ITV

Tag: Sharmista Rijhwani

  • Ten Sports geared up for Champions Trophy hockey

    Ten Sports geared up for Champions Trophy hockey

    MUMBAI: While cricket is certainly the number one sport in the country sports broadcasters are also looking at hockey in a big way to shore up viewership.

    Ten Sports will air the hockey Champions Trophy from today, 4 December. The event will be held in Pakistan. As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com the tournament received a boost when India took Australia’s place in the draw. The Aussies withdrew on account of security concens.

    The six top-ranked teams are competing in a round-robin format. India had finished fourth in last year’s Champions Trophy. India’s best performance at this tournament has been the third place in the fourth edition at Amstelveen, Netherlands.

    The daily eight hour coverage on the Abdul Rehman Bukhatir owned broadcaster will comprise a studio show hosted by Mike Haysman, and will feature two past superstars of Indian hockey – Merwyn Fernandes and Ashish Ballal as guests.

    They will provide expert analysis, predictions, reviews of the game. For live match commentary, Ten has roped in two hockey experts – Rick Charlesworth and David Christison. The channel will also be running a series of player profiles during the tournament that will build up the hockey players as characters by using some facet of their playing skill eg. Adrian DSouza (Super Saver), Tushar Khandekar (The Match Winner) and Vikram Pillay (Playmaker).

    Taj Television India MD Sharmista Rijhwani said, “We have always believed that hockey evoked great interest and held potential in the country among other high profile sports like cricket and soccer. Thats the reason Ten Sports has always promoted the game starting with the telecast of the Champions Trophy in September02, and has continued its commitment ever since. The game has been on the rise and the viewership ratings of hockey events on Ten Sports have mirrored the ever-rising popularity of hockey.

  • IBF says no to TRAI legal challenge; sets up subcommittee

    IBF says no to TRAI legal challenge; sets up subcommittee

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) has dropped the idea of going head to head and legally challenging the newly appointed broadcasting regulator the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on its directive freezing cable TV rates. Instead it has decided to take a softer line – that of approaching it to “explain the ground realities of the industry.”

    A senior member of the IBF confirmed to indiantelevision.com today that a member had floated the idea of legally challenging the TRAI. But after reading the finer print of the TRAI Act, the path of confrontation was abandoned.

    “Instead of going the legal way, we, as an industry, should work with the regulator and if there is some confusion, then we should seek clarifications in a civil manner,” the IBF member stressed.

    Towards this end, the IBF, at its board meeting today, decided to form a sub-committee to go into the issues raised by TRAI in its consultation paper and has also sought time from the regulator.

    The sub-committee would be headed by Zee Telefilms vice-chairman Jawahar Goel and includes ESPN India head R C Venkateish, Ten Sports India MD Sharmista Rijhwani and Sahara TV president Mahesh Prasad.

    According to a draft of a letter that is to be sent to TRAI, the IBF secretary-general has said that the Foundation “should be given a fair chance to present our views and explain the ground realities of the industry.”

    Referring to the 15 January, 2004, TRAI notification announcing a ceiling on charges payable by subscribers, MSOs and cable operators, the IBF has contended, “This order was issued without consultation with the broadcasting industry and, hence, this order has created utter confusion in the industry. Further, TRAI’s notification included non-CAS areas which were free of these problems so far.”

    IBF sources said members did bring up valid points that point towards confusion. For example, would the TRAI order on price freeze mean that a free to air channel cannot convert into a pay service? Till the time, TRAI comes out with a final view on various issues, would the order also mean that no new pay channel can be launched?

    Sometime back, the government, through a notification, had mandated TRAI as the regulator for the broadcast and cable services. It could do this on account of an amendment that had been carried out in the TRAI Act last year. Subsequently earlier this month, TRAI came out with an order freezing the cable TV rates as on 26 December and issued a consultation paper.