ITV

Tag: Rajyavardhan Rathore

  • No plans for new DD transmitters except some in border areas: Rathore

    No plans for new DD transmitters except some in border areas: Rathore

    NEW DELHI: The Government has no plans for new Doordarshan transmitters for expansion of terrestrial coverage except a few in border areas, the Parliament was told by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore.

     

    Doordarshan has 67 kendras (studio centres) and 1,416 transmitters in the country and therefore there is no need for expansion in view of multi channel coverage having been provided to all the areas uncovered by terrestrial transmission (including those located in rural/ remote/ backward/tribal regions) along with rest of the country through DD’s free-to-air DTH service Freedish.

     

    Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of seven studios, followed by Jammu and Kashmir with four. Although other states have a maximum of two studios, each one of them widens its reach through high power transmitters, lower low power transmitters; very low power transmitters and transposers.

     

    Rathore also told the Parliament that all areas uncovered by terrestrial transmission along with the rest of the country have been provided with multi channel TV coverage through Freedish. DTH signals can be received anywhere in the country with the help of small sized dish receive units and require only a one-time payment for purchasing the units.

     

    The four new TV transmitter projects in Jammu and Kashmir presently under implementation are High Power Transmitters (HPTs), Rajouri (DD1 & DD News); HPT, Green Ridge; HPT, Himbotingla; and HPT Natha Top (Patnitop). The Timeline for transmitters at Rajouri is 2016 and for other locations is 2017.

  • MHA holds up 56 TV channels’ applications for lack of security clearance

    MHA holds up 56 TV channels’ applications for lack of security clearance

    NEW DELHI: The Parliament has been informed that eight permission holder companies have been refused to set up television channels because the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declined security clearances to them.

     

    These include Mahuaa Media (earlier known as Pearls Media), which has applied for five channels; Sai Prakash Telecommunication for one channel; Positive Television, which applied for six channels and two teleports; Maa TV Network for four channels; STV Enterprises Ltd for four channels and one teleport; Indira Television for one channel and one teleport; and Lemon Entertainment for two channels.

     

    In addition, the case of Sun TV Network for 33 channels and two teleports is held up as the matter is sub judice. The company also owns FM radio channels.

     

    Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore told the Parliament that four of these have been served show-cause notices and the matter is under process.

     

    The Ministry will decide on these cases on the basis of their reply in consultation with Home Ministry. 

     

    Permission and renewal of permission of satellite TV channels whose security clearance is denied by MHA are not granted. Such permission holder companies are issued Show Cause Notice (SCN) on the basis of legal advice obtained recently that gives them an opportunity to make their representation.

     

    After consideration of the same, their permission is cancelled with the approval of competent authority on merits.

  • Inflation, 6th Pay Commission taking toll on Prasar Bharati: Rathore

    Inflation, 6th Pay Commission taking toll on Prasar Bharati: Rathore

    NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati earned Rs 604 crore in revenue as against expenditure of Rs 1187.44 crore up to October this year for the financial year 2015-16.

     

    Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore told the Parliament today that the revenue in 2014-15 was Rs 1124.43 crore as against expenditure of Rs 2132.98 crore, in 2013-14 it was Rs 1295.96 crore against expenditure of Rs 1945.84 crore and revenue in 2012-13 was Rs 1298.16 crore as against expenditure of Rs 1883.19 crore.

     

    The Minister added that Prasar Bharati had said that with inflation and rising costs of TV channels, Doordarshan has also experienced gradual increase in operational costs. In addition, the implementation of various recommendations of 6th Central Pay Commission has led to increase in administrative and staff related expenses.

     

    Since Prasar Bharati is a public service broadcaster, its functioning cannot be guided purely by commercial motives.

     

    However, the Minister said Prasar Bharati is adopting an aggressive marketing strategy to increase the revenue receipts besides putting into best use its spare infrastructure available with the field formations across the country.

     

    The Ministry provides financial support to Prasar Bharati under Plan and Non Plan heads, in the form of grants-in-aid. In the current financial year (2015-16), an amount of Rs 605.03 crore has been allocated to Prasar Bharati under Plan Head and Rs 2342.12 crore has been allocated under Non-Plan.

     

    The Ministry has also allocated (through its Office Memorandum dated 27 August, 2015) a sum of Rs 11,116.79 crore [Rs 11,116.76 crore under Revenue Section and Rs 0.02 crore as Token Supplementary and Rs 0.01 crore as Token Supplementary under Capital Section as first batch of supplementary grant 2015-16] to Prasar Bharati subsequent to the approval of Ministry of Finance for the following:

     

    (i) Conversion of a sum of Rs 5684.34 crore towards Loan-in-Perpetuity and Capital Loan into Grants-in-Aid for the period 1 April, 2000 to 31 March, 2010.

     

    (ii) Waiver of an amount of Rs 4082.88 crore towards interest on Loan-in-Perpetuity, interest on Capital Loan and Penal Interests for the period 1 April, 2000 to 31 March, 2010.

     

    (iii) Waiver of a sum of Rs 1349.54 crore towards accumulated arrears of Space Segment and Spectrum Charges accrued to Prasar Bharati up to 31 March, 2011.

  • Govt. earmarks Rs 13 crore for DAS Phase III & IV completion

    Govt. earmarks Rs 13 crore for DAS Phase III & IV completion

    NEW DELHI: The government has earmarked a sum of Rs 13.02 crore for completion of Phase III and IV of Digital Addressable System (DAS) for cable television.

     

    Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore informed the Parliament that the scheme ‘Mission Digitization’ had been drawn up and a sum of Rs 1 crore out of the total Plan allocation had been earmarked for the MIS Software.

     

    A multi-lingual and multi-desk toll free call centre was established under the Mission Digitisation Project to address peoples’ queries regarding ongoing cable TV digitization in the country.

     

    Answering a question about committees set up by the Ministry for overseeing DAS, he said a Task Force had been set up to steer the digitization of cable TV network in the country in the remaining Phase III & IV. All the stakeholders, State level nodal officers of all States/UTs, Departments of Electronics and Information and Technology, Telecommunications and others including one consumer forum from each region have been made members of the body.

     

    Referring to other committees relating to television, the Minister said an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) had been constituted to take cognisance suo moto or to look into specific complaints regarding content on private TV channels on any platform including direct to home (DTH) & FM Radio with regard to violation of the Programme and Advertising Code as defined in Rule 6 & 7 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 for TV channels & applicable Content Code for Radio. 

     

    Members include the I&B, Home Affairs, Law & Justice, Women & Child Development, Health & Family Welfare, Extemal Affairs, Defence, Consumer Affairs, and Food and Public Distribution Ministries apart from a representative of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

     

    On a question about use of modern technology, Rathore said his Ministry and the Media Units under the administrative control of the Ministry have been consistently making efforts to use the state-of-art technology to increase their efficiency.

     

    In a bid to modernise the Press Information Bureau (PIB), officers are being equipped with laptops and smart phones to enable them to effectively use Information Technology to disseminate information.

     

    Rathore added that mobile applications like WhatsApp have been utilised by the Department of Field Publicity during ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padao’ campaign in Rajasthan during March 2015 and other Special Outreach Programmes. 

     

    The Minister added that MIB and most of the Media Units under its control had presence on various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Google+, YouTube and Instagram. These platforms were being used to disseminate information due to easy accessibility and their wider reach.

     

    The Ministry’s Twitter account had 425,000 followers, its Facebook account has more than 1.1 million likes, YouTube has 4,049,641 views, the blog page has 1.9 million page views and Instagram has 1040 followers.

     

    The PIB website is being revamped and new technologies such as live streaming, smart phones, hi-speed broadband etc. are being used for this purpose.

     

    Video conferencing facilities are also being installed to carry out the live streaming of press conferences by important news makers.

  • FTII students expected to meet MIB MoS Rajyavardhan Rathore

    FTII students expected to meet MIB MoS Rajyavardhan Rathore

    NEW DELHI: A meeting of the student leaders of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) with Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Rajyavardhan Rathore will be convened in the near future, according to information given to students today.

     

    The meeting is likely to be in Delhi, though no date has been fixed. Further discussions would depend on the outcome of this meeting, I&B sources told Indiantelevision.com.

     

    I&B secretary Sunil Arora, in a brief second round of discussions with the students in Mumbai took their opinion on proposals to make FTII an institution of excellence.

     

    The Ministry was represented by Joint Secretary (Films) Sanjay Murthy, Films Division director general Mukesh Sharma, FTII director Prashant Pathrabe and FTII eegistrar U C Bodke. The Students’ Association was represented by seven members and Aruna Raje Patil of GRAFTII.

     

    In the earlier round of negotiations with the FTII student leaders on 7 October, the Mukesh Sharma Committee had been set up to look into the issues of operational flexibility and procurement of equipment for FTII.  

  • MIB to examine FTII demand for greater financial powers

    MIB to examine FTII demand for greater financial powers

    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has agreed to examine a demand for an enhanced delegation of financial powers and flexibility in purchase of hardware etc to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in order to enable the students to do their creative work.

     

    Films Division director general Mukesh Sharma has been asked to study the demand and give his report within a fortnight.

     

    Following the end of the strike by FTII students after an assurance of meeting the MIB officials, a meeting was held in Mumbai today between representatives of FTII Students Association and the Ministry team headed by MIB secretary Sunil Arora.

     

    The students, under the coordination of Aruna Raje, who represented GRAFTII – a body of alumni of the institute – will submit a blue print within a fortnight for turning FTII into an institute of national excellence at par with reputed institutions across the world.

     

    The Ministry has already announced its intentions in this regard, but the students were told that their views would form a major input for taking this matter forward. 

     

    A second round of talks will be held with the Ministry delegation on 10 October in Mumbai. A request would also be made to MIB Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore to meet the students in Delhi in the near future.

     

    Apart from the Secretary, the Ministry was represented by Joint Secretary (Films) K Sanjay Murthy; Films Division director general Mukesh Sharma; FTII director Prashant Pathrabe and FTII registrar U C Bodke.

     

    The FTII Students’ Association was represented by Harishankar Nachimuthu, Ajayan Adat, Vikas Urs, Reema Kaur, Malayaj Awasthi, Ranjeet Nair and Shini J K.

  • Northeast Film Festival in Delhi to become annual feature: Rajyavardhan Rathore

    Northeast Film Festival in Delhi to become annual feature: Rajyavardhan Rathore

    NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said the Government intended to make the North East Film Festival a ‘People’s Movement,’ which would become better with each passing year.  

     

    The Government remained committed to promoting and facilitating popular cinema of the North East so that long lasting brand equity to the films of the region could be established through such events and film festivals. Such events also acted as a catalyst to strengthen the talent across platforms from the region. 

     

    He was speaking at a three day festival “Fragrances of the North-eastern films” organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals. The festival provides a platform to cine lovers to view films from the North East. The festival is being held at the Siri Fort Auditorium Complex from 21 to 23 August and will close with Aisa Yeh Jahaan.

     

    The Minister said films from the North East always attracted attention at International Film Festivals and in academic circles for their canvas of human emotions and reflections of society. The increase in representation of cinema at such events was definitely a healthy sign of growing culture of cinema in the region. It also reiterated the willingness of creative artists to venture in the medium of cinema. 

     

    He added that creative talent from the region had been regularly winning national and international awards, and travelling to prestigious international festivals over the decades.

     

    The Minister specifically mentioned that the Ministry had undertaken special measures to promote the flow of quality information in the region through the Prasar Bharati network. 

     

    The current FM Phase III auction had earmarked 15 channels for bidding, which would enable the growth of radio in the region in the private FM domain. 

     

    The Minister highlighted the measures being taken to promote quality education in the field of journalism through the Indian Institute of Mass Communication currently at Aizawal. He also mentioned that efforts were being made to fast track the process of establishing the Film making institute at Arunachal Pradesh.  This initiative was part of the overall vision to promote and strengthen youth talent from the North-Eastern Region. 

     

    Minister for State for Youth Affairs & Sports Sarbananda Sonowal said such festivals showcased the youth talent of the region and reiterated the cinematic legacy of the region. I&B Secretary Bimal Julka said the initiative was part of the vision to promote cinema as medium of creative expression especially from the North East Region.

     

    The inaugural ceremony was followed by the premiere screening of Manipuri feature film Pallepfam directed and produced by Wanglen Khundongban in his debut. 

     

    The screening was preceded by three cultural shows that had the Hojagiri Dance troupe from Tripura, Dhol Pung Cholam Dance troupe from Manipur and The Girish and Chronicles, a Hard Rock Band from Sikkim. 

     

    In order to provide a complete flavour of the region to the visitors, film screenings will be supplemented by cultural programmes, exhibitions of handicrafts and books, food stalls and much more during the festival.

     

    The festival also includes a retrospective of maestro Aribam Syam Sharma from Manipur. Six films including two feature films Ishanou and Imagi Ningthem and four non feature films titled Orchids of Manipur, The Deer on The Lake, Indigenous Games of Manipur and Yelhou Jagoi will be screened in the retrospective. 

     

    Apart from the retrospective the film Ko:Yad by Assamese filmmaker Manju Borah will be showcased. While Tribeny Rai’s filmsYathawat and Last Rites from Sikkim will be presented, Maithya directed by Joseph Pulinthanath and Crossing Bridges by Sanga Dorjee Thongdok will give a glimpse of Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

     

    A bouquet of short films from Meghalaya Karyukai and Rong Kuchak directed by Domnic Sangma and from Nagaland  a documentary titledThe Honey Hunter And The Maker’directed by Tiainla Jamir  and Story of a House directed by Sesino Yhoshu and Sophy Lasuh will also be presented.

     

  • 35 million DTH subscribers inactive, 7 private channels not operational till March 2015: TRAI

    35 million DTH subscribers inactive, 7 private channels not operational till March 2015: TRAI

    NEW DELHI: Almost 34.90 million subscribers of direct-to-home (DTH) operators in India were inactive as against the total registered subscriber base of 76.05 million until the quarter ending March this year.

     

    Citing the number of subscribers across platforms such as DTH, television, multi-system operators (MSOs), internet, broadband, radio etc, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its latest quarterly report revealed the following:

     

    DTH

     

    The number of active subscribers of the six private DTH operators namely Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon d2h, Airtel Digital, Sun TV and Reliance Digital TV stands at 41.15 million.

     

    TELEVISION CHANNELS

     

    Seven television channels are still not active, if one goes by TRAI’s quarterly report, according to which the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry had said that it had cleared 829 private television channels by 31 March, 2015. It may be recalled that Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore had yesterday told the Parliament that a total of 822 channels had been cleared.

     

    Of these channels, there were a total of 245 pay channels as reported by the broadcasters as on 31 January, 2015.

     

    However, six new pay channels namely &TV, &TV HD, Star Sports HD 3, Star Sports HD 4, Asianet Movie and Suvarna Plus – were launched, which took the number of pay channels up to 251 by the end of March.

     

    In areas served by non-addressable systems, the maximum number of TV channels carried in digital form as reported by multi-system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable & Datacom amongst those who have reported, is 393. On the other hand, the maximum number of TV channels carried in analog form, as reported by Ortel Communications amongst those who have reported is 100.

     

    MSOs

     

    There are a total of 155 MSOs, who have been granted Permanent Registration (for 10 years) by the I&B Ministry for providing Cable TV services through Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) by March.

     

    RADIO

     

    Apart from the radio stations operated by All India Radio, there were 243 operational private FM Radio stations as on 31 March, 2015. Meanwhile, as against the 208 community radio licenses issued, a total of 180 community radio stations were operational by March this year.

     

    INTERNET & BROADBAND

     

    The total number of Internet subscribers increased from 267.39 million at the end of December last year to 302.35 million at the end of March, 2015, registering a quarterly growth rate of 13.08 per cent.

     

    Out of 302.35 million, Wired Internet subscribers stood at 19.07 million, whereas there were 283.29 million Wireless Internet subscribers.

     

    The number of Broadband Internet subscribers increased from 85.74 million at the end of December 2014 to 99.20 million at the end of March 2015, showing quarterly growth rate of 15.71 per cent.

     

    NARROWBAND

     

    The number of Narrowband Internet subscribers increased from 181.65 million at the end of December last year to 203.15 million at the end of March this year, with quarterly growth rate of 11.83 per cent.

  • Home Ministry plans to scrap security clearance norms for MSOs

    Home Ministry plans to scrap security clearance norms for MSOs

    NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry has recently streamlined and relaxed national security clearance norms for certain sensitive sectors including the media sector, the Lok Sabha was told today.

     

    The Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said the new policy guidelines include doing away with national security clearance for multi system operators (MSOs) in the media sector.

     

    The guidelines are aimed at bringing about a healthy balance between meeting the imperatives of national security and facilitating the ease of doing business and promoting investment in the country.

     

    It may be recalled that while several MSOs had been waiting endlessly for security clearances to ensure they get licences for digital addressable system (DAS) from the Government, the Home Ministry had, earlier this year, indicated requirement of fresh security clearance before renewal of permission can be considered.

     

    Then in June, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had asked MSO applicants to file their applications in an affidavit, wherein they would give assurance that they have no criminal cases pending against them, and that they would shut down if they were refused security clearance. However, it now seems that these steps would be done away with completely with the Home Ministry changing its stance on security clearance for MSOs.

     

    Meanwhile in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said security clearance is a pre-requisite for grant of permission to TV channels.

     

    Hence, the Ministry has not permitted any private satellite TV channel without security clearance by the Home Ministry. In cases where security clearance is denied or withdrawn, action is taken towards cancellation of permission under the Guidelines.

  • No contracts with any celebrity to endorse DD Kisan: Rathore

    No contracts with any celebrity to endorse DD Kisan: Rathore

    NEW DELHI: In the wake of news doing the rounds pertaining to Amitabh Bachchan’s endorsement fees for Doordarshan’s Kisan Channel, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore has said that the channel has not entered into any contract with any artist for celebrity endorsement.

     

    The clarification came from Rathore in reply to a question during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha today.

     

    It may be recalled that last month, Bachchan had issued a statement denying media reports, which claimed that the actor had charged Rs 6.31 crore for endorsing DD Kisan.

     

    Later, the ad agency Lowe Lintas that represents the channel said that it had learnt only on 20 July of the 72-year old actor’s decision to work pro-bono or free of cost for it.

     

    A Lowe Lintas spokesman said, “We received formal communication from his office this afternoon, that upon reviewing the work-in-progress contract with his team, Bachchan has taken a decision on principle that he will not charge any fee on issues involving social causes and those that are in the best interest of the nation. In light of today’s development, we have initiated the process of refund to our client, DD Kisan, for the amount collected for Bachchan’s celebrity endorsement.”