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Tag: Prasar Bharati

  • DTT should be completed in Delhi by 2010

    DTT should be completed in Delhi by 2010

     NEW DELHI: A sub-group on ‘Going Digital’, set up by the Planning Commission, has recommended that digital terrestrial transmission by Doordarshan should be launched with a slogan Digital Delhi by 2010 to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in that year.

    The Sub-Group headed by Rajeev Ratna Shah, Member Secretary in the Planning Commission and a former CEO of Prasar Bharati, said a phased approach should be taken for going digital covering all the seven mega cities by 2011 in the first phase and the rest of the country by 2013.

    The sub-group, comprising 17 members, was set up by the Committee on Information, Communication and Entertainment (ICE) that has been examining the larger issue of convergence and advent of modern technology. Members include the secretaries in Information and Broadcasting and Department of Telecommunications, the Prasar Bharati CEO, the presidents of Cetma, Mait, Nasscom, and ISP Association of India, co-chairman of the Ficci entertainment committee Kunal Dasgupta, chairman of the CII entertainment committee, chairman of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India, president of the Cable TV Operators Association, Rajiv Mehrotra who is the managing trustee of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, Virat Bhatia from AT&T Communications Services, Zee Telefilms President Abhijit Saxena, Sameer Rao who is vice-president in charge of strategy, planning & regulatory in STAR India, and a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office.
     

    It was also agreed that a group chaired by BS Lalli, the CEO of Prasar Bharati who is also chairman of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and some private broadcasters like Star, Zee, Sony, Eenadu etc. and their major MSOs will examine an 11-stage process and firm up their sequencing and put the entire process on a “digital upgrade timeline”.

    Digital migration process

    Ideally, the Sub-Group said the migration process must commence from Delhi in 2010, coinciding with the Commonwealth Games, and proceed to other mega cities by 2011 and Tier II and Tier III cities by 2012. In non-urban areas simulcast can continue for a few more years. Analogue transmission should be completely phased out by 2015 as the outer limit. It was decided that to keep the transition costs to the minimum, the switching over time as well as the simulcasting period should be kept to the minimum.

    There is need for convergence in regulation in the light of developments in technology and the I&B Ministry was requested by the sub-group to take a fresh look at the proposal for having a common communications convergence regulator with separate bureaus under it for dealing with content and carriage. A supplementary report will be submitted with regard to regulatory issues relating to going digital.

    All the content producers – Prasar Bharati as well as private operators – should provide agreed and identified channels in the digital / HDTV format to MSO / cable operators under “Must Carry” clause.

    High Definition TV should be introduced in a phased manner starting from Delhi (2008-09), extending it to all the six mega cities. Commonwealth Games should be covered in HDTV format in 2010.
     
    Spectrum planning

    The I&B Ministry, private broadcasters and service providers along with the Department of Telecommunications (WPC cell) should work in a coordinated manner to identify spectrum requirements keeping their rollout plans so that spectrum planning could be proactively made. A Spectrum Management Group could be set up to achieve this.

    Prasar Bharati should work out the financial implications of going digital, covering AIR and Doordarshan operations and submit the same to the Planning Commission.

    Prasar Bharati should digitally archive all its contents including educational contents for providing them for distribution streaming audio-video technologies. Prasar Bharati may also work out a mechanism to leverage the rich content available by appropriately pricing them and retailing them. All Prasar Bharati content of Classics or Fiction should be made web accessible with premium content accessible through payment gateway. Public service broadcasting content should be freely accessible on the web.

    Digital cinema

    The Sub-Group has also recommended amending the Cinematograph Act 1952 for inclusion of digital cinema. It said digital cinema should be seen as a means of securing the Intellectual Property Rights of the producer. Digitally recorded content taken from satellite in an encrypted conduit provides a failsafe method of delivering films to exhibitors directly, without intermediary or distributor’s interface at multiple locations simultaneously, in streaming audio-video-mode. It said this was the best guarantee against piracy. Digital cinema should, therefore, be encouraged by recourse to various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.

    Production of cinema in digital format could be on lower tax regime and the theaters that have installed digital cinema exhibition facilities can be subjected to say lower entertainment tax. This would need to be taken up with State Governments, the Sub-Group said.

    It said all conditional access devices (and Set Top Boxes) should be built on common standards for inter-operability, so that customers are not put to inconvenience. This will also help in better absorption, acceptability of digital technology. The plain-vanilla-STB should lend itself to modular insertion of proprietary data to include value-added services.

    Content providers should be encouraged to work on creation of domain specific server farms and data depositories. The concept of digital libraries promoted by the Department of Information & Technology should also be publicly made available. Create open access platforms like Google libraries and others should also be encouraged. Memory modules could specially be created for lawyers, doctors, accountants and other professionals for instant data mining and retrieval in respect of their domain.

    Triple play services

    Triple play services riding on entertainment related applications would be able to create the most viable business models for spread of rural connectivity. Applications of Wi Max technology will allow entertainment to rural areas and this will provide ubiquitous Broadband experience to rural areas. Just as Wi Fi band has been delicensed, we need to move to the next step in encouraging proliferation of Wi Max technology for which the Wi Max band (2.5 GHz / 3.5 GHz / 700 MHz or existing Wi Fi band 2.4 – 2.48 GHz) could be delicensed for rural connectivity.

    Content creation would be a specialised area requiring thorough understanding of the local requirements and language that can only be done through local entrepreneurs. The Rural Content Provider (RCP) would provide content and other facilities, including entertainment, which will be of interest to the rural population. Delivery of services could be through home TV or Mobile telephone. The business model of such an RCP would vary from region to region and would be driven by the market. The department of IT and the Department of Telecommunications need to evolve a suitable policy framework that would encourage such RCPs.

    The Deparment of Information & Technology/National Informatics Centre should work out a comprehensive plan for rollout of statewise, regionwise and citywise GIS database and encourage private enterprise to do customized applications and value addition for various public sector as well as private sector applications.

  • Isro being approached for more transponders for DD Direct

    Isro being approached for more transponders for DD Direct

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is expected to switch over to an Indian satellite Insat 4B by early May for its direct-to-home DD Direct service, but it is unlikely to get more than five transponders. The satellite is being launched 10 March from Kourou in French Guiana.

    Prasar Bharati sources tell indiantelevision.com that though the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) had been requested to give first priority to the public broadcaster in the matter of leasing transponders, it was learnt that the Sun Group owned by Kalanithi Maran may get six transponders for its Sun Direct DTH and one for digital satellite news gathering.

    The sources said Isro had been approached to clarify the air on the number of channels it could give to Doordarshan, particularly in view of the efforts by the public broadcaster to switch over to an Indian satellite and not spend money in foreign currency for the American-owned NSS-6 satellite.

    The switchover is expected to result in a saving of around $5 million and Prasar Bharati chief executive officer BS Lalli confirmed that he had turned down the reminder by the American satellite for a renewal of contract.

    (It is learnt that Isro agreed to the demand for Sun for transponders after the failure of the Insat-4C last year. However, Isro has given the option to Sun to take transponders on a foreign satellite with the help of the space agency, since Insat 4B was meant for DD Direct.)

    Switching over to the new satellite will mean rotating the dish antennas slightly from the existing 95 degrees to 93.5 degrees. Lalli does not think any re-programming of
    set-top boxes will be required but said that this could be done easily if needed.

    The Insat-4B, the second satellite in the Insat-4 series, will be carrying 12 Ku band and as many C band transponders for communication and broadcasting services. Airtel is understood to have booked transponders for its services.

  • Neo Sports to give live feed to DD for 17 Feb ODI; no action against Nimbus

    Neo Sports to give live feed to DD for 17 Feb ODI; no action against Nimbus

    NEW DELHI: Following an assurance that it was prepared to give live feed to Prasar Bharati and action against it was unwarranted, Nimbus was today directed by the Delhi High Court to provide live feed for the cricket match between India and Sri Lanka to be played on 17 February in Visakhapatnam.

    The bench comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice JP Singh passed the order after Nimbus counsel Gopal Jain mentioned the matter before the bench seeking protection against the showcause notice issued by the information and broadcasting ministry alleging there had been violation of the provisions of the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007.
    Nimbus wanted the court to direct the Centre not to take action against it as it had offered to provide live feed of the match to the Prasar Bharati. Under the ordinance, the licence given to Neo Sports owned by Nimbus can be suspended.

    The court directed the government not to take any decision or action till 9 March, the next date of hearing.

    The court also issued notices to the Centre and Prasar Bharati on a petition filed by Nimbus challenging the ordinance, which makes it mandatory for private broadcaster to share live feed with the pubcaster.

    Earlier in the day, Nimbus had approached another Bench of the Delhi High Court presided over by Justice BD Ahmed seeking protection from the Centre’s threat to cancel its licence if it did not respond to the government’s show cause notice by today.

    However, Justice Ahmed had said then that the broadcaster should raise the issue before the Division Bench that was already hearing two cases on the issue – Nimbus’ challenge of the ordinance and the appeal by Prasar Bharati against a single bench’s order permitting a seven-minute deferred telecast of the cricket matches.

  • Prasar Bharati’s film ‘Video Game’ wins Tiger Award at Rotterdam Intl. Film Festival

    Prasar Bharati’s film ‘Video Game’ wins Tiger Award at Rotterdam Intl. Film Festival

    MUMBAI: The Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) / Prasar Bharati produced film Videogame, has bagged the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

    An official announcement quotes the jury’s citation for Vipin Vijay’s movie Videogame saying:

    “Video Game is yet another illustration that there’s more to the Cinema of India than can be contained with the received wisdom which seeks to encompass it by reference to a dualism opposing Satyajit Ray to Bollywood. Video Game shows a relentless, complex post-modern intelligence as it processes everything within its view, within its memory, within its wide range of cultural references.”

    “Its title is an index to this complexity, as it evokes not only digital game space as an aspect of real, but the pursuit of video within the understanding of a game, replete with strategies, movements, and counter-movements. A new kind of road movie, indeed.”
     

  • Nimbus seeks court protection on showcause notice

    Nimbus seeks court protection on showcause notice

    NEW DELHI: Following the issuance of a showcause notice by the information and broadcasting ministry to Nimbus Communications for failing to give live feed of cricket matches to Prasar Bharati, the broadcaster today urged the Delhi High Court to provide it protection from a possible cancellation of licence.

    However, Justice BD Ahmed, before whom the matter was mentioned this morning, said the broadcaster should raise the issue before the Division Bench that is already hearing two cases on the issue – one by Nimbus who own Neo Sports, challenging the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007 and an appeal by Prasar Bharati against a single bench order permitting a seven-minute deferred telecast of the cricket matches.
    Justice Ahmed said: “It is improper for the single bench to pass any order when the matter is being heard by a Division Bench (headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen).”

    The ministry, in its notice issued on 13 February, had asked Nimbus to file its reply by this evening. Under the Ordinance, which was promulgated with retrospective effect, the Neo Sports channel can face cancellation of licence for violation of the Uplink and Downlink Guidelines issued in November 2005 and / or a fine up to Rs 10 million.

  • Delayed feed: I&B issues showcause to Nimbus

    Delayed feed: I&B issues showcause to Nimbus

    NEW DELHI: The information & broadcasting ministry has issued a notice to Nimbus Communications to show cause why Neo Sports owned by it has failed to comply with the provisions of the ordinance issued recently for mandatory sharing of live sports feed with Prasar Bharati.

    Nimbus Communications has been given time till tomorrow to reply to the notice, which was issued yesterday, failing which the government is “free to take action as permissible under the ordinance”. The showcause was issued on the orders of I&B minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.

    What has irked the mandarins in the ministry is that for the ongoing One-Day International series involving Sri Lanka, as well as the earlier one that pitted the Boys in Blue against the West Indies, DD has been forced to telecast the matches with a seven minute delayed feed.

    The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007 has a clause embedded in it that states that television channels that fail to comply with the terms of the ordinance for compulsory sharing of live feeds with the national broadcaster Prasar Bharati would have to pay a penalty up to Rs 10 million and also face possible revocation or suspension of license.

    The ordinance promulgated on 3 February has retrospective affect from 11 November, 2005, which was when the government had issued its guidelines for downlinking of TV channels. The Uplinking Guidelines had been issued on 12 December, 2005. It has also been stipulated that no action of the government could be challenged in any court of law.

    With the Guidelines coming in the ambit of the Ordinance which is expected to be replaced by an Act of Parliament in the ensuing Budget session, the government has taken upon itself the powers to enforce them with retrospective effect. The guidelines are already the subject matter of two petitions in the Delhi High Court.

    It may be recalled that the Delhi High Court had on 12 February refused to stay the operation of the ordinance asking private sports channels to share live feed of cricket and other sports events with the pubcaster.

    A High Court division bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen has posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow.

  • HC hearing on Nimbus challenge to telecast ordinance on 12 February

    HC hearing on Nimbus challenge to telecast ordinance on 12 February

    NEW DELHI: Even as the Delhi High Court today refused to stay the operation of the ordinance promulgated last week making it mandatory for private sports channels to share live feed of any international sports event with Prasar Bharati, the telecast controversy is coming up for hearing in two different benches of the court on 12 February.

    Justice BD Sharma, who is hearing the appeal by Prasar Bharati against an earlier order of the court permitting seven-minute deferred telecast on Doordarshan, rejected the plea by Nimbus Communications, owner of Neo Sports, seeking a stay on the Ordinance.

    Nimbus informed the Court that it had filed a petition in the court of a division bench headed by Chief Justice MK Sarma challenging the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance and that court had fixed the matter for Monday.

    The Counsel for Nimbus Gopal Jain informed the division bench headed by Chief Justice MK Sarma that Neo Sports was challenging the ordinance, as it was arbitrary and unconstitutional.

    The private sports broadcast channel also contended that the Ordinance violates its fundamental right under Article 19 (1) that is rights to speech and expression and its intellectual property right.

    (Mr Justice Ahmed had yesterday questioned the Government’s reasoning in promulgating the Ordinance saying, ”The Rule of Law should not have been subverted,” even as the government said it would challenge any court order favouring Nimbus’ insistence on deferred telecast. Justice B D Ahmed had wanted to know why the government was so swift in bringing an ordinance and added that the whole thing left a bad taste in the mouth.).

  • Encryption of DD signals: government sets up expert panel

    Encryption of DD signals: government sets up expert panel

    MUMBAI: The information & broadcasting ministry has constituted a joint group of experts to identify the technical parameters and propose a course of action for suitably regulating the sports broadcasting signals.

    The terms of reference of the joint group of experts are:

    (i) Encryption of DD signal being transmitted to regional/local Kendras for transmission terrestrially.

    (ii) Issues relating to free to air DTH of Prasar Bharati; and

    (iii) Any other technical matter related to regulating sports broadcasting signals.

    The 12-member joint group of experts will be headed by All India Radio director general Brijeshwar Singh. Other Members are: Digvijay Singh and H Rajshekaran representing Nimbus, ESPN Software India managing director RC Venkateish, Essel Group vice-chairman Jawahar Goel on behalf of Zee Sports, BCCI vice president Lalit Modi, Punjab Cricket Association president IS Bindra, Becil CMD KRP Verma, AIR chief engineer AS Guin, Doordarshan chief engineer LV Sharma and DD Sports chief engineer ES Issac.

    Rajat Bhargava, ADG (F&A) in AIR will be member-convener of the Group. The group shall submit its report within one month from the date of its constitution on the issues mentioned in the terms of reference.

    The cabinet had last week approved the promulgation of an Ordinance on the issue of mandatory sharing of broadcasting rights of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati and directed the I&B ministry to constitute a joint group of experts to identify the technical parameters and propose a course of action for suitably regulating the sports broadcasting signals.

  • Provision for penalty for defaulting channels in new telecast ordinance

    Provision for penalty for defaulting channels in new telecast ordinance

    NEW DELHI: Television channels that fail to comply by the ordinance promulgated late last week for compulsory sharing of live feeds with the national broadcaster Prasar Bharati would have to pay a penalty up to Rs 10 million and also face possible revocation or suspension of license.

    The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007 promulgated on February three has retrospective affect from 11 November, 2005 when the government had issued its guidelines for downlinking of TV channels. The Uplinking Guidelines had been issued on December 12, 2005. It has also been stipulated that no action no action of the government would be challenged in any court of law.
    With the Guidelines coming in the ambit of the Ordinance which is expected to be replaced by an Act of Parliament in the ensuing Budget session, the government has taken upon itself the powers to enforce them with retrospective effect. The guidelines are already the subject matter of the petition in the Delhi High Court by Nimbus Communications on the Indo-West Indies series telecast. Nimbus, which owns Neo Sports channel, had expressed apprehensions that the government may resort to coercive methods for share their exclusive.

    The ordinance also provides for a revenue sharing formula between private and public broadcasters. Advertisement sharing between private and the public broadcasters would be in the ratio of 75:25 in case of TV coverage in favour of the rights holder and 50:50 in case of radio coverage.

    Meanwhile, Neo Sports yesterday announced live telecast of the India-Sri Lanka one-day international cricket series for the Hero Honda Cup starting in Kolkata tomorrow with the Hindi feed on Neo Sports Plus. Neo Sports also announced a cricket show called Extra Cover, a pacy pre, mid and post the live match on Neo Sports plus, featuring some of the games’ stalwarts like Javagal Srinath, Dean Jones and Arjuna Ranatunga.

    Of the four match series, the first tie at Kolkata will be telecast from 1 pm to 11:30 pm, while the three other matches at Rajkot on 11 February, at Margao on 14 February and in Vishakhapatnam on 17 February will be telecast live from 7:30 am to 6 pm.

    Neo sports holds the rights to all the international and domestic matches played in India . This is in addition to 67 per cent rights of all confirmed international cricket series featuring the Indian team till March 2010.

    All India Radio will also broadcast live commentary of all the matches alternatively in Hindi and English. The commentary can be heard between 1400 and 2230 hrs for the first ODI in Kolkata, while it would be broadscast between 0830 to 1730 hrs for all the other three matches.

    Earlier this week, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi indicated it was also contemplating action to ensure that private broadcasters gave good quality feed to Doordarshan. When asked what kind of action was contemplated, the Minister said on the sidelines of the Editors Conference on Social Sectors: ”When you do something, do not reveal what you are doing.”

    He denied the charge that private broadcasters were losing in business by sharing sports feed with the Doordarshan.

    The Ordinance was resorted to as Nimbus refused to share live footage of the just concluded India-West Indies cricket series with public broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio. However, Doordarshan was permitted to show a seven-minute deferred telecast and All India Radio was allowed running live commentary following an order by the Delhi High Court.

    After promulgation of the ordinance, Nimbus which holds exclusive rights to broadcast all international matches to be held in India until 2010 will have to share live feeds of all cricket matches to be played in the country with Prasar Bharati, besides sharing advertisement revenue from joint feeds.

    Furthermore, the ordinance will help millions of viewers across the country having the facility of only terrestrial or free-to-air channels to enjoy live sports events of national and international importance.

    Talks between Nimbus, which holds the rights given by the Board for Control of Cricket in India and Prasar Bharati broke down just a day before the India-West Indies cricket series was to begin on January 21. Nimbus had refused to permit the signals to be shown on any DTH platform and said the signals would have to be encrypted.

    Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati has already filed an appeal against the order of the single bench of the High Court, and it is expected to come up for hearing late next week.

    The issue of sharing feed with Doordarshan and All India Radio has been controversial from the beginning, with private sports broadcasters arguing that it was unfair to them as it would affect their revenue. They contend that telecast rights are obtained at the expense of large amounts and sharing their signals with DD and AIR would make the business less remunerative.

  • HC questions government reasoning in promulgating ordinance

    HC questions government reasoning in promulgating ordinance

    NEW DELHI: Even as the government today said it would challenge any court order favouring Nimbus on deferred telecast, the Delhi High Court questioned the Centre’s reasoning in promulgating the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance.

    (Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati sources confirmed that talks held yesterday between Nimbus and Prasar Bharati over the issue had failed again. Thus, uncertainty prevailed over whether Doordarshan will get live sports feed of the India-Sri Lanka series despite the Ordinance being in force.)

    When the additional solicitor general PP Malhotra informed the court that the government had notified an ordinance making it mandatory for private channels to share the ‘live feed’ of cricket and other international sports events in India with public broadcasters Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), Justice BD Ahmed sought to know why the government was so swift in bringing an ordinance.

    ”The Rule of Law should not have been subverted,” he said. ”It leaves a bad taste in the mouth, when there is a subversion of judicial process,” the Justice observed, while adjourning the matter till tomorrow for further hearing.

    However, the ordinance notified yesterday was not challenged before the court.

    Malhotra said the petition of Nimbus Communications, which owns Neo Sports, should be dismissed as it had challenged the circular of the government to share the live feed under Article 19 of the Constitution as its Fundamental Right.

    Citing judgments of the Supreme Court, Malhotra said it was the fundamental rights of every citizen to view and listen the cricket match or sports events held in the country.

    After submitting copies of the ordinance, Malhotra read out the relevant portions, saying the private channel would have to share live feed with DD and AIR.

    On 23 January, the High Court had in an interim order allowed Prasar Bharati to download the feed of Nimbus Communications and telecast the India-West Indies ODI series in a delayed transmission of seven minutes on Doordarshan (DD) and permitted live commentary on AIR.

    Senior Counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Nimbus Communications, argued the government could not force any private channel to share its live feed as it was against the fundamental rights enumerated in the Constitution.

    Speaking to newspersons early in the morning before the matter came up before the High Court, I&B joint secretary Baijendranath said, ”If such an order comes from court, we will challenge it in the light of the Ordinance which has been promulgated making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live feeds of important sports events with the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.”

    He said there was a law of the land in force and if any broadcaster violates that it can be punished by various means including a ban.

    Nobody has challenged the ordinance and no court has passed any order in this respect, so its provisions are binding for all, he said.

    The Ordinance that was cleared by the Union Cabinet on 1 February and given Presidential assent late on 2 February has been promulgated from retrospective effect dating back to 11 November, 2005 when the downlinking guidelines had been issued. These guidelines, along with the uplinking guidelines, have now been given statutory status.