ITV

Tag: TV industry

  • TRAI extends last date for comments on interconnect agreement draft order

    TRAI extends last date for comments on interconnect agreement draft order

    MUMBAI: For all those in the cable and satellite TV industry, you can take a breather. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which had issued the draft digital addressable system (DAS) interconnect agreement regulations on 5 June 2013 has extended the last date that they can send their comments.

    At the time of issuing the order, the last date was 18 June 2013, that is today. Under the extension, industry stakeholders can send their written comments in by 26 June 2013.

    The Draft Interconnection agreement for DAS seeks to do away with carriage fees under the must-provide clause, forces MSOs to telecast channels under the must carry provision; compliance of MSOs with the twin conditions as specified in the earlier versions of the same order.

  • TRAI extends date for TRP consultation paper comments

    TRAI extends date for TRP consultation paper comments

    NEW DELHI: The last date for receipt of comments on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India‘s (TRAI‘s) consultation paper on accreditation of television rating organisations has been extended to 23 May. The last date earlier was 9 May.

    TRAI said that it had on the request of the stakeholders given 30 May (earlier 16 May) as the date for any counter-comments.

    In an effort to put an end to controversies generated by television rating points, TRAI had on 17 April issued a paper to deal with issues such as establishing an accreditation mechanism for the rating agency and methodology of audience measurement.

    The consultation paper on “Guidelines/Accreditation Mechanism for Television Rating Agencies in India” also seeks to get the views of stakeholders on sample size; secrecy of sample homes; cross holding between rating agencies and their users; complaint redressal; sale and use of ratings; disclosure and reporting requirement; competition in rating services; and audit.

    The consultation paper has been issued at the behest of the information and broadcasting ministry, which had earlier received a report from the Amit Mitra Committee on the subject. The Indian Broadcasting Foundation has since been working to set up the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) as an alternative to TAM.

    The consultation paper aims to lay down comprehensive guidelines/accreditation mechanism for TRP (television rating points) rating agencies in India to ensure transparency and accountability in the rating system.

    A press note from TRAI says ‘incorrect ratings will lead to production of content which may not be really popular while good content and programmes may be left out. Therefore, there is a need to have an accurate measurement and representative television ratings for the programmes. The importance of a credible, transparent and representative television audience measurement system is recognised the world over. Presently television rating in India is being done by only one agency. Issues related to credibility and transparency of the ratings services in India has been raised by certain stakeholders. Lack of credible TRP system will hamper the growth of TV industry as a number of decisions having financial implications and also bearing on the type of content being watched are influenced by the TRP ratings supplied by rating agencies. So, there is a need to establish suitable mechanism/guidelines for the rating agencies which ensures that the data generated by the rating agencies is representative, credible and transparent.”

    The full text of the Consultation Paper is available on TRAI‘s website www.trai.gov.in

  • TV industry to debate digital dividends at Casbaa India Forum

    TV industry to debate digital dividends at Casbaa India Forum

    NEW DELHI: The ongoing satellite capacity crunch and the challenges of navigating a complex regulatory environment to identifying the future trends in the country‘s multichannel TV market in the era of digitization will be among the subjects under discussion at the India Forum of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasters Association of Asia (Casbaa).

    The meet on 7 March here will bring into focus the disparate voices of various television industry stakeholders.

    “India is undeniably a vast and complex market, but one that continues to provide unparalleled opportunities and potential to investors,” said Casbaa CEO Christopher Slaughter.

    “However, success depends on the ability to navigate the hurdles of the country‘s broadcasting industry and CASBAA‘s annual India Forum provides an ideal platform to hear from leaders and experts from across borders and market segments.”

    Industry leaders will bring their unique perspectives on the current state of Indian broadcasting and what to expect moving ahead.

    Headlining the respected roster of speakers at the event will be government representatives Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Rahul Khullar; TRAI Principal Advisor Parameswaran N., and Sudhir Gupta, and Ms. Supriya Sahu, both Joint Secretary (Broadcasting & Policies) in the Ministry.

    The varied list of speakers and panellists will also include Thomas Choi (CEO, Asia Broadcast Satellite), Smita Jha (Leader, Entertainment and Media Practice, PwC India), LV Krishnan (CEO, TAM Media Research), Sameer Manchanda (Chairman & MD, DEN), Ravi Mansukhani (MD, IMCL), Deepak Mathur (SVP, Commercial, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, SES), Harit Nagpal (MD & CEO, Tata Sky), Bharat Kumar Ranga (Chief Content & Creative Officer, Zee Entertainment), Man Jit Singh (CEO, MSM; President, IBF), Shashi Sinha (Chairman of Technical Committee, BARC; CEO, IPG Mediabrands India), Bill Wade (President & CEO, AsiaSat), Robert Zitter (EVP & CTO, HBO), Deepak Jacob (President, Legal & General Counsel, STAR TV India) among others.

    Partners for the CASBAA India Forum 2013 include Supporting Sponsor SES and Sponsors AsiaSat, Brightcove, CSG International, Eutelsat, IBM and Star India.

  • TV industry immune to 2012 slowdown

    TV industry immune to 2012 slowdown

    In 2012, the television industry was immune to the slowdown effect. The advertising revenue for the sector has seen double-digit growth and will be even better in 2013.

    FMCG advertising on television continued to be strong. The auto industry advertised more on television. Though the sector didn‘t do well in sales in 2012, several car launches happened and many are due in 2013 as well. The telecom sector has also been hot on television.

    Television continues to be the cheapest medium to advertise in. It also has the advantage of being an accountable medium as it has a regular audience measurement system to reflect viewership for shows and channels. In print you do not know how many people have seen your ads. In a tough situation, the client demands accountability which only television offers. That is why auto shifted budgets from other mediums and moved more towards television.

    Another factor in television‘s favour is that each year millions of new TV sets are added, which is not the case with any other medium.

    All the four major networks – Sony, Star, Zee and Network18 – have done well. The trading levels across genres rose and big properties fared well.

    The key is to be in the top three to four channels in each genre. Then there is nothing to worry about. If you are languishing in the lower rung, then you will not do well.

    Having said that, there is oversupply in some genres. News, for example, is a different ballgame and trading levels are not going up in this genre. The same challenge exists in the kids genre which has an oversupply of GRPs (gross rating points). In regional-languages, the Marathi genre interestingly operates at 40 per cent higher trading levels than Bengali.

    Digitisation will help grow the business. Niche channels have actually grown with digitisation. Pix, for instance, has grown GRPs by 20-30 per cent. Networks, though, will continue to rely heavily on advertising for the next two to three years before the real impact of digitisation is felt.

  • NBA Content Code put in cold storage

    NEW DELHI: The proposed Code of Content drafted by news broadcasters in retaliation to the government’s attempt to ‘curb press freedom’ through the latter’s Content Code is gathering dust, with no one in the news TV industry interested in talking about it.

    “There is no forward movement and nothing is likely in the short run, that is for sure,” said a senior editor who also revealed that the draft that had been placed for the consideration of all news channels is mundane and routine: “there’s nothing that can be talked about”, the source said.

    Arnav Goswami, Editor of “Times Now” channel had been given the task – on behalf of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) of developing a draft Code of Content, with specifics about what would be penalties and who would impose them, but not much of that has found place in the draft, sources said.

    The NBA, which has been closely guarded on the issue of their own draft from the beginning, had also decided to rope in news broadcasters beyond the periphery of Delhi and Mumbai based channels to give their proposed Code a national character, but so far this process too has not take off.

    “We shall place a Code with the government,” said the source. “But that will take a long time, and the government playing on the back foot and the prime minister almost supporting our cause by asking the ministry to go slow, has given us the opportunity.”

    Sources in the industry say that the news TV channels are not at all seriously inclined towards any Code, and the mandarins are not sure they will ever be able to come to a consensus on the Code the industry itself is developing.

    “In a situation where every editor is an intellectual in his own right and with their own egos to serve, it is practically impossible to have a commonly acceptable Code, for each one is going to haggle over every word, all in the name of protecting the rights of the press,” a senior broadcast lawyer told Indiantelevision.com.

    Officially, NBA is not speaking at all, insisting that this is not in the public domain. A senior executive in a broadcasting cmpany said that discussions are going on and “may be in three or four months time this will bear fruit”.

  • Panasonic announces advances in Plasma TV sets in the US

    Panasonic announces advances in Plasma TV sets in the US

    MUMBAI: Electronics firm Panasonic says that its plasma TVs are the first in the US market to feature lead-free Plasma Display Panels. The display panel is the Plasma TV’s glass-sealed image display device, equivalent to a cathode ray tube in a conventional television.

    In addition to the elimination of lead in the panel, Panasonic has made significant advances in enhancing the performance of the phosphors used to render colors on the screen.

    In conventional manufacturing processes for Plasma Display Panels, lead oxide glass is used in the dielectric layer, electrodes, glass sealant and other structural elements. Lead oxide glass was valued for its ability to stabilize production yields and quality. Now, as a result of advances Panasonic has made in material sciences and manufacturing processes, stable production yields can be secured without the use of lead oxide. In this way, the company has been able to eliminate all of the roughly 70 grams (0.15 pounds) of lead used in a 37-inch plasma panel.

    Panasonic US director of environmental affairs David Thompson says, “Panasonic is committed to achieving a sustainable future through the development of environmentally conscious products. Now with this achievement, we believe that Panasonic plasma displays have outpaced our flat panel TV competitors in an important area of environmental performance: the elimination of hazardous heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, mercury — commonly used in backlit LCD TVs and in projection TV lamps.

    “In fact, we estimate that worldwide the elimination of lead from our Panasonic plasma panels will mean a reduction of close to 300 metric tons of lead – the approximate weight of two 747 commercial airliners — that would otherwise have been used in their manufacture each year.”

    Noah Horowitz, a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), commended Panasonic for being the first in the industry to eliminate lead in its new plasma TVs and for significantly reducing the energy consumed by their new models. “NRDC is very supportive of Panasonic’s longstanding record of consistently delivering some of the most environmentally friendly products in the market.

    “Panasonic’s leadership in this area is noteworthy and we challenge the rest of the TV industry to implement similar improvements to their products” he says.

    Thompson adds, “Panasonic is also making progress on reducing the amount of energy each Plasma TV consumes. There is an inaccurate but persistent myth that Plasma TVs consume much more energy than other types of digital television The truth is that large screen TVs consume more energy than the smaller screened CRT-based TVs they replace. Our research indicates that energy consumption by large-screen Plasma, LCD and DLP TV sets is on average comparable. But as a relatively new technology, compared with LCD, Plasma is capable of becoming considerably more energy-efficient, and Panasonic plans to lead the way to this goal.”

    Panasonic’s advanced phosphor technology is estimated to deliver 60,000 hours of use — more than 25 years at seven hours of viewing a day – before reaching half brightness. Phosphor improvements have also led to the virtual elimination of the burn-in phenomenon in Panasonic Plasma TV. Long-life products translate into lower use of environmental resources for the simple fact that they need to be replaced far less often.

  • TV industry needs to address structural issues to absorb capital

    TV industry needs to address structural issues to absorb capital

    MUMBAI: The media and entertainment industry will be able to receive large doses of capital only after sorting out several issues, investment bankers at a seminar today said.

    Size, consolidation and scale are hurdles that prevent serious investments into the filmed entertainment business, said Carlyle Asia Investment Advisors managing director Rajeev Gupta, while speaking at FICCI-Frames 2006 on “Financing options for Indian Entertainment Industry.”
    The industry will not be able to absorb capital if the structural issues are not addressed. “Size will be able to deal with volatility. Consolidation pressures are there. Scale also has to be built up, particularly for single theatres. Everybody is so sub scale that the top six listed film entertainment companies earn just Rs 2 billion,” he said.

    With such issues dogging the industry, Waygate Capital is investing in ventures like animation and gaming where technology meets entertainment. “The outsourcing model in animation is not right for India which is about 20 years behind other Asian markets. China, Philippines and Korea have developed a maturity. The focus should be on an IP-driven approach,” said Waygate Capital managing director Rajesh Jog.

    On the gaming side, however, India can be at the forefront of the outsourcing model. There is a rich domestic market to tap too. “In mobile gaming business, we have the chance of becoming leaders. Online gaming is also likely to see growth,” Jog said.

    Waygate is planning to float a film content fund. “We are in talks. We haven’t yet decided on the corpus,” Jog added.

    Which sector is receiving private equity financing? “Broadcasting and print is where capital is going as there are several organised players and scalability is possible,” said GW Capital Private Ltd partner Vikram Narula.

    The last mile business like film exhibition is seeing capital infusion. Once addressability is in place, there will be investment opportunities in Cable TV. Direct-to-home (DTH) will also attract investments.

    “Film and TV content businesses have not seen much private equity. Radio is a new area which can lure in investors,” Narula said, whose company acquired Star’s stake in Radio City.

    Poor performance by many listed media companies have pulled down the credibility of investors in the sector. But what will generate interest in film financing? “Tax structures have to come down to bring down prices and create more demand. The sector needs consolidation. Special verticals like film funds have to be floated,” said Ambit Corporate – Finance Pte Ltd managing director Ashok Wadhwa.