ITV

Tag: Sun TV

  • ‘As an industry, we should support unregulated Cas’

    ‘As an industry, we should support unregulated Cas’

    SET Discovery president Anuj Gandhi offers his take on how the distribution scenario would shape up in 2007 in the wake of digital cable and direct-to-home (DTH) penetration.

     

    The year 2006 was when broadcasters consolidated their businesses and made money on the second bouquet. The incremental increase in revenues for distribution companies largely came from this.

     

    The combined growth in pay TV revenues was in the region of Rs 2.5-3 billion. This included the southern channels and later in the year Sun TV, the most popular channel in the region, also turned pay. Star One, which had problems in Mumbai and Kolkata, got established. We also made money from our second bouquet.

     

    Direct-to-home (DTH) also became a reality in the year. Though it took time, Star India and SET Discovery bouquets were available on DTH as rates became realistic.

     

    On the cable TV front, progress was made towards implementation of Cas (conditional access system). The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) came out with more definite regulations and there was intervention from the various courts. Unlike 2003, Cas definitely is more structured and planned this time. It, however, remains to be seen in 2007 whether it turns out to be a success or not.

     

    The big story in 2007 would be DTHccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc and digital cable. Pay broadcasters would expect to net Rs 3.5-4 billion from DTH and the bulk of it would be incremental without eating into cable TV.

     

    We should see deals being struck on all addressable platforms. Digital cable, voluntary Cas, Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) should all become a reality and make economic sense to distribution companies like us. As an industry, we should support unregulated Cas. Things will take time to settle down till digital gets in mass volumes.

     

    The big problem area should be a la carte pricing, but I don’t see channels deciding to price themselves individually below Rs 5. We would also see bouquets emerging in the Cas areas. It won’t be easy for consumers to forget the channels that they were receiving for so long. Family packages, properly priced, should take off. Pricing and a lot of other things, though, will depend on volumes.

     

    Equations will change in carriage payouts to multi-system operators (MSOs). As ratings towns get added, carriage will move there. And these towns would not have a digital story. But I don’t see budgets of broadcasters towards carriage really jumping. What would happen is that they would be picking and choosing the places where they want better placement and carriage.

     

    IPTV will see trial runs in 2007 but the commercial launches should happen only a year after that. All in all, there will be lot of changes in the marketplace in 2007.

  • Sun fixes share swap ratio of Gemini, Udaya merger

    Sun fixes share swap ratio of Gemini, Udaya merger

    MUMBAI: Sun TV Ltd. has approved the share swap ratio for the merger of Gemini TV Pvt. Ltd. and Udaya TV Pvt. Ltd. with itself. The shareholders of Gemini will get 1.78 shares of Sun TV for every one share held. Gemini posted a revenue of Rs 1.75 billion and a net profit of Rs 451 million for the year ended 31 March 2006. The company owns Gemini TV, Teja TV, Gemini News, Gemini Music and Gemini Cable Vision.

    Udaya shareholders will get 19.72 shares of Sun TV for every one share held. Udaya revenues for the last fiscal stood at Rs 943 million while net profit was at Rs 253 million. The company owns four television channels, Udaya TV, Udaya Movies, Udaya Varthegalu and Udaya TV II. All the divisions of Udaya, except the FM radio division, will be merged with Sun TV Ltd.

    Sun will issue a total of 17.8 million shares to Gemini shareholders and 11.8 million shares to Udaya shareholders. On completion of the merger, the company is proposed to be renamed as Sun TV Network Ltd.

    “After the proposed amalgamation and merger, the outstanding equity share capital of the company will increase from 68,889,155 to 98,521,155 equity shares of Rs 10/- each. The additional 29,632,000 shares proposed to be issued will constitute 30 per cent of the enlarged equity capital of the company,” Sun TV said in a statement.

    The board of Sun took on record the suggestions made by Enam Financial Consultants and DSP Merrill Lynch and approved the valuation report submitted by the independent chartered accountant N Subramanian.

    “Sun, Gemini and Udaya boards have approved the Scheme of Arrangement which governs the above amalgamation and merger,” the company said.

    The merger, however, is subject to final approval by shareholders, creditors and the High Court.

    With the merger, Sun will increase the number of television channels in its bouquet from six to 15. “The proposed amalgamation and merger will enable us to build a dominant presence in entire south India, and emerge as one of the largest and most profitable television broadcasters in India,” Sun said.

  • Non-supply of channels: Tata Sky moves TDSAT against Sun TV

    Non-supply of channels: Tata Sky moves TDSAT against Sun TV

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky has moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the south Indian media major Sun TV Group’s reluctance to make available channels to its direct-to-home platform.

    The petition, filed today before the tribunal, alleges that the Sun TV Group has refused to supply its bouquet of channels to the DTH player. The case is scheduled for the first hearing tomorrow (15 November).

    Tata Sky approached the disputes forum after repeated requests to provide the signals of the channels of Sun’s bouquet of channels on “non-discriminatory terms” proved futile.

    Tata Sky has sought an appropriate direction in the matter from TDSAT, alleging that Sun TV has quoted unreasonable terms for supplying its signals.

    When contacted by Indiantelevision.com, Tata Sky managing director and CEO Vikram Kaushik today refrained from commenting on the development.

    Earlier speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Kaushik mentioned, “We are in talks with Sun TV, the most popular network in the southern states, but no commercial agreement is expected soon. We gave them a proposal and are in negotiations with them. But a deal is still far away.”

    A point of note is that Tata-Sky is simultaneously also battling for Zee-Turner channels. Although the tribunal has directed Zee Turner Ltd, distributors of Zee and other channels, to provide its signals to Tata Sky, the issues of pricing, capacity and other related issues have yet to be sorted out.

    According to the norms laid down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), all content should be made available to all delivery platforms on a nondiscriminatory basis.

    Interestingly, Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran has set forth plans to enter the DTH space through the still to launch commercially Sun Direct TV. He runs a string of successful channels, which include SunTV, GeminiTV, SuryaTV, UdayaTV, KTV, TejaTV, UsheTV, KiranTV, AdithyaTV, Sun News, KiranTV, GeminiTV, TejaTV, Teja News, Udaya2 and Udaya News.

  • Sun TV to turn pay from 2 December; priced at Rs 12

    Sun TV to turn pay from 2 December; priced at Rs 12

    MUMBAI: Southern Indian broadcast powerhouse Sun TV Ltd will switch its flagship channel Sun TV to the pay mode starting 2 December.

    The channel has been tagged at a price of Rs 12 per month per subscriber for the cable operators to access the channel.

    The Kalanithi Maran promoted network is also likely to turn its Malayalam language entertainment channel Surya TV pay in the near future.

    At present, it has three pay channels – KTV, Sun News and Sun Music. But in Chennai, which is a conditional access system (CAS) market, the consumers can view the pay channels through a set-top box (STB). But all these pay channels are free-to-air.

    Ahead of the implementation of CAS in the southern zones of the three metros — Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai — Sun TV accepted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) fixing a common price of Rs 5/- per channel per subscriber per month (excluding taxes).

    However, the pay channel price cap is not applicable in Chennai, which is already a CAS-driven market.

    The Sun TV scrip opened the trading day at Rs 1210.25 and closed at Rs1219.50 and touched a high of Rs 1249.

  • Sun TV brands FM radio stations as ‘S FM’; launches 3 more stations

    Sun TV brands FM radio stations as ‘S FM’; launches 3 more stations

    MUMBAI: The southern media emperor Kalanithi Maran has finally made its official entry into the private radio FM operations under the second phase by unveiling the brand name and the frequency. 

    The FM radio operations managed through its subsidiaries Kal Radio Ltd and South Asia FM Ltd will run stations under the brand name ‘S FM’.

    Starting 6 November, the company will launch three more FM stations on 93.5 MHz FM in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur. 

    Sun will be the fifth player in Bangalore and competing for mindspace with players like Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Radio One and Big 92.7 FM. 

    In Hyderabad too, Sun will be battling out with the existing players — Radio Mirchi, Radio City and Big 92.7FM. While, in Jaipur, Sun will be sharing the space with Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Radio Tadka and MY FM.

    With this, the total FM Stations of Sun TV group operational goes to seven as it already operates FM stations in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Visakhapatnam. 

    Works of another 38 FM Stations are in progress as it has retained 45 FM Radio stations across India out of 68 FM stations successfully bid.

    Maran will operate 46 stations across the country through Sun TV Ltd’s two subsidiaries, Kal Radio and South Asia FM. Sun TV owns 89 per cent in Kal Radio and 94.91 per cent in South Asia FM. Maran holds 10.5 per cent in Kal Radio and 5.1 per cent in South Asia FM.

  • Sun TV Q2 net profit up 27% at Rs 479 million

    Sun TV Q2 net profit up 27% at Rs 479 million

    MUMBAI: Kalanithi Maran’s Sun TV today reported its second quarter revenues of Rs 1059 million over the corresponding period in the previous fiscal where it stood at Rs 990.4 million.

    Sun TV has posted a net profit of Rs 479.6 million for the quarter as compared to Rs 336.10 million for the corresponding period last year. Operating profit registered at Rs 829.4 million as against the previous fiscal where it recorded Rs 788.9 million.

    Total income has increased from Rs 832.10 million for the quarter ended 30 September, 2005 to Rs 1059.00 million for this quarter.

    The broadcaster incurred an expenditure of RS 229.6 million as compared to Rs 201.5 million for the corresponding period a year ago. The expenditure includes, cost of revenues Rs 46.80 million, employees remuneration and benefits Rs 106.10 million and other expenditure Rs 76.70 million.

    Against the total projected utilisation of Rs 5220 million upto 31 March, 2007 from the IPO funds, an amount of Rs 740.60 million has been utilised towards capitalization of Kal Radio Ltd.

    The balance proceeds from the IPO after meeting the IPO expenses, pending utilization have been invested in Fixed Deposits with the banks.

  • SaharaOne and Filmy accept CAS ceiling price of Rs 5

    SaharaOne and Filmy accept CAS ceiling price of Rs 5

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd have let the 15 October deadline pass to inform sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) the channel price fixed for the notified areas under conditional access system (CAS).

    The company, which manages general entertainment channel SaharaOne and movie channel Filmy, has acknowledged the ceiling price of Rs 5. 

    The two channels switched to the pay mode in September. 

    The regulator had set a common price on all pay channels directing that under CAS regime they will cost a maximum Rs 5/- per channel per subscriber per month (excluding taxes).

    Ahead of the deadline, most pay broadcasters including Star India, Set Discovery, ESPN Software, Raj TV Network, Sun TV, Udaya TV, Gemini TV limited, Ushodaya Enterprises Limited, B4U Television Network, Sun TV, Udaya TV and Gemini TV, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Zee Turner Ltd had agreed to the price and declared the charges of all the channels.

  • Broadcasters follow Trai diktat, declare channel rates at Rs 5

    Broadcasters follow Trai diktat, declare channel rates at Rs 5

    MUMBAI: Under protest but within the deadline stipulated by the sector regulator, pay broadcasters today fell in line on the price fixed for the areas notified under conditional access system (CAS). As pre the directive issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), pay broadcasters have declared the a la carte rates of their channels at Rs 5 (excluding taxes).

    The regulator had set a common price on all pay channels directing that under the conditional access system (CAS) regime they will cost Rs 5/- per channel per subscriber per month (excluding taxes). 

    Star India has declared the prices of its channels as well as the channels the company distributes. The company has specified that the prices are being filed under protest and without prejudice to Star India Private Ltd’s rights and contentions raised in petitions filed by Star and / or any other parties on the issues.

    Last month, Star had filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court challenging the basis of Trai’s announcement on pricing for CAS. The matter will come up for the next hearing on 15 November.

    Set Discovery Pvt Ltd and ESPN Software Pvt Ltd have also respectively acknowledged the ceiling price. The two recently tendered an appeal against the tariff order at the tribunal forum TDSAT, where the final arguments are likely to be heard on 13 November.

    Set Discovery pointed out that the pricing shall be effective from 31 December 2006 and is subject to implementation of CAS in the notified areas pursuant to I&B’s notification dated 31 July 2006.

    Raj TV Network, Sun TV, Udaya TV, Gemini TV limited, Ushodaya Enterprises Limited (Television Division) and B4U Television Network Pvt Ltd have also affirmed to the tariff order set by the regulator. Sun TV, Udaya TV and Gemini TV, however, clarified that the ceiling prices are not effective in Chennai, the CAS market and be accessible as free-to-air channels.

    The British Broadcasting Corporation, which turned its BBC World into a pay channel earlier this year, has also affirmed to the price like the other broadcasters. Zee Turner Ltd has also agreed to the price and declaring the charges of all the channels that the platform distributes.

    The regulator does indicate that in respect of those broadcasters who are yet to confirm their rates, a communication is being sent to them to report compliance in respect of the maximum retail price fixed by them for their pay channels in CAS areas.

    Trai deems that the declaration of tariff for pay channels in CAS areas is an important milestone in the implementation of CAS, which will also protect the interests of consumers.

    The regulator is also pursuing the completion of interconnect agreements among the service providers as envisaged in the Interconnection Regulation order to ensure a smooth roll out of CAS.

  • Broadcasters look set to move court against pay channel price ceiling in CAS

    Broadcasters look set to move court against pay channel price ceiling in CAS

    MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: The broadcasters knew it was coming, but that in no way lessened their outrage over the CAS pricing broadside delivered by the sector regulator today. The next course of action will in all likelihood be to move the courts.

    In a move clearly aimed at “honouring” the pledge given by the government “that television viewers will have to pay less under a CAS regime”, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today decreed a Rs 5 ceiling on pay channels.

    The broadcast regulator has fixed the price of free-to-air (FTA) channels in the basic tier at RS 77 (exclusive of taxes). The regulator, which oversees the broadcast and telecom sectors, has fixed the costing for pay channels whether new or existing at RS 5 making it mandatory to offer all pay channels on a la carte basis.

    RC Venkateish, ESPN India MD, did not mince his words while stating, “The pricing of pay channels by Trai are totally arbitrary and damaging for all industry stakeholders, including the consumer who might get low grade programming as investments in sports programming, like in entertainment, is high.

    “How can you expect broadcasters to put in money for procuring high-quality programming when the rates realised from the market will go down so much. It will have a dramatic effect on content quality.

    “Broadcasters are bound to seek legal opinion and take legal recourse.”

    That is obviously not how Trai chairman Nripendra Misra sees it. Misra said the prices that Trai had determined were very much in line with market forces. Additionally, Misra was quite categorical that this was “the final order on this subject.”

    In an interview to business channel CNBC TV18, Misra justified the regulator’s diktat by stating: “If you see the features of this policy announcement, the first thing to be appreciated is that there is only a maximum retail price; it does not fix the individual channel price. The second thing is that it does not fix the bouquet price. It also has not fixed the discounts for the bouquets. So everything has been left to the market forces except the maximum retail price ceiling, which has been determined by us.

    “To provide some stability to the revenues of the broadcasters, it has also been provided that the MRPs will apply only where the subscription is for a minimum period of four months.”

    Not surprisingly, the cable service providers are in tune with Misra on the matter. Says K Jayaraman, CEO of the multi-systems operator Hathway Cable and Datacom (in which Star India has a 26 per cent stake), “CAS is the best deal for consumers and the unwanted channels will go. As the fundamental thing in CAS is choice, that gets protected in this pricing structure,”

    That line of argument cut no ice with Arun Poddar, CEO, Zee Turner who said, “The rationale behind the pricing stumps us. If the regulator wants channels to come cheap, then the channels too would be forced to lessen expenditure on programming.

    “I don’t rule out broadcasters taking the regulator to court over the pricing issue.”

    The Indian Broadcasting Foundation, which represents the interests of broadcasters, is meanwhile scheduled to meet on Saturday to thrash out what legal recourse will be taken, as also to evolve a common strategy, senior channel executives tell Indiantelevision.com.

    The mood among cable operators was in stark contrast to that among the broadcasters. Cable Operators Federation of India president Roop Sharma, went so far as to say that Trai should have gone even lower on its pricing. “I think the prices of pay channels should have been even less at RS 3. It would have been better for the consumer then. Like in Pakistan, where each pay channel is priced at Re 1 or RS 2.

    “I feel it’s a win-win situation for everybody, including the broadcasters, who had accused cable operators of under-declaration.”

    “The comparison (with Pakistan) is ridiculous,” an incensed channel executive said. “The whole business model of broadcasting in Pakistan is based on piracy,” he pointed out.

    Commenting on the FTA channels’ pricing, Vikky Chowdhry, president of another cable operator faction NCTA, said, “The price of basic tier of free to air channels should be revisited. Still, at RS 77 (exclusive of taxes), 30 channels are manageable.

    Sameer Manchanda, joint MD, GBN, put the whole scenario in proper perspective when he said, “The prices looks low for sports and entertainment channels as programming investment is higher in these genres. The rationale of the regulator seems incomprehensible. At least some genres of channels could have been separated from the others.”

    Media stocks plunge on Trai’s pricing issue

    The market voted with its feet today on the news of the Trai’s price ceiling ruling with all media stocks sliding southwards. Media stocks showed a steeper fall than the the benchmark Sensex Index, which lost 24.87 points (0.21%), to settle at 11,699.05.

    According to a leading investment banker, “The directive issued by Trai will prove detrimental to broadcasters’ revenue kitty, especially for general and English entertainment channels and sports broadcasters.”

    Media scrips that fell today include Zee Telefilms, Sun TV, NDTV, TV18, TV Today and Sahara One Media and Entertainment.

    Zee Telefilms opened at RS 290 and closed the day at RS 265, down 8.6 per cent. Chennai based broadcaster Sun TV opened at RS 1,224 and ended at RS 1,199.
    NDTV opened at RS 200 and closed at RS 195, while TV18 opened at RS 647.15 and closed the day at RS 599. TV Today opened at RS 77 and closed at RS 76. Sahara One Media and Entertainment opened at RS 346 and closed at RS 339.

  • TV channels undecided on apology scrolling

    TV channels undecided on apology scrolling

    NEW DELHI: The Indian government made it clear to TV channels yesterday that those guilty of breaching advertising code would have to publicly apologize, though channel managements are still undecided on future course of action.

    The ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued a warning to 43 channels directing them to carry a scroll for three days regretting airing surrogate advertisements of liquor and tobacco products in violation of rules.

    The scroll to be aired reads thus: “Ministry of information & broadcasting issues a warning to X channel for telecasting surrogate advertisements of liquor/tobacco products in violation of advertising code. X channel regrets this and apologies for the same. We assure to be more careful in future.”

    A gaggle of broadcasters, under the aegis of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), met ministry officials on Friday in an attempt to seek a resolution to, what a broadcaster described as, “uncalled for public humiliation.”

    The broadcast industry contention was that the government is unnecessarily objecting to ads of products and companies, which may have other legitimate businesses apart from tobacco and liquor products.

    Moreover, with the ASCI now given more teeth to regulate ads put out by companies, broadcasters argued, running a scroll of apology for three days would amount to financial setback and space loss for important news alerts too.

    However, the ministry officials were firm on their stand as, according to one of them, “too much pressure” was being exerted on the I&B ministry from parliamentarians who have criticized the ministry for inaction against surrogate advertising publicizing liquor and tobacco products on TV channels.

    The channels issued show-cause notice will be required to carry the warning scroll round the clock for three consecutive days on their respective channel from 18-21 August 2006.

    Still, the channels are undecided on future course of action and, according to information available, are also seeking legal advice on the matter.

    The channels that have been issued the warning are Aaj Tak, Animal Planet, B4U, Balle Balle, Channel V, CNBC TV-18, Discovery, ESPN, ETV Bangla, ETV Kannada, ETV Marathi, ETV-2, HBO, Headlines Today, India TV, MTV, National
    Geographic, NDTV 24X7, Raj TV, S S Music, SABe TV, Sahara Bihar, Sahara One and Sahara Samay.

    The list also includes Set Max, Sony Entertainment, Star Gold, Star Movies, Star One, Star Plus, SUN TV, Tara News, Ten Sports, TEZ, TV-9, Zee Bangla, Zee Café, Zee Gujarati, Zee Marathi, Zee News, Zee Sports, Zee Studio and Zoom.

    Rule 7(2)(viii)(A) of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 states that “no advertisement shall be permitted which promotes directly or indirectly production, sale or consumption of cigarettes, tobacco products, wine, alcohol, liquor or other intoxicants.”

    In an official statement issued today, the I&B ministry said apart from liquor and tobacco ads, certain objectionable and indecent advertisements of undergarments were also found to have been telecast, which should be stopped immediately.