ITV

Tag: stakeholders

  • TRAI gives more time to stakeholders to comment on its order relating to pricing of STBs

    TRAI gives more time to stakeholders to comment on its order relating to pricing of STBs

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended till 3 May, views of stakeholders on its draft tariff orders prescribing standard tariff package for set top boxes in digital addressable cable TV systems (DAS) and consumer premises equipments (CPE) for direct-to-home (DTH) services.

    The previous date was 26 April and the extension is on the request of the stakeholders.

    Under the order, the standard tariff packages for STB/CPE on rental basis are to be offered mandatorily by DTH and cable TV operators.

    The Tariff Order also assumes significance as it attempts for the first time to give inter-operability to consumers of DTH players. The authority is of the view that the interests of the consumers can be largely protected through the provision for commercial interoperability of STB. The commercial interoperability provides an exit option for a subscriber in case he/she wishes to change the operator for any reason.

    Accordingly, in the relevant Regulations/Tariff orders of TRAI, it has been mandated that the operators of Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems and DTH operators shall give an option to every subscriber to procure the STB either on outright purchase basis or hire purchase basis or rental basis, or in accordance with the scheme, if any, prescribed by the authority.

    While interoperability is available to customers of LCOs, TRAI observed that in case of DTH services, ‘the predominant DAS platforms at the moment, the schemes for CPEs offered to the subscribers by the DTH operators, have wide variations and at times are such that no viable exit option is available to the subscribers. Instead the consumer has to re-invest in new hardware in case of migration from a particular operator or platform. The same may also hold well in case of the upcoming Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems.‘

    Standard Tariff Package for STBs for DAS has been worked out. In addition to offering the STB as per the Standard Tariff Package prescribed by the Authority, the operators are free to offer their own schemes for supply of STB to its subscribers in accordance with the existing Regulations/Tariff Orders and the subscribers shall have option to choose from the Standard Tariff Package prescribed by the Authority and the alternative schemes offered by the operators.

    The Standard Tariff Package for Cable TV operators has been worked out on the basis of the following facts and figures as provided by the Industry stakeholders/ Associations:-

    a) The total cost of STB has been taken as Rs 1750.
    b) Life span of STB has been taken as five years.
    c) The residual value has been taken as nil.
    d) Rental per month is based on cost of STB on Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) Basis @15 per cent per annum (@1.25per cent per month) for a period of sixty months.

    The Standard Tariff Package for DTH operators has been worked out on the basis of the following facts and figures as provided by Industry stakeholders/ Associations;

    a) The total cost of CPE has been taken as Rs 2250.
    b) Life span of CPE has been taken as five years.
    c) The residual value has been taken as nil.
    d) Rental per month is based on cost of CPE on Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) Basis @15 per cent per annum (@1.25 per cent per month) for a period of sixty months.

    The authority has also noted that no monthly rentals will be payable after the period of five years and the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) will become the property of the subscriber (except smart card/viewing card) after the expiry of five years. An amount equal to the sum of security deposit to be refunded per month and interest per month on balance security deposit has been adjusted in Rent per month per CPE. The Full amount of security deposit stands adjusted in a period of five years.

    Up to five years, on returning of the CPE, the Security Deposit shall be refunded, provided that the CPE is not tampered with.

    In case of un-installation/discontinuance of service before the last day of the month, balance security deposit shown as refundable at the end of that month will be refunded on return of CPE.

    No repair or maintenance charges would be levied by DTH operator on the subscriber, towards repair or maintenance of CPE up to the period of five years from activation of the same. The subscriber, however, shall be liable to pay repair and maintenance charges from sixth year onwards.

    No installation charges or re-installation charges (except in case of shifting of connection) or activation charges or smartcard/viewing card charges is to be levied by the DTH operator on the subscriber.

  • BARC to set the tone for single TV measurement system

    BARC to set the tone for single TV measurement system

    Developing a new television audience rating system is a long, arduous and costly process. It has required as a prerequisite that the three major stakeholders – IBF, AAAI and ISA come together under one umbrella (BARC) and agree on a process acceptable to all three parties to ensure this major initiative is accepted by all stakeholders. The industry expects to be well along in implementing this new measurement system by the end of 2013.

    The goal of BARC is to bring about transparency in the measurement system, greater accuracy while maintaining cost efficiencies and more checks and balances by separating responsibilities in the measurement process as well as countering fraud through rigorous ground monitoring. The industry recognises that no sampling technique can be 100 per cent accurate but seeks to reduce the sampling error and overcome to the extent possible the laws of small samples.

    The first step in the process is to create a transparent establishment study from which the universe can be projected that will be owned by BARC and available to all stakeholders. To this end, an RFI has been issued and based on the responses, an RFP will follow. Once a firm is selected, approximate 350,000 to 450,000 households on a nationwide basis will participate in an extensive survey that will take 6 – 8 months to complete.

    The establishment survey will form the base for the required number of measurement homes which are likely to exceed 25,000 nationwide. Once the number is finalised, new RFPs will be issued to select a vendor for the measurement system, and vendors for data collection and analysis and reporting. Breaking apart these tasks amongst different vendors is expected to bring greater accountability and transparency and build the most robust audience measurement system in the world. Ongoing ground monitoring will ensure that the system is not compromised over time.

    Given the expense of setting up the system, the time required and the fact that all stakeholders buy into ‘BARC’, the industry expects the BARC measurement system will become the single measurement system in India. This is typical of worldwide audience measurement where generally a given market has only one accepted measurement currency.

  • Television Audience Measurement: What next?

    Television Audience Measurement: What next?

    Yesterday, BARC took a decisive step forward. Punit Goenka in his role as Chairman, BARC announced the issuance of a Request for Information or RFI from entities worldwide who might be interested in participating in the forthcoming Request for Proposal stage.

    While the television rating system in India has shown great durability and adaptiveness, the pace of growth and change in the television landscape has consistently outstripped it. BARC is premised on finding and adopting best-in-class tools, technologies and processes that will not just close the gap, but create a constantly evolving and, thus, future ready audience measurement infrastructure.

    Here are the challenges that the new system will be expected to meet and overcome.

    1. Comprehensiveness: Television reaches very nearly two-thirds of all households in India. As economic development continues apace and more people have discretionary income, entertainment and information start assuming increasing prominence in their scheme of things. A cable-connected television is, and will remain, the least expensive single-point source of meeting this need, and new consumers waste little time in acquiring it.

    The household is now exposed to content but also to advertising that becomes a potent driver of new demand for a range of previously unknown products and services. Over the last decade, almost 10 million new households have entered the television footprint every year and the number doesn’t appear to be slowing down yet. A comprehensive measurement system must be able to recognise these burgeoning television households and keep them in the sights of broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies.

    2. Accuracy: There has been talk over the years of making broadcasters more accountable for audience deliveries. A number of deals are done on the basis of cost-per-rating-point (CPRP) but broadcasters have, rightly, complained that fair valuation of their inventory would have to be based on cost-per-thousand (CPT) or, as the print media call it, the mille rate. The current system falls some ways short of being able to facilitate the change from CPRP to CPT. Marketeers and broadcasters are looking forward to a system where actual audience deliveries in a defined target audience can be accurately quantified so that accountability for audiences can be fixed and reciprocally paid for.

    3. Adaptiveness: We still talk of single television homes as being the dominant model in India. Apparently, we are oblivious of the emergence of second and third screens that are being used by the younger demographic for consuming what was previously available exclusively on the television in the family room. The emergence of the smartphone and more recently of new devices like tablets (or even more recently, the rather inelegantly named ‘phablets’) has placed new content consumption devices in the hands of millions of young consumers. Content is now available to be consumed not just at a location but while on the move. Just like cellular telephony transformed communication from locational to personal, these screens and a constantly improving wireless broadband infrastructure are transforming television. The imminent arrival of 4G and crashing tablet prices will place highly mobile content consumption devices in millions of hands. The audience measurement system must be able to capture such mobile content consumption and stay adaptive with every future transformation of the television environment.

    4. Auditability: Being owned and managed by BARC, a joint industry body (or JIB in the pro parlance), stakeholders will have audit rights over the system that can ask searching questions about every aspect of the process, thus ensuring its integrity and ethical standards. All the key stakeholders are represented within BARC and this will ensure that the system remains always true, fair and transparent.

    These are not challenges unique to India but are faced universally by every television audience measurement system. Responses to the RFI will unearth a great body of valuable knowledge that the BARC can use to start building a gold standard system in India.

    It is good to finally say this: BARC has BITE.