ITV

Tag: Prasar Bharati

  • 10.4 lakh DTH subscribers added in Oct-Dec 18 quarter in India

    10.4 lakh DTH subscribers added in Oct-Dec 18 quarter in India

    BENGALURU: In calendar year 2018 (1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018), India’s private direct to home (DTH) service providers added 29.3 lakh net subscribers of which 10.4 lakh additions were made in the last quarter of the calendar year (Oct-Dec 2018, Q3 2019, period under review).

    According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) quarterly Indicator Reports, DTH has attained net pay active subscriber base of around  704.9 lakh (70.49 million, 7.049 crore)  with five pay DTH service providers as on 31 December, 2018. This is in addition to the subscribers of the free DTH services of Doordarshan. Quarterly growth in the DTH sector in terms of the net active subscriber base and market share of DTH operators in terms of the percentage of net active subscribers during the quarter is depicted in the following charts.

    Two major DTH players – Airtel Direct TV (Airtel DTH) and the merged Dish TV Videocon d2h entity (Dish TV) have about 55 percent of the market share of private DTH subscribers in the country. During CY 2018, these two players added 17.06 lakh (1.706 million, 0.1706 crore) subscribers, or 58.2 percent of the net subscribers that were added by all the five private DTH players in the country. Airtel DTH added 10.63 lakh (1.063 million, 0.1063 crore) net subscribers, while Dish TV added 6.43 lakh (0.643 million, 0.0643 crore) during the period under review.

    As per the latest TRAI quarterly Indicator Reports, the highest number of DTH subscribers in 2018 by private players were added in the Apr-Jun quarter with 18.4 lakh (1.84 million, 0.184 crore) subscriber additions. In the first quarter of CY 2018, the private DTH players lost 30,000 subscribers. Please refer to the figure below for the private DTH subscriber trends during CY-2018.

    Dish TV is by far the largest DTH player in the country and probably the second largest globally. As on 31 December 2018, Dish TV claimed a net active subscriber base of 236 lakh (23.6 million, 2.36 crore) while Airtel DTH claimed a net active subscriber base of 150 lakh (15 million, 1.5 crore).

    The government’s DD Free Dish DTH service claims to reach out to nearly 300 lakh (30 million) as per reports and the FICCI-EY 2019 report, it has the capability to breach the 50 million mark if broadcasters keep supplying it with pay-TV content. It must however be noted that an exact number for registered or active subscribers is not available since this is a free DTH service.

  • DD FreeDish e-auction: MPEG4 slots saw highest bid of Rs 57.1 lakh

    DD FreeDish e-auction: MPEG4 slots saw highest bid of Rs 57.1 lakh

    MUMBAI: The first annual e-auction for MPEG4 slots on Doordarshan’s FTA DTH platform FreeDish witnessed an intense competition that was held from 27 to 29 March. According to reports, the highest bid during the e-auction was Rs 57.1 lakh, a premium of almost 1150 per cent over the reserve price of Rs 5 lakh and the average bid was at Rs 44.17 lakh per slot.

    A total of 15 MPEG4 slots were successfully sold to channels across genres that will be available on the platform with effect from 15 April 2019.

    The public broadcaster stated that the response to the 39th e-auction was overwhelming, as almost four times applications were received against the vacant MPEG-4 slots. Also, there was no genre based restrictions or reservations for participating in the e-auction.

    Among the 15 channels, five of them are Hindi devotional channels including Aastha Bhajan, Arihant, Satsang, Subh TV and Vedic TV. Apart from that, only three are non-Hindi channels while the rest are Hindi channels. Three MPEG-4 slots have been reserved for public broadcasting purposes.

    Home Shop18 and NT1 have won slots in the teleshopping genre. Enter 10 Bangla, Oscar Bhojpuri, Sky Star Bangla, Sky Star Telugu and WoW Cinema One have bought the slots in the movie genre. In the news genre, ABP Ganga, Chardikala Time TV and Aryan TV National have won the slots.

    Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar had tweeted, “Happy to share that the first annual e-auction for MPEG-4 slots (39th e-auction) on DD Free Dish saw robust bidding with 15 successful slots sold to channels across genres and languages.”

    “The e-Auction saw slots being taken at an average price that was nearly 8 to 9 times the invitational price underscoring the high competition. With this overall projected annual revenue from DD Free Dish will cross 400 cr between MPEG2 and MPEG-4 slots,” he said.

  • Prasar Bharati survey to gauge demand for sporting events coverage soon

    Prasar Bharati survey to gauge demand for sporting events coverage soon

    MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati has revealed that a survey will soon be conducted to assess the demand for sports coverage on the public broadcaster’s platforms like Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR). Vempati, however, pointed out that sports coverage by a public broadcaster is determined by factors like rights and monetisation opportunities.

    “Coverage of sports by the public broadcaster within its limited means depends on several factors including but not limited to availability of rights, monetisation potential etc. We will be conducting survey shortly to assess demand,” he said.

    The ongoing Indian Premier League is being covered by the BBC for its radio listeners. Not only is AIR not covering the IPL, but it also hasn’t been associated with a bilateral cricket series in India since 2014. Responding to a question on the same, Vempati pointed a finger at the Indian board.

    “At this time there is no proposal from BCCI regarding IPL on radio. Question best answered by BCCI on why IPL radio rights have not been offered in India while internationally they have been made available,” he remarked.

    However, Vempati was optimistic about agreeing to a deal with the Indian cricket board ahead of the next bilateral series at home.

    “As far as bilateral series in India goes, coverage on radio will commence once BCCI and All India Radio finalise MoU on the same. I am optimistic we will be able to narrow the gaps soon and before the next bilateral series happens in India” he said.

    Last year, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) proposed to amend rules relating to mandatory sharing of feeds of sports of national importance with not only the pubcaster but with other distribution platforms. Reason for proposed changes: people with less purchasing power should not lose out on sporting excitement.

    The MIB said in a notice issued on 17 October 2018, adding that public comments were invited within a month (later extended) on the changes proposed in the relevant regulation relating to sharing by rights-holding private TV channels of broadcasting feed with the pubcaster.

  • TRAI clarifies tariff regime didn’t restrict Ind-Aus T20I match

    TRAI clarifies tariff regime didn’t restrict Ind-Aus T20I match

    MUMBAI: The thrilling last ball finish in the T20I match between India and Australia on 24 February grabbed the attention of many but was not accessible to the consumers of cable TV networks. This was apparently due to the implementation of the new regulatory framework prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), according to reports in certain sections of the media and other social platforms.

    However, TRAI clarified that the tariff regime, in no way inhibited or restricted the telecast of India and Australia T20I cricket match. It stated, “The non-availability or non- transmission of the recent cricket matches (T20I and ODI) being played between India and Australia over the cable networks has nothing to do with implementation of new regulatory framework of TRAI for broadcasting and cable services.”

    TRAI also pointed out that the transmission are governed by the Supreme Court judgement dated 22 August 2017.

    It also quoted the Supreme Court’s direction stating, “Under Section 3 of the Sports Act, 2007 the live feed received by Prasar Bharati from content rights owners or holders is only for the purpose of re-transmission of the said signals on its own terrestrial and DTH networks and not to cable operators so as to enable the cable TV operators to reach such consumers who have already subscribed to a cable network.”

    After the decision of the Supreme Court, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) issued a notice dated 12 April 2018, asking all the DPOs to display a caption, during the broadcast of sports events of national importance, on DD Sports channel that “The match/ game can be viewed in free-to-air mode on DD Sports channel, on DD FreeDish and DD terrestrial network”.

    Therefore, the distribution platform operators (DPOs) have to switch off the DD Sports channel from their cable networks during the period of the matches under the recent India-Australia T20I and ODI series.  

    “Therefore, the rumours circulating in some sections of the press or in social media platforms holding TRAI regulations responsible for non-transmission of the cricket matches in cable networks are baseless and incorrect,” TRAI concluded.

    Recently, TRAI extended the deadline for consumers to pick their television channels under the new tariff regime till 31 March. The subscribers that don’t opt for new channel would be moved to ‘Best Fit Plans’, which would be developed as per usage pattern, language and channel popularity.

    According to TRAI, close to 100 per cent of cable subscribers and 57 per cent of DTH subscribers have been shifted to new packs.

  • DD Free Dish e-auction for vacant MPEG4 slots on 27 March

    DD Free Dish e-auction for vacant MPEG4 slots on 27 March

    MUMBAI: Doordarshan will conduct the 39th e-auction for filling up of vacant MPEG-4 slots of its FTA DTH platform Free Dish w.e.f 27 March 2019. Only satellite channels licensed by the Ministry of I&B would be allowed to participate in the e-auction.

    Bidding in the e-auction of vacant unreserved MPEG-4 slots will be for an initial period open to all genre (language) channels at an invitation reserve price of Rs 5 lakh.

    International public broadcasters licensed/registered by the Ministry of I&B can also participate in e-auction.

    “We request all those channels that could not bid for MPEG2 slots for various reasons to consider bidding for the MPEG4 slots,” Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati said.

    If required, Prasar Bharati/Doordarshan can extend e-auction to the next day or as the case may be.

    Recently the pubcaster sold 40 MPEG2 slots for Rs 395 crore.

    As shared by Prasar Bharati, the highest bid price in Bucket A+ was Rs 15.05 crore, while it was Rs 12.45 crore in Bucket A. Bucket B commanded a top bid of Rs10.95 crore. In Bucket C, which saw the toughest competition, the highest bid was Rs 8.95 crore. Bucket D saw a top bid of Rs 6.1 crore.

    After the e-auction, Vempati asserted that the language diversity on DD FreeDish has also seen an expansion with Marathi channels taking up slots.  He also added that nearly eight new channels have taken up space across various categories and genres in various languages.

  • DD Free Dish e-auction: Reserve price for MPEG4 slots fixed at Rs 5 lakh

    DD Free Dish e-auction: Reserve price for MPEG4 slots fixed at Rs 5 lakh

    MUMBAI: After recommencement of DD Free Dish e-auction, Prasar Bharati (PB) recently revealed the result where a total of 40 MPEG2 slots were successfully sold. Now, PB CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati has revealed that the reserve price for MPEG4 slots e-auction is Rs 5 lakh. He also added that the first e-auction for MPEG4 slots will be notified in a couple of days.

    “The reserve price for these MPEG4 slots is at a low invitational amount of merely Rs 5 lakh. We request all those channels that could not bid for MPEG2 slots for various reasons to consider bidding for the MPEG4 slots,” Vempati said on Twitter.

    PB CEO disclosed the same while addressing the issues raised by religious channels. Various media reports floated recently that the public broadcaster has decided to keep away from religious and devotional channels for DD Free Dish slots.  

    The reports said spiritual channels, including that of Baba Ramdev, have been seeking slots in the auctioning for quite some time. As it could open a floodgate of applicants, the broadcaster has decide to keep a safe distance.

    Vempati has taken a defensive stance saying that they have taken note of several petitions received. “Free Dish is a public platform where placement of channels happens through an open transparent e-auction process. It is the preorgative of individual channels whether to participate or not. If you feel strongly that certain channels should be on Free Dish then please write to them,” he commented.

    The new policy guideline had kept five buckets for e-auction of MPEG2 slots There is no specified bucket for spiritual or regional channels under new guidelines.

    Earlier on 15 February, the Prasar Bharati Board gave the green signal to e-auctioning of DTH slots on DD Free Dish. The e-auctioning of slots on DD Free Dish was arbitrarily called off in October 2017. Earlier, DD Free Dish would conduct the e-auction every couple of months to award vacant channel slots to private broadcasters. The last e-auction was held In July 2017.

  • KBS World channel enters India with Prasar Bharati’s Free Dish

    KBS World channel enters India with Prasar Bharati’s Free Dish

    MUMBAI: Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), the national public broadcaster of South Korea has signed an agreement with its counterpart Prasar Bharati to enter the Indian market with KBS World TV channel. 

    KBS World will be officially broadcasted through DD Free Dish, as soon as the approval process and trial delivery of the Indian government is completed in March. Meanwhile, DD India, the international broadcasting channel of Prasar Bharati, will be broadcasted in South Korea through MyK OTT platform. 

    Korean Cultural Center (KCC) India, which is dedicated to providing insights into the rich cultural heritage of Korea tweeted, “KBS World (English channel of KBS) will be aired through DD Free Dish soon! In return, DD India will available on MyK, OTT platform of KBS in Korea.”

    KBS president and CEO Yang Sung-dong said, “This KBS World TV’s entry into India will be a great bridgehead for spreading K-pop and Korean culture to India, which will become the world’s number one country in the world over the next few years.”

    This agreement is the first case in the domestic broadcasting industry, in which both public broadcasting companies representing both countries mutually support themselves as a local agency to exchange their own international broadcasting channels.

  • DD Free Dish e-auction: Prasar Bharati nets Rs 395 cr from sale of 40 Free Dish DTH slots

    DD Free Dish e-auction: Prasar Bharati nets Rs 395 cr from sale of 40 Free Dish DTH slots

    MUMBAI: The first e-auction of Doordarshan’s FTA DTH platform, FreeDish, after recommencement witnessed intense competition. Under the revised guidelines, total of 40 MPEG2 slots were successfully sold.

    Prasar Bharati  CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati said that that the estimated revenue from the sold slots is Rs. 395 crore and added that the new channels will be on air from 1 March 2019, subject to completion of formalities.

    After the e-auction Vempati asserted that the language diversity on DD FreeDish has also seen an expansion with Marathi channels taking up slots.He also added that nearly eight new channels have taken up space across various categories and genres in various languages.

    While revealing the new policy guidelines, Vempati had said a key consideration factored in was to increase the diversity of content available on FreeDish and to expand its reach across India, especially within the non-Hindi speaking states.

    As shared by Prasar Bharati, the highest bid price in Bucket A+ was Rs 15.05 crore, in Bucket A it was Rs 12.45 crore and in Bucket B was Rs 10.95 crore. In Bucket C, which saw the toughest competition, the highest bid was Rs 8.95 crore. Bucket D saw a high of Rs 6.1 crore.

        

    The new policy guideline has kept five buckets for e-auction of MPEG2 slots . Bucket A+ has been kept for Hindi GECs and teleshopping channels with a reserve price of Rs 15 crore, and Bucket A has been dedicated for Hindi movie channels with a reserve price of Rs 12 crore.

    Hindi music, sports, and Bhojpuri GEC and movie come under Bucket B, which has a reserve price of Rs 10 crore. All news and current affairs TV channels in various languages fall under the category of  Bucket C, which had a reserve price of Rs 7 crore. Bucket D with lowest reserve price of Rs 6 crore comprises all other remaining genres/language channels.

    Earlier on 15 February 2019, the Prasar Bharati Board on gave a green signal to e-auctioning of DTH slots on DD FreeDish. The e-auctioning was arbitrarily called off in October 2017. Earlier, FreeDish would conduct the e-auction every couple of months to award vacant channel slots to private broadcasters. The last e-auction was held In July 2017.

  • Delhi HC dismisses 9X Media, B4U Broadband, TV Vision petition challenging DD Free Dish e-auction

    Delhi HC dismisses 9X Media, B4U Broadband, TV Vision petition challenging DD Free Dish e-auction

    MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has dismissed the petition filed by 9X Media, B4U and MASTiii against the DD Free Dish e-auction. Within a few days of the e-auction recommencement notice, the broadcasters approached the court as they felt the base prices are very high for small players.

    Senior lawyer Amit Sibal appearing for the petitioner 9XM argued that the music channels were free to air channels and they were not collecting any subscription amount. Hence, those channels could not be classified in the same bucket as general entertainment channels (GECs), and other channels.

    The revised guidelines of DD Free Dish auction says that differential pricing for genre (language) will be based on principle of higher reserve price for genre (language) with greater commercial potential. Sibal argued that the guiding norm has not been followed as the music channels have been placed in the same bucket as sports and GECs. He contended that the commercial potential of sports channels is greater than music channels.

    Sibal also argued that the commercial potential of music channels was much lower than news channels and yet the reserve price for news channels has been fixed at Rs 7 crore and music channels have been fixed at Rs 10 crore. He also referred to the financial statement of the petitioners to contend that they were loss making while the news channels were making profits.

    Earlier 9X Media mentioned in the petition that it is a loss-making entity with losses of Rs 7.81 crore and negative earnings per share and such a decision could adversely impact its business. Rajeev Sharma on behalf of Prasar Bharati pointed out the total revenue of 9XM for the financial year 2018 was around Rs 146.12 crore including Rs 138.71 crore as revenue from operations. He submitted that the reserve price of a slot was a very small fraction of the revenue. Sharma also added that the petitioners were already paying Rs 8 crore and the reserve price was only 25 per cent more than the existing price.

    Talking note of the argument, Justice Vibhu Bakhru said that the court does not agree to the argument that the reserve price fixed there under would amount to disabling an entrepreneur from carrying on the business of broadcasting a music channel. He also added that DD Free Dish is not the only platform to air the channels.

    Justice Bakhru also asserted that it will not be appropriate to enter into a controversy as to the assessment of the commercial potential of various genres or channels. The court also added that the question of fixing a reserve price is a matter of commercial discretion of the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

    “Prasar Bharti’s commercial decision to fix the prices is not amenable to judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, unless it is established that the same is so arbitrary or so unreasonable that no reasonable person could possibly take such a decision,” the judgement also said.

    Justice Bakhru also found Sibal’s contention that that petitioners are not challenging the policy but the implementation is unpersuasive as the petitioners are seeking to challenge the fixation of reserve price which itself is a matter of policy.

    The new policy guidelines has kept five buckets for e-auction of MPEG2 slots. Bucket A+ has been kept for Hindi GECs and teleshopping channels with a reserve price of Rs 15 crore, and Bucket A has been dedicated to Hindi movie channels with a reserve price of Rs 12 crore.

    Hindi music, sports, and Bhojpuri GEC and movie come under Bucket B which has a reserve price of Rs 10 crore. All news & current affairs (Hindi), news & current affairs (English) and news & current affairs (Punjabi) channels fall under the category of Bucket C which with a reserve price of Rs 7 crore. The Bucket D with lowest reserve price of Rs 6 crore will comprise of all other remaining genres/language channels.

  • Prasar Bharati’s Shashi Shekhar Vempati on DD India revamp, OTT plan, TRAI tariff regime

    Prasar Bharati’s Shashi Shekhar Vempati on DD India revamp, OTT plan, TRAI tariff regime

    MUMBAI: Shashi Shekhar Vempati is the first private sector executive to have a place on the Prasar Bharati hot seat. He is also one of the youngest CEOs at the organisation and in 2017 propelled it towards becoming a corporate 21st century public broadcaster.

    The pubcaster isn’t buckling under to the digital wave. The new Prasar Bharati under his vision is ready for the digital era. Recently, Doordarshan revamped DD India to an English news channel. In the latest week’s Broadcast Audience Research Council data, DD India is ahead of all private English news channels in the core target audience of NCCS AB: Males 22+ individuals.  

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with Vempati to talk about the success of DD India after the revamp, tariff order and Doordarshan’s OTT platform plans. Here are the excerpts:

    How has DD India made it to top slot in English news list? Any change in programming line-up?

    I think this needs a little bit of clarification. We have always known that the English viewership base of DD News was always quite high, but then DD news being a bi-lingual channel over the years, was being measured and reported in the Hindi genre. So, as a result, there was no reflection in BARC data of the size of the English viewership.

    What has really changed is that last year the Prasar Bharati board took a decision that we will have an English news channel in addition to the Hindi news channel and we will eventually position it as our offering to the international space as well. The reason is India doesn’t have a strong global voice unlike BBC, Al Jazeera, Russia Today and CGTN. So, with that in mind, we re-positioned DD India as the English news channel, where the English content of the news generated by DD News will also go.

    Over the last six months, BARC has started measuring it, but they have not reported it. They started reporting it from January in the English news genre. What was already a reality is now getting publicised.

    How many hours of English content is there on the channel?

    Close to 70 per cent of the Fixed Point Chart (FPC) is English news and the rest is English documentaries as of now. But the work is in progress and over the next few weeks we will increase that and it will become a full-fledged English news channel. The next big thing will be DD News and DD India becoming full-fledged Hindi and English news channels respectively.  

    What is your point of view on mandatory sharing of sports feed with the public broadcaster? Will we see IPL this time on DD?

    See when ever such a consultation happens, MIB takes feedback of all the stake holders, so our role comes much later. At this time there is no such proposal to share IPL matches. If there is anything we will let you know.

    CCEA recently approved the ‘Broadcasting Infrastructure and network development’ scheme of Prasar Bharati. How do you plan to use the budget allocated for it?

    The scheme approved by CCEA will include some expansion, modernisation of studios and upgrading of satellite infrastructure. We have a long pending modernisation. (These are some long pending modernisation. Provisions have been kept for modernisation of existing equipment/facilities in studios which are essential to sustain the ongoing activities and also for High Definition Television (HDTV) transmitters at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.)

    What is the status of the proposed Doordarshan OTT platform? What type of content will the platform have?

    Sometime in 2019, we will get to it. Right now our priority is news. It is a little early to comment on that. Firstly, we have to get our basic digital assets in place, which is what we are doing right now with the rollout of our iOS and Android apps which happened on the budget day.

    We have about 55 or more active YouTube channels. Digitisation of the archive is happening. At some point in 2019 we will put out the OTT platform for some of the premium content and rare archive and upgraded content.

    What’s your take on the TRAI tariff order?

    I think India, as a market, is clearly innovating on pricing and this tariff order reflects that. It shows the move towards greater subscription-based revenues for the media industry and I think it is a positive move in that direction. From both consumer and the broadcaster standpoint it is a positive move. It also gives flexibility to the consumer.