ITV

Tag: Telengana

  • Sikkim joins three others states excluded from DAS Phase III

    Sikkim joins three others states excluded from DAS Phase III

    NEW DELHI: The extension of Digital Addressable System (DAS) by three different High Courts affecting four states does not augur well for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which may see a catapulting of such cases as reports pour of just over 50 per cent of seeding of set top boxes (STBs).
     
    After the extension of deadline in both Telengana and Andhra Pradesh, the Sikkim High Court has ordered a stay on analogue cable television signals switch-off until 28 March. A stay had been ordered after the first phase by the Madras High Court for Tamil Nadu, which also remains in force, though the Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected a petition by Om Systems of Indore challenging Section 4A of Cable Television Networks Regulation Act 1995.
     
    Phase III stipulated for analogue signals to be switched off in all urban areas of the country by 31 December, 2015.
     
    Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai of the Sikkim High Court said in her order on a petition by All Sikkim Cable Operators Association that subscribers will be affected for no fault of theirs. The petition was filed through Association president Roshan Rai.
    In the arguments, it was contended that multi-system and local cable operators had to bear a high cost of migrating to a digital addressable service (DAS) and there were no investors; the difficult terrain of the state was not conducive to laying of optical fibre Cables (OFC) required for Digital networks; Set-Top-Boxes were not easily available in the country; and time limits for migration to digital regime are almost impractical.
    The court also noted that the Association had written to Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Sunil Arora on 26 November, 2015 apprising him of the constraints faced by the MSOs and LCOs and requesting for an extension of the deadline but the Ministry did not care to reply.
    The Court turned down a plea by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to be impleaded. 
    The directive by the Hyderabad High Court was notable in that Justice Vilas V Afzalpurkar went against an order given by a division bench of which he was a member in the same court relating to Phase III on 20 August, 2013.
  • DD to launch separate transmission from Vijaywada post AP bifurcation

    DD to launch separate transmission from Vijaywada post AP bifurcation

    NEW DELHI: Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh has forced pubcaster Doordarshan to start separate transmission of the channel. With Hyderabad becoming a part of the newly formed Telengana, regular transmission of two hours a day is to commence with immediate effect from the Doordarshan Kendra of Vijayawada to cater to the residual state of Andhra Pradesh.

     

    The transmission which currently will be from 5 pm to 7 pm every day, will later convert to being round-the-clock.

     

    Consequently, Doordarshan has also started planning production and transmission facilities that are similar to its Kendra in Hyderabad.

     

    The pubcaster has already taken an initiative to upgrade the existing facilities of Doordarshan Kendra at Vijayawada which presently has one 150 sq m studio and a teleport satellite up linking facility.

     

    Doordarshan Director General Tripurari Sharan and Additional Director General V K Jain recently visited the Vijaywada Kendra and discussed widespread plan for its upgradation with engineering and programme officers. Sharan asked officers to fast-track its upgradation plan and complete it in a time bound manner, directing Jain to personally monitor the progress.

     

    The DD Saptagiri channel running from Hyderabad will be renamed to DD Telangana and the DD Saptagiri channel will be retained for residual state of Andhra Pradesh.

  • ETV 3 launched for Telangana

    ETV 3 launched for Telangana

    MUMBAI: At the back of the government deciding to split the state of Andhra Pradesh into two states- Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, one of the country’s oldest broadcasters run by Ramoji Rao, the Eenadu group has decided to venture in the newly formed state with a dedicated news channel christened ETV3.

     

    The channel that went on air on Wednesday at 9:00 am will cater to the people of Telangana by focusing on issues relating to the development and progress of the state. While the channel will initially be called ETV3, very soon it will be renamed to ETV Telangana. The channel is being headed by Rajendra Prasad, who has been with the Eenadu group for over 15 years.

     

    For now, the channel will be available on all multi system operators (MSOs) platforms in the Telangana region such as Hathway, Digicable etc. The decision to distribute it in Andhra Pradesh has not been taken as yet. Riding on the back of the Lok Sabha elections, the decision to launch the channel was taken by the Ramoji Rao group.

     

    ETV3 is a pay channel broadcasting from Insat 4A, the licence for which was acquired in 2012.

     

    Some of the shows on the channel are Assembly Election Special that speaks about the upcoming elections for the legislatures of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Jai Kisan on agriculture, Idi Sangathi a magazine programme that deals with contemporary issues, Sakhi– a show for housewives, ETV 360 degrees – a news bulletin, Pratidhvani and National Election Specials.

     

    The Telugu channels of Ramoji Rao are under his ownership and not with TV18.  According to sources, post 2015 the name ETV News will be rechristened to News 18 for the channels acquired by TV 18 while the name ETV will be retained by the Eenadu group. TV18 had in its offer document requested for permission to use the Eenadu brand name till February 2015.

     

    Currently ETV Telugu and ETV2 are the other two channels with Ramoji Rao.

  • CNN-IBN series takes on finance minister’s ‘pre-poll gimmick’

    CNN-IBN series takes on finance minister’s ‘pre-poll gimmick’

    NEW DELHI: CNN-IBN is going to start a politico-economic series to take on the UPA government in general and the finance minister in particular with The Sixty Thousand Crore Loan Waiver, throughout this week.

    In the series, CNN-IBN is going to evaluate “the possible merits, if any, of this so-called panacea to the rising farmer suicides,” a statement from the channel says.

    Throughout the week, CNN-IBN’s flagship news bulletin, India at 9, will bring stories from across the country that look at the state of farmers from some of the worst-affected areas, including how banks are grappling and how political parties are politicising the entire situation in their favour.

    “The series is aimed at unearthing the real impact of the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver on those it is supposed to help. It sheds light on the plight and state of farmers across the country, for whom nothing really changes,” says CNN-IBN and IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

    The channel believes that the farm loan waiver is expected to benefit thirty million small and medium farmers, but in fact the figure is nothing like it.

    The channel statement says that the waiver is in fact only applicable to loans taken from established and recognised banks for less than 2.5 hectares of land.

    “However, a majority of the affected farmers either own more than 2.5-hectares of land and/or borrowed money from private moneylenders,” it adds.

    Therefore, this means that they are exempted from the waiver and that in reality it is just a pre-poll political gimmick.

    The series takes viewers through places like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha, Telengana, Haryana and even the finance minster’s constituency of Shivganga in Tamil Nadu to showcase ground realities that have been overlooked by the government’s otherwise impressive grant.

    “Could it be a political carrot dangling before farmers to gain momentum before the upcoming elections? CNN-IBN finds out,” says the statement.

    In addition, the series also lays focus on the growing migration of people from areas like the Azamgarh-Varanasi belt to the big cities in search of urban opportunities. For these former farmers, agriculture is no longer an option and jobs in metropolises seem more alluring.

    The Sixty Thousand Crore Loan Waiver is a series that looks into the reality of the Budget’s most-hyped provision and how everything is not what meets the eye!