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Tag: Star Vijay

  • BARC week 37: Dangal retakes top spot in yo-yo struggle across genres

    BARC week 37: Dangal retakes top spot in yo-yo struggle across genres

    BENGALURU: Enterr10 Television network’s Hindi GEC was the most watched channel Across Genres on All Platforms as well on the Free Platform in week 37 of 2019 (Saturday, 7 September 2019 to Friday, 13 September 2019, week or period under review). The channel was ranked first in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of Top 10 channels across genres on all platforms during the period under review as compared to second rank in week 36 of 2019 (previous week). As mentioned by us earlier(https://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/viewership/barc-week-36-dingdong-struggle-for-top-slot-between-dangal-and-sun-tv-190913) Dangal and the Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV have each been vying for the numero uno position in BARC’s across genres on all platforms list over the past few weeks.

    Top 10 channels Across Genres on All Platforms

    The list of channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 37 of 2019 was the same as in week 36, with a small tweak in ranks – the biggest one being Dangal replacing Sun TV at first place as mentioned above. Six Hindi GECs, two Tamil GECs and one channel each from the Hindi movies and Telugu GEC genres comprised BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 37 of 2019. From the network’s perspective, there were three channels from Star India, two channels from Sony Pictures Network (SPN) and one channel each from B4U, Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network, Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) in the weekly list of Top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 37 of 2019. Eight of the channels in the list were Pay TV, while two were Free TV in the week under review.

    Please refer the chart below:

    Top 10 channels Across Genres on the Pay Platform

    There was only one change in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels Across Genres on the Pay Platform in week 37 of 2019 as compared to week 36. The Network18/Viacom18 associated Telugu GEC ETV Telugu exited the list while Zeel’s Kannada GEC Zee Kannada entered it in week 37 of 2019. There were three channels each from Star India and SPN, two channels from Zeel and one channel each from Sun TV Network and Viacom18 in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels Across Genres on the Pay Platform in week 37 of 2019.  Five of the channels were Hindi GEC, there were two Tamil GECs and one channel each from the Hindi movies, Kannada and Telugu genres in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels Across Genres on the Pay Platform in week 37 of 2019. As in week 37, the two most watched Pay channels on the Pay TV platform were not Hindi GECs’ – they were Tamil and Telugu GECs’ ranked one and two respectively. 

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 channels Across Genres on the Free Platform

    All the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 channels on the Free Platform in week 37 of 2019 were the same as in the previous week, with a slight tweaking in ranks. There were three channels each from the Bhojpuri and Hindi movies genres, two channels from Hindi GEC and one channel each from the Marathi and sports genres. There were three channels each from B4U and Enterr 10 Television, two channels from Zeel and one channel each from the Skystar and Star India networks. 

    Please refer the chart below:


     

  • BARC week 36: Dingdong struggle for top slot between Dangal and Sun TV

    BARC week 36: Dingdong struggle for top slot between Dangal and Sun TV

    BENGALURU: Enterr 10 Television’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Dangal and the Sun Tv Network’s flagship pay TV Tamil GEC Sun TV have been interchanging ranks one and two in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms over the past few weeks.

    Sun TV led the list in week 36 of 2019 (week or period under review). The list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 36 of 2019 had the same channels with some tweaks in the ranks as compared to week 35. As in the previous week, there were six Hindi GECs, two Tamil GECs and one channel each from the Hindi movies and Telugu genres in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 36 of 2019.

    From the network perspective, there were three channels from the Star India Network, two channels from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, the Sun TV Network, Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd in BARC’s across genres weekly list on all platforms for week 36 of 2019. There were eight pay TV channels and two FTA channels in the list during the week under review.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    Sun TV also headed BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 36 of 2019. Nine of the channels in the list in week 36 of 2019 were the same as in week 36. Zeel’s flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu exited the list as SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max re-entered it during the week under review. 

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 36 of 2019 had five Hindi GECs, two each of Telugu and Tamil GECs and one Hindi movie channel. There were four channels from Star India, three from SPN, two from Viacom18 and one channel from Zeel. It is interesting to note that the top 2 pay channels in week 36 of 2019 were not Hindi GECs – they were Tamil and Telugu GECs.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 36 of 2019 saw the exit of Zeel’s Music channel Zing and the entry of Star India’s Sports channel Star Sports First. There were three channels each from the Bhojpuri and Hindi movies genres, two channels from Hindi GEC and one channel each from the Marathi and sports genres.  
    There were three channels each from B4U and Enterr 10 Television two channels from Zeel and one channel each from the Skystar and Star India networks. 

    Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • BARC week 35: Not much change in across genres lists

    BARC week 35: Not much change in across genres lists

    BENGALURU: There was no attrition in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 35 of 2019 as compared to the previous week. The ranking was also almost identical in week 35 of 2019 as compared to week 34, except that Sony Pictures Network India’s (SPN) flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) interchanged ranks with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (Zeel) flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV. In BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms for week 35 of 2019 (Saturday, 24 August 2019 to Friday, 30 August 2019), there were six Hindi GECs, two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel each from Hindi movies and Telugu genres. From the network’s perspective there were three channels from Star India, two channels from SPN and one channel each from B4U, Enterr 10 Television, the Sun TV Network, Viacom18 and Zeel. Eight of the channels were from the pay platform and there were two channels from the free-to-air of FTA channels. Please refer to the list below.

    In the case of top 10 pay channels across genres, SPN’s Hindi movie channel Sony Max exited the list in week 35 of 2019 while Zeel’s flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu entered the list. The list comprised of five Hindi GECs, two channels each from the Tamil and the Telugu genres and one Hindi movies channel. Three of the channels were from Star India, two channels each were from SPN, Viacom18 and Zeel and one channel from the Sun TV Network. Please refer to the list below

    BARC’s list of top 10 free to air channels across genres also saw just one change – Enter 10 Television’s Hindi movie channel Enterr 10 exited the list and was replaced by Zeel’s music channel Zing. There were three channels each from the Bhojpuri and Hindi movies genres, two channels from Hindi GEC and one channel each from the Marathi and music genres.  
    There were three channels each from B4U, Enterr 10 Television and Zeel and one channel from Skystar. Please refer to the charts below:


     

  • BARC week 34: Dangal retakes top slot; 2 more Hindi GECs return in across genres

    BARC week 34: Dangal retakes top slot; 2 more Hindi GECs return in across genres

    BENGALURU: Enterr 10 Television’s Hindi GEC Dangal returned to first place in  Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms (across genres list) in week 34 of 2019 (Saturday, 17 August 2019 to Friday, 23 August 2019, week or period under review). Two Hindi GECs – Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) flagship channel Sony Entertainment Television or SET and the Viacom18 flagship channel Colors returned to BARC’s across genres list on all platforms at the cost of two Hindi movies channels in week 34 of 2019.

    Six Hindi GECs, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the Hindi movies and Telugu genres made up BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 34 of 2019. From the Network’s perspective, there were three channels from Star India, two channels from SPN and one channel each from B4U, Enterr10, the Sun TV Network, Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel). Eight of the channels in the list were on the pay platform and two were free to air or FTA.

    In BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on the pay platform, there were five Hindi GECs, three Telugu channels and one channel each from the Hindi movies and Tamil genres. There were three channels each from SPN and Star India, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Zeel in BARC’s across genres list on the pay platform. Besides the eight pay channels that were present in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms, the two more channels present in the across genres weekly list on the pay platform were SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max and the Network18 associated Telugu GEC ETV Telugu. The Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV headed the across genres on the pay platform weekly list.

    In BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on the free platform for week 34 of 2019, there were three channels each from the Bhojpuri, Hindi GEC and Hindi movies genres, and one channel from the Marathi genre. Four of the channels were from Enterr 10 Television, three were from B4U, two were from Zeel and one channel was from Skystar during the period under review. Quite obviously, Dangal headed this list also.

    As mentioned above, Dangal headed BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 34 of 2019 with 860.070 million weekly impressions as compared to second rank and 827.063 million weekly impressions in week 33.

    Sun TV slipped a place to second rank in week 34 of 2019 with 850.711 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2019 as compared to first rank and 902.564 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

    Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus climbed up a place to third place with 837.519 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth place and 751.106 million weekly impressions in week 33.

    Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa dropped a place to fourth rank with 784.095 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 761.055 million weekly impressions in week 33.

    Zee TV jumped two places to fifth rank with 673.096 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2019 as compared to seventh rank and 614.306 million weekly impressions in week 33.

    SET re-entered the list at sixth rank with 661.005 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2019.

    Another SPN pay Hindi GEC Sony SAB climbed down one place to seventh rank in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 34 of 2019 with 641.869 million weekly impressions as compared to sixth rank and 632.959 million weekly impressions.

    B4U’s Hindi movies channel B4U Kadak dropped three places to eighth rank in week 34 of 2019 with 617.522 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth rank and 683.075 million weekly impressions in week 33.

    Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors reentered BARCs’ weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 34 of 2019 with 569.158 million weekly impressions at ninth rank.

    Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC dropped a place to tenth rank in week 34 of 2019 with 522.916 million weekly impressions as compared to ninth rank and 529.953 million weekly impressions in week 33.

  • BARC wk 28: Regional channels continue to hold forte

    BARC wk 28: Regional channels continue to hold forte

    MUMBAI: Sun TV continued to be in the leading position in Tamil (urban + rural) HSM with 779347 weekly impressions (000). The channel was followed by Star Vijay, Zee Tamil, KTV and Star Sports 1 Tamil at second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. 

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Sun TV

    779347

    2

    STAR Vijay

    519030

    3

    Zee Tamil

    370192

    4

    KTV

    266773

    5

    STAR Sports 1 Tamil

    120412

    Tamil Nadu/ Puducherry (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

     

    In the Telugu space Star Maa, ETV Telugu, Zee Telugu, Gemini TV and Gemini Movies were at first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. 

     

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    STAR Maa

    648920

    2

    ETV Telugu

    435883

    3

    Zee Telugu

    398764

    4

    Gemini TV

    361879

    5

    Gemini Movies

    187486

    AP/ Telangana (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    In the Bengali space, Zee Bangla was in the leading position. The channel was followed by Star Jalsha, Jalsha Movies, Zee Bangla Cinema and Sony Aath. 

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Zee Bangla

    301191

    2

    STAR Jalsha

    259397

    3

    Jalsha Movies

    81904

    4

    Zee Bangla Cinema

    58770

    5

    Sony Aath

    58219

    WB (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    Bhojpuri Cinema, Big Ganga, B4U Bhojpuri, Dabangg and Bhojpuri Dhamaka DISHUM were the top 5 channels in the Bhojpuri space.

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Bhojpuri Cinema

    54249

    2

    Big Ganga

    48194

    3

    B4U Bhojpuri

    47088

    4

    Dabangg

    15522

    5

    Bhojpuri Dhamaka DISHUM

    13893

    Bihar/Jharkhand (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals

    Zee Marathi, Fakt Marathi, Colors Marathi, Zee Talkies and Star Pravah were the top 5 channels in the Marathi genre.

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Zee Marathi

    379312

    2

    Fakt Marathi

    244501

    3

    Colors Marathi

    175923

    4

    Zee Talkies

    153550

    5

    STAR Pravah

    97017

    Mah/ Goa (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    In the Malayalam space, Asianet continued to hold its leading position. Flowers TV, Mazhavil Manorama, Asianet Plus and Surya TV were at second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Asianet

    273655

    2

    Flowers TV

    115038

    3

    Mazhavil Manorama

    92616

    4

    Asianet Plus

    57324

    5

    Surya TV

    54740

    Kerala (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    Zee Kannada, Colors Kannada, Udaya TV, Star Survarna and Udaya Movies were the top 5 channels in the Kannada space in week 28 of BARC India Ratings

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Zee Kannada

    397827

    2

    Colors Kannada

    290193

    3

    Udaya TV

    215579

    4

    Star Suvarna

    153160

    5

    Udaya Movies

    149786

    Karnataka (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    PTC Punjabi, Pitaara TV, DD Punjabi, T TV and Manoranjan Movies were the top 5 channels in the Punjabi space

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    PTC Punjabi

    53114

    2

    Pitaara TV

    25435

    3

    DD Punjabi

    18843

    4

    T TV

    17388

    5

    Manoranjan Movies

    17144

    Pun / Cha (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals,

    In Oriya space, Tarang, Zee Sarthak, Alankar, Prarthana, and Tarang Music were the top 5 channels

    Rank

    Channel Name

    Weekly Impressions (000s) sum

     

     

    Week 28

    1

    Tarang

    160987

    2

    Zee Sarthak

    133773

    3

    Alankar

    49124

    4

    Prarthana

    27619

    5

    Tarang Music

    26697

    Odisha (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • No changes in Marathi, Telugu segments in BARC data week 2

    No changes in Marathi, Telugu segments in BARC data week 2

    MUMBAI: In the Bengali market, Jalsha Movies and Aakash Aath interchanged their fourth and fifth positions in BARC data week 2. Bhojpuri Cinema and Big Ganga swapped their first and second position in the Bhojpuri space. Zee Kannada and Colors Kannada swapped their first and second positions in the Kannada cluster. Flowers TV and Mazhavil Manorama interchanged their second and third positions in the Malayalam space.  Star Vijay and Zee Tamil exchanged their fourth and fifth positions in the Tamil space.  No changes were observed in Marathi and Telugu segments.

    Bangla

    Zee Bangla, Star Jalsha and Colors Bangla continued to be in first, second and third positions respectively with 355433 impressions '000s, 297000 impressions '000s and 58134 impressions '000s. Jalsha Movies and Aakash Aath interchanged their fourth and fifth positions with 52016 impressions '000s and 51197 impressions '000s.

    Bhojpuri

    Bhojpuri Cinema and Big Ganga swapped their first and second position respectively with 40421 impressions '000s and 40241 impressions '000s. Bhojpuri Dhamaka Dishum, Housefull Action and Oscar Movies Bhojpuri continued to be in third, fourth and fifth positions respectively with 13976 impressions '000s, 5922 impressions '000s and 2909 impressions '000s.  

    Kannada

    Colors Kannada and Zee Kannada swapped their first and second positions respectively with 429314 impressions '000s and 420073 impressions '000s. Udaya TV and Udaya Movies retained their third and fourth positions respectively with 205229 impressions '000s and 183934 impressions '000s. Colors Super emerged as the new player with 147808 impressions '000s.

    Malayalam

    No changes were observed in the Malayalam segment. Asianet, the Malayalam general entertainment channel from Star TV, managed to be on first position with 286177 impressions '000s. Flowers TV and Mazhavil Manorama interchanged their second and third positions with 109369 impressions '000s and 104530 impressions '000s. Surya TV and Asianet Movies stood at fourth and fifth positions respectively with 77263 impressions '000s and 62530 impressions '000s.

    Marathi

    Zee Marathi, Colors Marathi, Star Pravah and Zee Talkies and Zee Yuva continued to be in first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively with 422147 impressions '000s, 144346 impressions '000s, 120428 impressions '000s, 113656 impressions '000s and 45060 impressions '000s.

    Tamil

    Sun TV retained it leadership position with 861645 impressions '000s. Star Vijay and Zee Tamil exchanged their second and third positions respectively with 487018 impressions '000s and 474213 impressions '000s. KTV and Adithya TV continued to be on fourth and fifth positions respectively with 319072 impressions '000s and 97634 impressions '000s.  

    Telugu

    Star Maa, Zee Telugu, ETV Telugu, Gemini TV and Gemini Movies held on to their first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively with 635149 impressions '000s, 543646 impressions '000s, 475044 impressions '000s, 419803 impressions '000s and 201579 impressions '000s.

  • Tata Sky to launch Telugu and Tamil cinema

    Tata Sky to launch Telugu and Tamil cinema

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky recently launched value-added services – Tata Sky Telugu Cinema and Tata Sky Tamil Cinema, priced at Rs 45 per month. The ad-free services are affordable by people of all age groups, geographical and socio-economic boundaries.

    With this, Tata Sky not only increases the plethora of offerings in Southern markets but also caters to movie buffs across the country. With its customer-centric approach and aim to provide the best of content to its subscribers, the two new services will provide Telugu and Tamil Cinema at the comfort of people’s home.

    Tata Sky CCO Arun Unni said, “Telugu and Tamil film industries today have a fan following that transcends the state boundaries and captures the interest of viewers across the country. To cater to the ever-increasing demand for regional cinema, Tata Sky has partnered with Star Maa for Telugu films and Star Vijay for Tamil films to offer the best of content in an ad-free format to all movie lovers.”

    South market, with the highest TV viewership across the country along with a large appetite for movies in regional language provides Tata Sky an opportunity to offer high quality regional movies on medium of choice. The content library ranges from the latest blockbuster movie premieres, before their screening on television, to classic movies – with movie options for all age groups.

    Tata Sky's bouquet of regional cinema services now includes Tata Sky Telugu, Tata Sky Tamil, Tata Sky Bangla, Tata Sky Punjab De Rang, Tata Sky Marathi and Tata Sky Kids Cinema.

  • Third Madras high court judge gives TRAI tariff order thumbs up

    Third Madras high court judge gives TRAI tariff order thumbs up

    MUMBAI: The long-awaited judgment of the Madras High Court on the TRAI tariff order has been pronounced.

    Sources indicate that almost all the proposals mentioned in the order have being given the go- ahead –  the only exception being the capping of discounts to 15 per cent.

    The decision was announced by the third judge in the Madras High Court earlier today – an order is supposed to come later this evening.

    Reacting to the judgement, AIDCF hailed it as “significant for the cable TV broadcasting and distribution sector’. AIDCF president Rajan Gupta said, “We are elated to note that Honorable Mr. Justice M.M. Sundresh has concurred that TRAI is within its jurisdiction in notifying the tariff order and interconnection regulations of 2017. This new regulatory framework will benefit the entire sector and especially the consumers by improving transparency, enhancing subscriber choice and removing discrimination in provision of content.”

    He further added: “We hope that this present judgment, combined with the earlier view of Honorable Ms. Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, is taken in the right spirit by the stakeholders and any further unnecessary litigation is avoided so that the TRAI can move forward and continue working towards its vision of creating a transparent and non-discriminatory regulatory framework governing the sector.”

    Earlier in March 2018,  a two member bench of the Madras High Court had delivered a split verdict in Star Vijay’s litigation against its passage as content pricing should be left to the discretion of the broadcasting.

    While chief justice Indira Banerjee, heading the first bench, had ruled in favour of TRAI, the second judge — justice M Sundar – had ruled otherwise. The matter was then referred to a third judge who had been given a month to give his directive. The third judge’s decision came earlier today.

    Sources indicate that the third judge has also suspended the decision for the next two weeks, giving Star India a  chance to appeal against it in the Supreme Court.

    The TRAI order had the following highlights…

    The role of the broadcaster

    Under this, broadcasters will have to first declare their channels as a pay channel or a free to air channel, on an a  la carte basis, and in one of the following seven genres: devotional, general entertainment, infotainment, kids, movies, news and current affairs and sports. The TRAI has defined a ceiling on the maximum retail price (MRP) for each of the genres: devotional (Rs 3), general entertainment (Rs 12), infotainment (Rs 9), kids (Rs 7), movies (Rs 10), news and current affairs (Rs 5) and sports (Rs 19).

    Each pay channel has to have a MRP  that can vary depending on the region, but which cannot be changed before the expiry of six months of it being declared. These rates will be platform agnostic – that is, uniform across the platforms (cable TV, DTH, HITS and IPTV) across a relevant geographical market, and will have to be declared on each broadcaster’s website and be transparently available to the TRAI, TV distributors and consumers.

    The pay channels of a network or its subsidiary or holding company or subsidiary of the holding company can be packaged into a bouquet. This can be done while taking the precaution that the bouquet’s MRP is not less than 85 per cent of the sum of the MRPs of the a la carte pay channels forming a part of the bouquet. Similar conditions of holding prices for six months and in geographical areas also apply to bouquets.

    The TRAI has introduced a category called a premium channel. Broadcasters are free to notify any channel as premium channel in their reference interconnect order (RIO). There shall be no price cap on maximum retail price notified by broadcasters for customers. For HD channels, the regulatory authority has, however, stated the price cannot be more than three times the MRP of the corresponding channel transmitted in SD. For those HD channels that do not have a corresponding SD channel, the benchmark will be the ceiling on the MRP of the genre it is in. These independent HD channels will have a price ceiling of three times the ceiling of the MRP of the genre.

    The television distributor’s role

    On the television distributor side, the TRAI has made them responsible to provide all channels on a la carte basis and it has also  proposed to formalize  a minimum subscription fee of Rs 130 per month per set top box from a subscriber for 100 SD channels.  Now if an HD channel is included in this, it will be equal to 2 SD channels.

    The TRAI has stated that TV distributors cannot change the bouquets formed by broadcasters or its price, but they can form bouquets themselves of pay channels of different broadcasters provided that their price is not less than 85 per cent of the sum of the MRPs of the pay channels forming part of the bouquet. Free to air, HD and SD variants of the same channel and premium channels are not permitted to be included in these bouquets.

    The authority says that the composition of the 100 channel basic tier should be left to the subscriber’s volition. It can consist of FTA, pay, premium channels, broadcast bouquets or even television distributor package bouquets. But it has to have the government mandated channels and at least five channels of each of the seven genres. If the subscriber opts for pay TV or premium or HD channels or broadcast or TV distributor bouquets, he will have to pay the retail price for these separately.

    Subscribers wanting channels beyond the basic tier can opt for other channels by paying the TV distributor Rs 20 – excluding taxes-  for each slab of 25 channels and the broadcaster the MRP of each channel.

    The TV distributors also have another responsibility. The electronic programming guide on the network must display the details of all channels and their MRP genre wise for easy navigation. Broadcasters who are relying on TV distributors to collect and remit the pay channel revenues will provide a 20 per cent distribution fee to them, which the latter can share with the LCOs who are actually doing the collection. Additionally, TV channels can also offer a maximum 15 per cent MRP discount to TV distributors to encourage them. Parameters for discounts will be disclosed by broadcasters in the RIOs that will be transparent and uniform for all distributors of television channels.

    More to follow…Keep reading Indiantelevision.com

    Also Read:

    Madras HC gives split verdict in Star India versus TRAI case

    TRAI-Star case back to Madras HC with SC rider

    SC could take up TRAI-Star case on tariff regulations

  • Star Vijay case in Madras HC: TRAI to conclude arguments today, AIDCF & Videocon to argue tomorrow

    MUMBAI: In the Star-Vijay-TRAI case hearing in the Madras High Court, one of the TRAI’s senior counsel P Wilson concluded his arguments on Wednesday. The other TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) counsel Saket Singh is expected to put forth his arguments on Thursday, official sources told Indiantelevision.com

    Interveners in the case — All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) and Videocon hope to put forth their arguments on Friday. And, on Friday itself, the Madras High Court would provide a rejoinder date — for the final outcome and directive in the case that challenged the jurisdiction of TRAI to issue tariff orders on the ground that content came under the Copyright Act.

    TRAI TV reference interconnect offer (RIO) and Quality of service order (QoS) came into effect from 2 May following the order of the high court.

    In the hearing in April-end, it had said Section 3 of the Tariff order and all other consequences of such implementation/enforcement would be subject to the outcome of the main petition.
     
    Apart from the Tariff order, the regulator also issued the DAS Interconnect Regulations, and the Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations which had been issued on 10 October last year.

    Also Read:

    Star-TRAI case hearing in Madras High Court starts 

    Star & Vijay TV amend plea, TRAI asked by Madras HC to file response

    SC stays new TRAI tariff, asks Madras HC to complete hearing in four weeks

     

  • Kamal Haasan to host Bigg Boss’s debut on Tamil TV

    BENGALURU: Endemol Shine’s Big Brother format under its Indian sobriquet Bigg Boss is all set to make its Tamil television debut on Star India’s Tamil GEC Star Vijay on 18 June 2017. The host of the show will be Indian film icon Kamal Haasan. The format of the show will be the same as the Bigg Boss season 10 format that closed in end January this year on Network 18’s Hindi GEC channel Colors. The Kannada version’s season 4 which also closed in mid-January on Network 18’s Colors Kannada was quite successful.

    Sources at Star Vijay claim that the show on their channel will be on an even bigger scale than the Hindi version. They say that an exclusive and a massive house, bigger than the Hindi version, was being built at EVP World Theme Park in Chennai.

    “We are keen to leverage the uniqueness of the format , the reality appetite of Tamil audiences and a great host like Kamal Haasan, not only to drive ratings, but to put out cutting edge and innovative content,” said Vijay TV GM Krishnan Kutty.

    On his first foray into television, Haasan said, “When Vijay TV approached me to play host , I funnily quipped , who better than me right, all my life have been under a constant watch and have been judged on whatever I have done , public or private. But, now roles are reversed as I would stand with the audience and watch these celebrities in the house survive this ordeal.”

    Bigg Boss Tamil will air on weekdays (Monday to Friday) at 900 pm and between 830pm and 10pm on weekends. The show would see the coming together of 15 celebrities in a posh house with all the amenities but who are completely cut off from technology and the outside world for 100 days. The channel is filtering participants. It says that people from varied backgrounds are being spoken to and the reception has been enthusiastic, given Kamal Haasan is the host.

    Sources say that a massive marketing plan has been formulated with more than 400 outdoor sites, full page advertisements in all the leading English and Tamil dailies and weekly magazines and Radio Specials have been planned as well. Digital tie up has been firmed up with Facebook, Twitter and Google they aver.

    While details of sponsors and major advertisers were not available at the time of writing, the channel says that national advertisers who have experienced the euphoria of Bigg Boss Hindi are the primary movers. However, Chennai is a powerful and strong retail market and hence the local market will also be an active participant, they say.