed body is likely to be called the News Broadcasters Association of India. It will comprise only Indian-promoted news ventures. The likes of BBC and CNN have their own set of problems and issues and, hence, would not be part of this new proposed body that is likely to be registered soon.

    The agenda that the body has broadly laid out is to address specific news-related issues and take them up with the government. Everybody remains a member of the IBF, but as the IBF cannot take up specific issues, TV news networks have formed their own association.

    The first meeting of the grouping was held last week in Delhi in TV Today office. No office-bearers have been elected as yet though.

    Admitted a news broadcaster, “We felt our specific needs and issues need to be addressed without confusing them with general (broadcasting) matters. That’s what the intention is behind setting up the News Broadcasters Association of India.”

    An example of the kind of issues that news broadcasters might take up include the draft of the Broadcast Bill, recently prepared by a sub-panel of a 30-member committee overseen by I&B secretary SK Arora, which hints at stringent content regulation, particularly for news channels. If okayed by lawmakers in its present state, it could well be the end of sting operations and coverage of issues where high profile politicians and personalities are involved.

    Sample this part: “TV channels must not use material relating to a person’s personal or private affairs or which invades an individual’s privacy unless there is an identifiable public interest reason for the material to be broadcast.” Who decides what constitutes an individual’s privacy? The government or the regulator? What this means of course is that it’s all up for interpretation.

    It is this scope for interpretation that has news broadcasters seriously concerned. More so since the onus of proving identifiable public interest lies with the TV channel and not the other way round.

    The interests of the print media are addressed and protected by the Indian Newspaper Association. That is the role the News Broadcasters Association of India hopes to fulfil as far as the electronic media is concerned.