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Tag: Prasar Bharati

  • Prasar Bharati financial rejig near completion

    Prasar Bharati financial rejig near completion

    NEW DELHI: The Indian government is close to taking a final decision on the financial restructuring of pubcaster Prasar Bharati, which manages Doordarshan and All India Radio.

    A group of ministers (GoM) set up to look into the issue has finalised its report, which now will be vetted by the information and broadcast ministry before being put up at a cabinet meeting.

    A government official, while confirming that the restructuring report is complete, said, “The GoM and I&B ministry will have to finalise the format in which it will be put up before the Cabinet as the broad contours have been thrashed out.”

    Though the matter is likely to go to the Cabinet after the present session of Parliament gets over in a couple of weeks’ time, the official refrained from giving a time frame for a formal announcement in this regard.

    One of the options mentioned in the report, according to sources, is the government holding an equity stake in Prasar Bharati Corporation in lieu of the assets (including real estate and infrastructure), which would be transferred from government books to the Corporation.

    However, the GoM has attempted to tread carefully on the issue of the sensitive status of employees of Prasar Bharati.

    Almost 99 per cent of the over 45,000 employee base of Prasar Bharati is treated as part of the government and enjoy various perks as government servants.

    Transferring the employees to Prasar Bharati, an autonomous body created under an Act of Parliament, will make them lose some of the privileges like low-cost housing facility.

    The government official said the cabinet will have to take a final view on such matters.

    Employee status has been a ticklish issue within and outside Prasar Bharati with various employees’ unions of the Corporation opposing any change in their status, least of all being categorized as private sector employees.

    The workers’ unions had even petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year to scrap the Prasar Bharati Act and revert DD and AIR to full government control.

    A committee, headed by I&B secretary SK Arora, was appointed by the government on 30 March, 2005 with the mandate to suggest a viable capital and financial structure for the cash-strapped Prasar Bharati to facilitate the strengthening of its functioning.

    The terms of reference of the panel was to propose a viable capital and financial structure for Prasar Bharati, while taking into account the broadcaster’s role as a pubcaster and the need to maximise revenue-earning potential through commercial operations.

    This panel was to submit its report to a GoM that was to add its own perspective.

    Though Prasar Bharati closed the last financial year ended 31 March 2006 with a record revenue mop up of Rs 12.47 billion, the gap between expenditure and income is still huge.

    For FY07, Prasar Bharati has set itself a revenue target of Rs 15 billion.

  • Windies tour: SC bars Doordarshan from coercing Ten Sports on feed share

    Windies tour: SC bars Doordarshan from coercing Ten Sports on feed share

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has brought to an abrupt halt pubcaster Doordarshan’s “unfettered acess” to coverage of the India cricket team’s tours abroad.

    In a ruling that will for the present hold only for the forthcoming West Indies tour by the Indian cricket team, the apex court ordered today that Ten Sports has exclusive telecast rights to the series and need not share it with the pubcaster.

    A two-judge Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice LK Panta directed that Prasar Bharati (which manages DD) will not take any coercive step or action for taking the live feed of the matches, a Press Trust of India report said.

    India is scheduled to play five one-day matches and four Tests in the Caribbean in a tour that kicks off with the first ODI on 18 May.

    The court, according to one of the parties involved in the case, said that the clause in the downlink guidelines relating to making available feeds of all events of national importance to DD on a mandatory basis lacks proper legal teeth.

    In the absence of a detailed and written order, which will be issued later by the court, the ramification of this order cannot be fully gauged in terms of the overall downlink guidelines, which is being sought to be implemented by the government from 10 May by when all stipulations have to be fulfilled by a channel to get landing rights in India.

    “Going by what the court has said DD will have to do without the West Indies tour, but the ruling is limited to only Ten Sports and the cricket tour concerned for the present,” DD director-general Navin Kumar told Indiantelevision.com.

    Asked if DD will be restrained from carrying French Open tennis, for which Ten Sports holds exclusive rights for the region, Kumar added, “I suppose Ten Sports will have to move a separate application in the court for that. We cannot comment at the moment on what will be our future course of action.”

    Last week, Dubai-headquartered Ten Sports had moved the court arguing that if interim relief was not granted to it this time round, a judgment of the court delivered before the recent Indo-Pak series would become infructuous.

    Taj Television Ltd, owner of Ten Sports, had in its original petition on the matter sought a stay on the government guidelines making it mandatory for the sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.

    It also contended that the court should be guided by the earlier verdict in the India-Pakistan series wherein DD was just a carrier of the Ten Sports signals on its terrestrial network and had also deposited a sum of Rs 150 million in the court towards possible compensation to Ten Sports.

    Ten had said it has already sold distribution rights of the West Indies tour to Set Discovery Pvt Ltd, which will have the right to license throughout the country.

    The Bench had given an inkling on its thinking on the matter at the last hearing itself in actual fact. During the brief hearing last Friday, the Bench observed that last time it was a series with Pakistan and “matches of Indo-Pak series are different from the others.” It added, “For West Indies, many people may not be interested.”

  • Policy guidelines for downlinking of television channels

    Policy guidelines for downlinking of television channels

    Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, has formulated policy guidelines for downlinking all satellite television channels downlinked / received / transmitted and re-transmitted in India for public viewing. Consequently, no person/entity shall downlink a channel, which has not been registered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under these guidelines.

    Henceforth, all persons/ entities providing Television Satellite Broadcasting Services (TV Channels) uplinked from other countries to viewers in India as well as any entity desirous of providing such a Television Satellite Broadcasting Service (TV Channel), receivable in India for public viewership, shall be required to obtain permission from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in accordance with the terms and conditions prescribed under these guidelines.
    The guidelines are as given below:

    1. Eligiblity criteria for applicant companies
    1.1 The entity applying for permission for downlinking a channel, uplinked from abroad, (i.e. Applicant Company), must be a company registered in India under the Indian Companies Act, 1956, irrespective of its equity structure, foreign ownership or management control.
    1.2 The applicant company must have a commercial presence in India with its principal place of business in India.
    1.3 The applicant company must either own the channel it wants downlinked for public viewing, or must enjoy, for the territory of India, exclusive marketing/ distribution rights for the same, inclusive of the rights to the advertising and subscription revenues for the channel and must submit adequate proof at the time of application.
    1.4 In case the applicant company has exclusive marketing / distribution rights, it should also have the authority to conclude contracts on behalf of the channel for advertisements, subscription and programme content.
    1.5 The applicant company should have a minimum net worth as prescribed below:
    Item Required net worth of the Co.
    1. For downlinking one Channel Rs 1.50 Crores
    2. Every Additional Channel Rs.1.00 Crores
    1.6 The applicant company must provide names and details of all the Directors of the Company and key executives such as CEO, CFO and Head of Marketing etc to get their national security clearance.
    1.7 The applicant company shall furnish, technical details such as Nomenclature, make, model, name and address of the manufacturers of the equipments/instruments to be used for downlinking and distribution, the Block schematic diagram of the downlinking and distribution system and also demonstrate the facilities for monitoring and storing record for 90 days.
    1.8 The Applicant Company should not have been disqualified from holding such permission under these guidelines.
    2. Eligibility criteria for registration of channels for being downliked
    2.1 Only Companies permitted/eligible for permission to downlink, as per Clause 1 above, shall be eligible to apply for registration of channels.
    2.2 The downlinked channel must be licensed or permitted for being broadcast by the regulatory or licensing authority of the country of transmission, proof of which would have to be submitted at the time of application.
    2.3 The channel being registered should not have been de registered under these guidelines at the time of application.
    2.4 No News and Current Affairs channel shall be permitted to be downlinked if it does not meet the following additional conditions:
    2.4.1 That it does not carry any advertisements aimed at Indian viewers;
    2.4.2 That it is not designed specifically for Indian audiences;
    2.4.3 That it is a standard international channel;
    2.4.4 That it has been permitted to be telecast in the country of its uplinking by the regulatory authority of that country;
    Provided that the Government may waive/modify the condition under clause 2.4.1 on a case-by-case basis.
    2.5 For the purposes of these guidelines any channel, which has any element of news or current affairs in its programme content, will be deemed to be a news and current affairs channel.
    2.6 Companies whose channels are being downlinked at present will be required to comply with all formalities of registration of these channels within 180 days from date of issue of these guidelines. In addition these companies will be required to obtain the necessary permission for downlinking their respective channels under these guidelines within 180 days from date of issue of these guidelines.

    3. Period of registration and premission
    The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shall grant registration to each channel for an initial period of 5 years, which shall be extendable thereafter as per extant Rules. The applicant company will be granted permission for one or more years up to a maximum of five years, co-terminus with the registration of the channel.

    4. Registration fee and permission fee
    4.1 The Applicant Company shall pay registration fee of Rs.5 Lakhs for each channel, which will be payable for the initial registration for a period of five years. Extension beyond five years shall be again for a period of five years at the above prescribed rate.
    4.2 Every company permitted to downlink channels, uplinked from other countries, into India under these guidelines, shall pay Rs 5 Lakhs as the initial fee before the signing of the Grant of Permission Agreement. In addition, every company shall pay an amount of Rs. 1 lakh per channel per annum as the annual fee.
    4.3 The company permitted to downlink channels into India under the uplinking guidelines, shall register every channel separately.

    5. Basic conditions/obligations
    5.1 The Company permitted to downlink registered channels shall comply with the Programme and Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
    5.2. The sports channels/sports rights management companies having TV broadcasting rights shall with immediate effect share their feed with Prasar Bharati for national and international sporting events of national importance, held in India or abroad, for terrestrial transmission and DTH broadcasting (free-to-air) under the following conditions:
    5.2.1 The events of national importance shall be determined by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in consultation with Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs, Prasar Bharati and the concerned sports channels/sports rights management companies. In case of cricket events, these shall include all matches featuring India and the finals and semi-finals of international competitions.
    5.2.2 The above conditions shall apply to all future events including those covered by existing contracts of broadcasting rights. However, in the case of cricket events whose broadcasting rights have been obtained by sports channels/rights management companies prior to the issue of the notification in the matter, the rights holders will be obliged to share the feed for all matches featuring India and finals of international competitions.
    5.2.3 Prasar Bharati shall transmit the feed, free to air, on its terrestrial channel and carried through the terrestrial network and/or the satellite/DTH mode.
    5.2.4 The marketing of the events’ rights (terrestrial as well as satellite/DTH) will be decided through mutual negotiations between Prasar Bharati and the rights holder. The marketing rights should go to the party, which offers to maximize the revenue.
    5.2.5 Revenue sharing formula of 75:25 in favour of rights holders without any minimum guarantee/opportunity cost should be applied.
    In the event of any dispute, the matter shall be referred to an arbitrator to be appointed by Secretary, Ministry of Law & Justice out of the approved panel of arbitrators.
    5.3 The applicant company shall adhere to any other Code/Standards guidelines/restrictions prescribed by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India for regulation of content on TV channels from time to time.
    5.4 The applicant company shall submit audited annual accounts of its commercial operations in India.
    5.5 The applicant company shall obtain prior approval of the Ministry of I & B before undertaking any upgradation, expansion or any other changes in the downlinking and distribution system/network configuration.
    5.6 The applicant company shall provide Satellite TV Channel signal reception decoders only to MSOs/Cable operators registered under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 or to a DTH operator registered under the DTH guidelines issued by Government of India.
    5.7 The applicant company shall ensure that any of its channels, which is unregistered or prohibited from being telecast or transmitted or re-transmitted in India, under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 or the DTH guidelines or any other law for the time being in force, cannot be received in India through encryption or any other means.
    5.8 The Union Government shall have the right to suspend the permission of the company/registration of the channel for a specified period in public interest or in the interest of National security to prevent the misuse of the channel. The company shall immediately comply with any directives issued in this regard.
    5.9 The applicant company seeking permission to downlink a channel shall operationalise the channels within one year from the date of the permission being granted by the Ministry of I&B, failing which the permission will liable to be withdrawn without any notice in this regard. However, the company shall be afforded a reasonable opportunity of being heard before such a withdrawal.
    5.10 The company/channel shall adhere to the norms, rules and regulations prescribed by any regulatory authority set up to regulate and monitor the Broadcast Services in the country.
    5.11 The applicant company shall give intimation to Ministry of I & B regarding change in the directorship, key executives or foreign direct investment in the company, within 15 days of such a change taking place. It shall also obtain security clearance for such changes in its directors and key executives.
    5.12 The applicant company shall keep a record of programmes downlinked for a period of 90 days and to produce the same before any agency of the Government as and when required.
    5.13 The applicant company shall furnish such information as may be required by the Ministry of I&B from time to time.
    5.14 The applicant company shall provide the necessary monitoring facility at its own cost for monitoring of programmes or content by the representative of the Ministry of I&B or any other Government agency as and when required.
    5.15 The applicant company shall comply with the obligations and conditions prescribed in the downlinking guidelines issued by the Ministry of I&B, and the specific downlinking permission agreement and registration of each channel.
    5.16 In the event of any war, calamity/national security concerns, the Government shall have the power to prohibit for a specified period the downlinking/ reception/ transmission and re-transmission of any or all channels. The Company shall immediately comply with any such directions issued in this regard.

    6.Offences and penalities
    6.1 In the event of a channel found to have been/being used for transmitting any objectionable unauthorized content, messages, or communication inconsistent with public interest or national security or failing to comply with the directions as per Para 5.8 or Para 5.16, the permission granted shall be revoked and the company shall be disqualified to hold any such permission for a period of five years, apart from liability for punishment under other applicable laws. Further, the registration of the channel shall be revoked and the channel shall be disqualified from being considered for fresh registration for a period of five years.
    6.2 Subject to the provisions contained in Para 6.1 of these guidelines, in the event of a permission holder and/ or channel violating any of the terms and conditions of permission, or any other provisions of the guidelines, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shall have the right to impose the following penalties: –
    6.2.1 In the event of first violation, suspension of the permission of the company and/or registration of the channel and prohibition of broadcast up to a period of 30 days.
    6.2.2 In the event of second violation, suspension of the permission of the company and/or registration of the channel and prohibition of broadcast up to a period of 90 days
    6.2.3 In the event of third violation, revocation of the permission of the company and/or registration of the channel and prohibition of broadcast up to the remaining period of permission
    6.2.4 In the event of failure of the permission holder to comply with the penalties imposed within the prescribed time, revocation of permission and /or registration and prohibition to broadcast for the remaining period of the permission and disqualification to hold any fresh permission and /or registration in future for a period of five years.
    6.2.5 In the event of suspension of permission as mentioned in Para 5.8,5.16 or 6.2, the permission holder will continue to discharge its obligations under the Grant of Permission Agreement including the payment of fee.
    6.2.6 In the event of revocation of permission and /or registration, the fees paid will be forfeited.
    6.2.7 All the penalties mentioned above shall be imposed only after giving a written notice to the permission holder.

    7. Dispute resolution
    7.1 In the event of any question, dispute or difference arising under the Grant of Permission Agreement or in connection thereof, except as to the matter, the decision of which is specifically provided under the Grant of Permission Agreement, the same shall be referred to the sole arbitration of the Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs or his nominee.
    7.2 There will be no objection to any such appointment that the Arbitrator is a Government servant. The award of the arbitrator shall be final and binding on the parties. In the event of such Arbitrator, to whom the matter is originally referred to, being transferred or vacating his office, or being unable to act for any reason whatsoever, Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs shall appoint another person to act as Arbitrator.
    7.3 The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the rules made there under and any modification thereof, for the time being in force, shall be deemed to apply to the arbitration proceedings as above. The venue of arbitration shall be New Delhi or such other place as the Arbitrator may decide. The arbitration proceedings shall be conducted in English language.
    7.4 Upon any and every reference as aforesaid, the assessment of costs, interest and incidental expenses in the proceedings for the award shall be at the discretion of the Arbitrator.

    8. Procedure for grant of premission and registration of channels
    8.1 The applicant company shall apply to the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the prescribed Performa along with full details and documentation relevant for evaluating its eligibility for grant of permission to downlink TV channels in India. Each application form shall be accompanied by a demand draft of Rs. Ten Thousand towards non-refundable processing fee.
    8.2 The applicant company shall also submit full details of each channel being/proposed to be downlinked along with all other documents as prescribed in the guidelines.
    8.3 After scrutiny of the application if the applicant company is found eligible, the same will be sent for security clearance to the Ministry of Home Affairs. In the meanwhile, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will evaluate the suitability of the proposed channel for downlinking into India for public viewing.
    8.4 In the event of the applicant company and the proposed channel being found suitable, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will register the channel and the applicant company to enter into a grant of permission agreement with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
    8.5 On receipt of the signed agreement, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will issue a registration certificate for the concerned channels and grant permission to the applicant company to downlink the relevant channels in India for the prescribed period.
    8.6 On receipt of the permission and upon registration of the channel, the applicant company will be entitled to approach the MSOs/Cable head end operators/DTH Operators for receiving/downlinking its channel’s signal, for further transmission/retransmission/ distribution.

  • Ten Sports moves SC against Prasar Bharati over Windies series telecast

    Ten Sports moves SC against Prasar Bharati over Windies series telecast

    NEW DELHI: The government proposes. Ten Sports disposes. And, the courts find themselves in a bind. Most of the time this could be story of cricket telecasts involving India.

    Now that Ten Sports, which has exclusive rights to telecast the upcoming India-West Indies cricket series, has again moved the Supreme Court today seeking to restrain Prasar Bharti from downlinking the live feed of the matches (read sharing with Doordarshan), the government is likely to act tough.

    A Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and LK Panta posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday (9 May) asking Solicitor General GE Vahanvati to seek proper instructions on the issue as the Dubai-based sports channel has declined to provide the link without payment, a report put out by Press Trust of India states.

    The private channel filed an application contending that if the matches of the Test and one-day international series were simulcast on Doordarshan, it will suffer a huge loss.

    The petitioner said it has already sold the distribution right to Set Discovery Pvt Ltd, which will have the right to license throughout the country.

    Interestingly, Ten Sports has taken refuge behind an earlier SC judgment, saying if interim relief was not granted to it this time round, a judgment the court delivered before the recent Indo-Pak series would become infructuous.

    Taj Television Ltd, owner of Ten Sports, had filed the petition seeking stay of the government guidelines making it mandatory for the sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.

    The court had allowed the live telecast of Indo-Pak ODIs on DD after an agreement was reached between Ten Sports and Prasar Bharati that latter would deposit in court a sum of Rs 150 million and carry the “dirty” Ten signals in toto without booking any advertisement of its own.

    During a brief hearing today, according to PTI, the Bench observed that last time it was a series with Pakistan and “matches of Indo-Pak series are different from the others.” It added, “For West Indies, many people may not be interested.”

    Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma refused to comment on the matter saying it was sub judice.

    However, government sources indicated that the I&B ministry is unlikely to bend down easily this time round.

    A source familiar with the developments said, “The government’s plea before the court would be to uphold the downlink guidelines, which are in the process of being implemented.”

    The downlink guidelines state that events of national importance, including cricket, will have to be shared with the pubcaster on a mandatory basis. The ministry has come out with the listed events also, which has been upon after consulting industry stakeholders.

    In an earlier petition in a Mumbai court, Ten Sports has challenged the validity and legality of the downlinking guidelines terming it as arbitrary without the authority of law.

    The sports channel had challenged the Bombay High Court order of 21 December 2005 refusing it any relief. Later the matter pending before the High Court was transferred to the apex court.

  • Creative Eye forays into sports marketing, celebrity management

    Creative Eye forays into sports marketing, celebrity management

    MUMBAI: Production house Creative Eye Ltd has made a foray into sports marketing and celebrity management. The company has begun the innings by marketing the telecast rights of the on going EurAsia Cup Cricket Series. It is planning to include tennis also under the purview.

    “Creative Eye’s aim is to function as an event promoter and rights holder of sports properties. We will be negotiating with private broadcasters as well as Doordarshan. We have started with the EurAsia cricket series and propose to hold the series every year, thus establishing our mark in the field of sports. Another segment we are very serious about is tennis,” states Creative Eye director Dheeraj Kumar.

    In an official communiqué, Creative Eye said its foray into sports had opened new avenues for the company in terms of revenue generations and also added new horizons for the company’s overall growth. “We are targeting revenue of $3 million out of the first EurAsia Cup series,” says Kumar.

    The first edition of the EurAsia Cup Cricket Series is currently underway in Abu Dhabi. As already reported, Sahara One Media & Entertainment Ltd. acquired the satellite rights of the series from Creative Eye. Now the production house has brought Prasar Bharati also on board to telecast the series from 29 April, when the second leg of the series begins. The matches will be aired live on DD Sports from 4 pm onwards, apart from the satellite telecast on Sahara One’s Hindi movie channel Filmy.

    Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust , in association with the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council has conceptualised the EurAsia Cup Cricket Series, which features India A, Pakistan A, Sri Lanka A, Holland, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust’s sports wing V K Sports then signed Creative Eye to market the telecast rights of the event.

    “Regarding EurAsia, our responsibility is to market the telecast rights and also ensure that the logistics are in place. This is a cash-less deal. Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust’s interest in the initiative is to promote the young cricketing talents in this country,” explains Kumar.

    Creative Eye is planning to market two more sports events this year, including a tennis tournament. Celebrity management is another area the company is planning a foray into. “We have already initiated with prominent sportspersons of the country, including various new talents in cricket. We will be divulging the names as soon as the deals are through,” says Kumar.

  • Creative Eye forays into sports marketing, celebrity management

    Creative Eye forays into sports marketing, celebrity management

    MUMBAI: Production house Creative Eye Ltd has made a foray into sports marketing and celebrity management. The company has begun the innings by marketing the telecast rights of the on going EurAsia Cup Cricket Series. It is planning to include tennis also under the purview.

    “Creative Eye’s aim is to function as an event promoter and rights holder of sports properties. We will be negotiating with private broadcasters as well as Doordarshan. We have started with the EurAsia cricket series and propose to hold the series every year, thus establishing our mark in the field of sports. Another segment we are very serious about is tennis,” states Creative Eye director Dheeraj Kumar.

    In an official communiqué, Creative Eye said its foray into sports had opened new avenues for the company in terms of revenue generations and also added new horizons for the company’s overall growth. “We are targeting revenue of $3 million out of the first EurAsia Cup series,” says Kumar.

    The first edition of the EurAsia Cup Cricket Series is currently underway in Abu Dhabi. As already reported, Sahara One Media & Entertainment Ltd. acquired the satellite rights of the series from Creative Eye. Now the production house has brought Prasar Bharati also on board to telecast the series from 29 April, when the second leg of the series begins. The matches will be aired live on DD Sports from 4 pm onwards, apart from the satellite telecast on Sahara One’s Hindi movie channel Filmy.

    Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust , in association with the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council has conceptualised the EurAsia Cup Cricket Series, which features India A, Pakistan A, Sri Lanka A, Holland, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust’s sports wing V K Sports then signed Creative Eye to market the telecast rights of the event.

    “Regarding EurAsia, our responsibility is to market the telecast rights and also ensure that the logistics are in place. This is a cash-less deal. Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust’s interest in the initiative is to promote the young cricketing talents in this country,” explains Kumar.

    Creative Eye is planning to market two more sports events this year, including a tennis tournament. Celebrity management is another area the company is planning a foray into. “We have already initiated with prominent sportspersons of the country, including various new talents in cricket. We will be divulging the names as soon as the deals are through,” says Kumar.

  • Private broadcasters resist fee proposal for DD Direct+

    Private broadcasters resist fee proposal for DD Direct+

    NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati’s bid to demand carriage fee from broadcasters to be on its DTH platform, DD Direct+, has met with initial resistance from private sector players.

    This was amply clear in a meeting that was held today at the Prasar Bharati headquarters here to discuss the fee issue with private broadcasters who are already present on DD Direct+.

    The private sector channels, which have been on DD Direct+ for over a year now, feel that the demand for a carriage fee on the pubcaster’s DTH platform is “unjustified.”

    According to a representative of a private broadcaster, “We had assisted Prasar Bharati to launch its DTH service keeping national interest in mind. Now that the service is doing well, this sudden demand is unjustified.”

    Early April, Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma, while making a presentation before the media during the announcement of its annual financial result, had said there is a proposal to charge private channels on DD Direct+ an annual fee of Rs. 10 million from May when the total number of channels would be increased to 51.

    The private broadcasters on DD Direct+ are understood to have argued today at the meeting that as a gesture of goodwill towards them and their contribution in the success of the DTH Platform, they should not be charged any fee.

    “If at all Prasar Bharati wishes to charge a carriage fee, it should do so from newcomers who join the platform now,” a general entertainment channel representative said.

    Prasar Bharati is India’s public service broadcaster and manages Doordarshan and All India Radio. The DTH service, which has over 900,000 subscribers as per claims made, doesn’t charge the consumer any monthly subscription fee. The hardware comes at a cost of approximately Rs. 4,000.

    Publicly funded Prasar Bharati has said there’s a long queue of Indian and foreign broadcasters waiting to hop on to DD Direct+ in an efforts to establish their presence in a market where all TV homes number over 90 million. Of this, 61 million are C&S homes.

    The proposal to levy a fee to ride the DD Direct+ bandwagon is also an effort of the pubcaster to increase its annual income, which falls much short of its total yearly expenditure. For the year 2005-06, ended 31 March, the pubcaster’s revenues stood Rs. 12.38 billion, up a whopping 67 per cent from the Rs 8.31 billion it earned previous year.

    Of this, national broadcaster Doordarshan accounted for Rs 9.6 billion riding heavily on cricket and Hindi movies. Most significant was the growth on the radio side though, with All India Radio registering a 59.6 per cent jump in revenues at Rs 2.7 billion.

  • In the brave new digital world, content could really be king

    In the brave new digital world, content could really be king

    “If content is King and distribution is God, then God save the King!” That was Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma speaking at a recent industry seminar.

    In these times of increasing channel influx onto already overloaded analogue cable systems, the distribution God is certainly making the content king do the merry carriage dance. Reminds one of the ever-worsening infrastructural mess that is Mumbai actually, where people are paying more and more for less and worse but with a big difference. Mumbai’s is a story that is looking more hopeless by the day, while in this case there is much optimism about the future.

    True, for the short to medium term, it will be the distribution God in whose hands will lie the fate of the content King. But once the dust has settled on all of this and the new platforms like digital cable, DTH, IPTV and mobile TV have reached critical mass, then it will be content that will hold sway, and how.

    True, for the short to medium term, it will be the distribution God in whose hands will lie the fate of the content King
    _____****_____

    Disney’s ABC network is already pointing one of the ways forward with its new online service of free programming. As part of a two-month-long experiment, Disney-ABC Television Group will be offering ad-supported, full-length episodes of four ABC primetime series online at www.abc.go.com.

    What’s the logic working here? Is ABC getting Get ‘Desperate’ and ‘Lost’ as regards its online strategy. Not at all. It all makes sense if we keep in mind that if there is one place where the dominant culture is to access content for free, it is the Web.

    So if ABC is trying to transpose the “traditional advertising driven network model” onto the Web there is already an inbuilt advantage over television. It is that while the whole TiVo, time-shifting, DVR mentality is now carrying over to the Web, the consumer cannot zap out the ads. And since many of the ads will be interactive, advertisers will be guaranteed even greater value.

    The content creators that stay ahead of the curve and the distribution platform providers most alive to the challenges and opportunities that the digital world offers will be the ones who will reap the benefits
    _____****_____

    Closer to home, companies like Reliance and Airtel expect to start IPTV services by the end of this year. And for a basic package they are promising rates as cheap as your current cable TV charges. No one is trying to say there won’t be teething problems (and knowing the ground realities here, these would probably be pretty severe). In India the biggest problem is going to be unbundling of the so called last mile, which basically means that incumbent operators like BSNL or MTNL should allow other operators to use their copper wires.

    With the imminent arrival of Tata-Sky DTH, Zee’s Dish TV ramping up and the big telecom players aggressively pushing ahead with IPTV and mobile TV, the value of quality content can only go up. We see some sort of shakeout — both on the content as well as the technology side by 2008.

    In the meanwhile, the content creators that stay ahead of the curve and the distribution platform providers most alive to the challenges and opportunities that the digital world offers will be the ones who will reap the benefits.

    There could well be a lesson in this for the cable fraternity too. Market forces could soon make the whole CAS debate irrelevant and the MSOs may well end up “missing the addressability bus”.

    Maybe MSOs should instead be focussing their efforts on attractively packaging and marketing CAS to their direct points to begin with and concurrently convincing their franchisees of the need to get CAS going, government or no government.

    The cable fraternity has a huge first mover advantage vis-?-vis pushing addressability because they own the last mile. Maybe they should as aggressively be chasing market-driven addressability as they are the mandating of CAS. A twin strategy would better cover their bases one would think.

    As for the content game, to quote John Hendricks, chairman of Discovery Communications Inc, from a recent report: “Newly empowered TV consumers will drive networks to improve their offerings, putting a ‘great squeeze’ on ‘marginal quality content’. They’re in control now.”

    Not in India, they’re not. But they will be. Of that nobody need have any doubt.

  • ESS to share with DD semis, final of soccer World Cup

    ESS to share with DD semis, final of soccer World Cup

    NEW DELHI: ESPN Star Sports has reached an in-principal agreement with the government to make available the semi-final and final matches of FIFA World Cup soccer to Indian pubcaster Doordarshan.

    Confirming the development, ESPN India MD RC Venkateish said as an icing on the cake and a goodwill gesture, DD may end up with having the opening ceremony of the soccer feast too.

    ESS, which holds the exclusive rights of the soccer World Cup for the India region, will share the feeds of the above mentioned matches with DD on a 75:25 revenue share basis.

    This sort of a pact is on the lines of concessions that private broadcasters, holding exclusive rights for events held outside India, are ready to make involving Grand Slam tennis tournaments and important cricket series.

    Asked whether DD will have to do without the soccer World Cup as the `listed sports’ have not been notified as mandated by the newly-formulated downlink norms, a senior government official gave a non-committal answer.

    “The list of sports of national importance is not yet ready to be notified. So nothing definite can be said on soccer at the moment,” I&B additional secretary P Singh said today on the sidelines of a press conference called by Prasar Bharati, which manages DD and All India Radio.

    The downlink norms state that irrespective of the rights holder, all sporting events of national importance will have to be shared with the national broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, on a mandatory basis. This also includes events taking place outside India.

    However, both Ten Sports and ESS have moved the courts appealing against this norm.

    The month-long soccer World Cup, which begins in June 2006, is a hot property for any broadcaster in the world and despite India never reaching even the qualifying stages of the tournament, the number of soccer fans here is legion.

    Being one of ESS’ biggest properties for the year, the channel has already announced a slew of initiatives that it is hoping will build excitement.

  • DD to demand carriage fee from broadcasters for DTH service

    DD to demand carriage fee from broadcasters for DTH service

    NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has decided that it would demand an annual carriage fee of Rs.10 million from private broadcasters to be on its DTH platform, DD Direct+.

    “We have written to some broadcasters on this and are awaiting their response,” Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma said today during an annual Press meet.
    According to him, after DD Direct+ increases its capacity to 51 television channels from May, a fee would be taken for being aboard the world’s first subscription-free DTH service, which on last count had approximately 1.1 million subscribers.

    Over 40 broadcasters, including some Indian and foreign religious channels, German pubcaster DeutcheWelle and the proposed AlJazeera International English news channel, are waiting in the queue to hop on to DD Direct+ seeing its obvious advantages.

    “We don’t anticipate any problems regarding drop-outs from the present lot as many channels are waiting with the requisite fee in hand for our nod,” Sarma said, adding some entertainment channels, including South Indian ones, too have evinced interest.
    However, charging a monthly subscription from the subscribers has been ruled out. “We want to remain free for some more time,” Sarma explained.

    To subscribe to DD Direct+ DTH service, a consumer has to buy the hardware for approximately Rs. 3,000, which can be considered as one time investment. No monthly subscription is charged from subscribers.

    Apart from DD Direct+, the other DTH player in the country is Subhash Chandra-controlled Dish TV. A Rupert Murdoch and Tata joint venture is proposing to launch Tata Sky DTH service later this year in market that might yield 15 per cent to DTH services over the next two-three years.

    Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati informed that a low-cost DTH set-top box has been launched in the market for radio channels.

    “We are quite excited by this and would strengthen our services to take advantage of this low-cost receiver,” All India Radio DG Brijeshwar Singh said.