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Tag: Prakash Javadekar

  • DD Vijayawada Kendra gets Rs 1.06 cr for modernisation: I&B minister

    DD Vijayawada Kendra gets Rs 1.06 cr for modernisation: I&B minister

    MUMBAI: The ministry of information and broadcasting has approved Rs 1.06 crore for the modernisation of Doordarshan Kendra at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.

    I&B minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Modernisation of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) is a continuous process and action for the same is taken from time to time, including projects for setting up of FM transmitters/stations at existing and new locations, replacement and modernisation of transmitters, digitisation of regional news units, adoption of modern high definition (HD) technology, digitisation of studios, digital content dissemination, expansion of DTH and high definition TV etc.”

    Responding to another question on the amount spent by the government during the last five years to promote government schemes on social media and applications in Rajya Sabha, Javedkar said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with its media units – Press Information Bureau, Doordarshan and All India Radio etc, promote the central government programmes and policies through various instruments, including social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc out of the overall funds allocated to such media units.

    “Further, the various ministries/departments of the central government also promote government programmes and policies on social media. The amount spent on such promotion by various ministries/departments is not centrally maintained,” he informed.

    Responding to request for details of leakages of private information of citizens on government hosted platforms, applications and websites, he said, “Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has informed that the information required by users to log into government Schemes related apps vary from one application to another. For protection of data, Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 has been introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019.”

  • No plan to levy 10% licence fee on b’casters, cable ops: I&B Min

    No plan to levy 10% licence fee on b’casters, cable ops: I&B Min

    MUMBAI: The Minister Of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar has made it clear in a parliamentary response that the ministry does not intend to add any sort of 10 per cent licence fee on broadcasters and cable operators in India.

    His response came for a question that asked if the minister had an intention to do so on the lines of what it follows for the DTH industry. Currently, DTH operators need to pay 10 per cent of their gross revenue as annual licence fee.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in a recommendation, last year, mentioned that this 10 per cent should be brought down to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue rather than gross revenue.

    The minister also mentioned there is no central register that maintains industry-wise information regarding licence fees.

  • I&B minister says DD FreeDish has 33 million subs

    I&B minister says DD FreeDish has 33 million subs

    MUMBAI: The free to air TV sector has soared ever since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced the New Tariff Order for India’s pay TV ecosystem. How much it has done so was answered in the Lok Sabha. 

    Currently, Doordarshan has 35 operating satellite TV channels. This includes six all India channels, 17 regional channels, 11 state networks and one international channel.

    In response to a question, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said that these channels are available on DD FreeDish and “approximately 33 million households have access to DD FreeDish throughout the country”.

    Additionally, the government has allocated Rs 234.51 crore to Doordarshan for content development under the scheme “Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development” for the period from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

  • India has 11.7 cr cable TV subscribers: I&B minister

    India has 11.7 cr cable TV subscribers: I&B minister

    MUMBAI: Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said that there are 11.7 crore cable TV subscribers in India as on 30 November 2019. The ministry has accumulated the data through seeding data available from MSOs/LCOs.

    However, accurate figures haven't yet emerged since 100 per cent digitisation is yet to be achieved. Javadekar also mentioned that 100 per cent digitisation of cable TV network has been achieved in 
    Phase-I (4 metro cities), Phase-II (38 cities with population of more
    than 10 lacs) and Phase-III (All other urban areas municipal 
    corporation/ municipalities). In Phase-IV (Rest of India), it is about 
    more than 90 per cent at present.

    The government had adopted an ambitious digitisation plan a few years back to ensure proper flow in the cable TV system that would allow better revenue to be channeled and reduce piracy.

  • No current plans to impose regulation on OTT sector: MIB secretary

    No current plans to impose regulation on OTT sector: MIB secretary

    MUMBAI: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) secretary Amit Khare said there is a need to rethink regulating over-the-top (OTT) platforms because some sections of the society are voicing concerns on its content. However, Khare also added that the ministry currently does not have any plan to impose any regulation.

    According to a Medianama report, the MIB secretary spoke at a seminar on film certification and regulation of online content, held in Mumbai on 10 October. He noted that while in all commonwealth countries, there are bodies to regulate content in films, newspapers and TV, there is no such provision for regulating content on OTT.

    “They [OTT platforms] do fall under the IT Act, but have no governance or self-regulation. This happens nowhere in the world,” Minister of Information and Broadcast Prakash Javadekar said via a video conference at the seminar. He mentioned that content creators of OTT platforms make all kinds of content including bad and obscene but there is no censor board.

    Notably, according to an India Today report, the Ministry of Technology said there is no monitoring of OTT content right now in response to an RTI.

    "So far as this ministry is concerned, the content on online platforms is not being regulated at present. However your application is being transferred under Section 6 (3) of the Act to CPIO, Ministry of Electronics and IT, New Delhi to provide information pertaining to them," MIB said as per the report.

  • I&B Ministry plans regulations for OTT platforms

    I&B Ministry plans regulations for OTT platforms

    MUMBAI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry (MIB) is contemplating a regulation for OTT platforms on the lines of print and electronic media, according to a news article by the Press Trust of India. Minister Prakash Javadekar, however, said that the government will not be taking any step that will curb freedom of media. Some mainstream media outlets had relayed their concern to the government that OTT platforms are unregulated and so there can be no level-playing ground.

    He said, "I have sought suggestions on how to deal with this because there are regular feature films coming on OTT — good, bad and ugly. So how to deal with this, who should monitor, who should regulate. There is no certification body for OTT platforms and likewise news portals also.”

    All other media have a body that regulates their work but OTT is free.

    Regarding paid news, Javadekar said that the media should approach the government with suggestions on how to penalise those who indulge in the ‘unethical’ practice. He said that this was necessary to combat rising instances of fake news, which he claimed as ‘more dangerous’ than paid news. He also added that it wasn’t just the government’s job to tackle it but everyone’s.

  • NBF’s emergence signals turf war in India’s news broadcast business

    NBF’s emergence signals turf war in India’s news broadcast business

    MUMBAI: India’s often noisy and always cut-throat news broadcasting business is headed for interesting times. Current challenges facing the sector aside, Thursday made matters more complex with the birth of a new industry body in the form of News Broadcasters Federation (NBF).

    The NBF claims to be the largest-ever such grouping with over 50 news channels under its umbrella and a true representative of the diversity of news broadcasting in the country.

    In a sense, it is positioning itself as an alternative to the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), which critics describe as an elite club that is mostly receptive to concerns of news broadcasters headquartered in the national capital.

    Following NBF’s announcement, an NBA delegation of chairman Rajat Sharma (India TV), NBA secretary general Annie Joseph, honorary treasurer Anurradha Prasad (News24 Broadcast India), Rahul Joshi (TV18 Broadcast), Avinash Pandey (ABP News Network), Kalli Purie (TV Today Network) and Sonia Singh (NDTV) met the Minister for Information and Broadcasting (MIB) Prakash Javadekar.

    The NBA presently has 27 news and current affairs broadcasters (comprising 70 news and current affairs channels) as its members and describes itself as a unified and credible voice before the government on matters that affect the growing industry.

    The setting up of a parallel body though will have several implications for the ecosystem. For starters, it can deliver a blow to the broadcasting industry’s demand for recognition of the self-regulatory codes of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) and News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) for non-news and news channels respectively. While MIB has expressed satisfaction with the performance of BCCC during several interactions with stakeholders, it has found that NBSA lacks vision and discipline, often not meeting its own standards. With the setting up of NBF, the task of getting the ministry to recognise NBSA code of NBA will only get tougher.

    “The NBF has at least 10 such news channels which do not have licence but have entered into structures with other companies to lease channel licences which is illegal,” said a senior news broadcasting executive who did not wish to be identified.

    This list includes the likes of Living India News, Khabar Fast, IND24, A1 TV, National Voice, and Nirman News among others. Critics of the NBF also highlight the fact that it houses some channels that are part of the non-news category like MK Television, Ayush TV among others.

    Indiantelevision.com reached out to some of the founding members of the NBF. They, however, were not available for comment.

    The NBF is now in the process of accepting new members and will soon interact with relevant industry and regulatory bodies. With Javadekar terming the formation of NBF as a “very positive development”, its next move – forming the governing board – will be closely watched.

  • Doordarshan to hire creative head; installs video walls for Rs 10.75 cr

    Doordarshan to hire creative head; installs video walls for Rs 10.75 cr

    MUMBAI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar inaugurated Video Walls in all eight Doordarshan Studios and Earth Station at DD Kendra, Delhi on Thursday.

    Speaking on the occasion,  Javadekar highlighted the significance of the video walls in enhancing viewer experience. He said that under the three year Action Plan of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, support has been given to Doordarshan to modernise its infrastructure.  Addition of state of art video walls and spectrum efficient satellite equipment, is a step in the direction of revamping the Public Service Broadcaster.

    Appreciating the role of Doordarshan, he stated that the channel is synonymous with credibility. He asked the officials present to work towards expanding the spread of DD Free Dish from the current 3.25 crore households to 5 crore households. On this occasion, he also announced that a creative head will soon be brought in for DD to give a further boost to programming and high quality content creation.

    Ministry of Information and Broadcasting secretary Amit Khare said that the government is committed to support Doordarshan and All India Radio in every possible way to ensure that the public service broadcaster is able to provide services of contemporary industry standards, reaching out to every nook and corner of India.

    Prasar Bharati chairman A Surya Prakash lauded the efforts of Doordarshan and highlighted that in the recent past a number of impactful and meaningful programmes have been created, which have taken the flagship schemes of the government to the door steps of people.

    The state-of-art video walls, installed at a cost of Rs 10.75 crore under the three year Action Plan of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, are at par with those in studio centres of leading international broadcasters. The induction of video walls will save a lot of time in physical erection of sets. Further, it will give greater flexibility through dynamic change of  backdrop by introducing live/recorded videos, graphics etc. in studio sets as per program requirement.

    The Earth Station, which is based on spectrum efficient technology, will result in increasing capacity to almost double the number of channels in the same bandwidth. The new Earth Station is HD capable and can give all the national channels of DD in HD. This state of art Earth Station will enable DD to save cost on teleport of DD channels and also allow inclusion of new channels in DD bouquet.

    The satellite uplink facility of 9 channels of DDK Delhi, also called as Earth Station was commissioned in 2007. The technology available those days was not spectrum efficient and the compression technique used earlier was MPEG-2 in DVB-S format which resulted in spectrum utilisation of approx. 4 MHz per channel.

    In order to replace the old outdated and obsolete equipment and also save precious spectrum, the compression chain of the Earth Station is now replaced with state of art new equipment which uses MPEG-4 compression and DVBS-2 standards resulting into reducing bandwidth requirement per channel to half i.e. 2 MHz per channel.This spectrum efficient technology will result in increasing capacity of the Earth Station to almost double the number of channels in the same bandwidth.

  • Regional & national news broadcasters form News Broadcasters Federation

    Regional & national news broadcasters form News Broadcasters Federation

    MUMBAI: News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), a new association of more than 50 news channels representing broadcasters from all languages and parts of the country will form the largest-ever federation of news channels.

    Both national and regional news broadcasters have come together with an aim to contribute their combined interests and perspectives on matters related to the news broadcasting industry.

    Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, said, “I am very happy today that more than 50 news channels have come together to form the News Broadcasters Federation. These members of the NBF are from various regions and broadcasting in various states of India. India has more than 700 channels and if more associations are formed in genres like news, then it is a very positive development. We don’t believe in censorship but believe in self-regulation. I am very sure and confident that the News Broadcasters Federation will be a platform to discuss matters relevant to the TV News Industry. I also hope NBF gives its recommendations and ensures discipline in broadcasting where truth does not become a casualty. I wish the NBF all the very best.”

    Among the founder members of the NBF are: Republic Media Network (Republic TV and Republic Bharat), Puthiyathalaimurai and V6 News (Tamil Nadu), Orissa TV (Orissa), IBC24 (MP and Chattisgarh), Asianet News Network (Asianet News and Suvarna News, Kerala and Karnataka), TV9 Bharatvarsh, Newslive and Northeast Live (Assam and Northeast), First India News (Rajasthan), Kolkata TV (West Bengal), CVR News (AP & Telangana), Polimer News (Tamil Nadu), Khabar Fast (Haryana), Living India News (Punjab), Prag News (Assam), NTV (AP & Telangana), Maha News (AP & Telangana), TV5 News (AP & Telangana), MKTV (Tamil Nadu),  Vanitha TV (AP & Telangana), DNN and IND24 (MP), Shri Sankara TV  & Ayush TV (Karnataka), A1 TV (Jaipur), Power TV (Karnataka),Raj News (Tamil Nadu), Flowers TV (Kerala), CVR News Network (AP&Telangana), National Voice (Uttar Pradesh), Nirman News (Gujarat), Anaadi TV (MP&Chattisgarh), VRL Media (Karnataka), Calcutta News (West Bengal),News 7 (Tamil Nadu), DNN & News World ( MP & Chattisgarh), M H One ( Haryana), Mantavya News (Gujarat), Gujarat Television ( Gujarat), S News ( West Bengal) Bansal TV ( MP) and Onkat TV (West Bengal).

    “This is the first time in the history of Indian broadcasting that a group of regional and national broadcasters have come together to form a body that represents their combined interests and perspective on matters related to the news broadcasting industry. The NBF is welcoming new members and looks forward to interacting with relevant industry and regulatory bodies. The NBF secretariat has informed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting about the formation of the body. Further announcements on the governing board and membership will be made soon,” said the NBF statement.

  • No complaints of DTH companies defying new tariff order received by TRAI: MIB

    No complaints of DTH companies defying new tariff order received by TRAI: MIB

    MUMBAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not received any complaints against direct-to-home (DTH) companies not sticking to its new tariff order, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry told the Lok Sabha last week.

    “No incidence indicating that the DTH operators are not adhering to the TRAI’s norms with regards to pricing of channels has come to the notice of TRAI.

    “As per the new regulatory framework, every broadcaster is required to offer all its channels on a-la-carte basis and declare maximum retail price per month payable by a subscriber,” said Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar in response to a written question.

    The new tariff order had original come into force on 29 December 2018. TRAI then gave multiple extensions to stakeholders to fully implement the new rules for the broadcast and cable services sector.

    “However, keeping in view the consumer convenience and to provide sufficient time to consumers to exercise the options for the new tariff packs, TRAI provided time until March 31, 2019, to consumers for conveying their informed choices to service providers,” he further added.