ITV

Tag: Uttarakhand

  • MSOs urged to buy domestic set top boxes as there is no shortage

    MSOs urged to buy domestic set top boxes as there is no shortage

    NEW DELHI: Reiterating that there was no scarcity of digitally addressable set top boxes and the cut-off date of the final phase was fast approaching, Information and Broadcasting Additional Secretary Jayashree Mukherjee has urged multi system and local cable operators to place orders with domestic manufacturers.

    She has also also said that the broadcasters should develop their own AV Spots and start using these by 30 Septemberr 2016 and start a scroll on their channels to mount publicity campaign about digital addressable system.

    Chairing the 17th meeting of the DAS Task Force, Mukherjee agreed with a suggestion that an advisory may be issued by the Ministry to all MSOs to carry public awareness campaign on their local channels also.

    She said considering that the cut-off date of 31 December 2016 was fast approaching, the State Nodal Officers were requested to take help of the Assistant project Directors of Regional Units to implement complete digitization in their States and carry out regular monitoring of the progress at the State as well as District level, preferably on weekly basis.

    She said the schedule of the meeting planned at State level may be sent to the Ministry so that if required, the Ministry’s representative can also be present in some of these meetings.

    She also felt that the Ministry should regularly release Press Notes/Press Releases on the status of Cable TV Digitization.

    At the meeting held on 31 August 2016, Mukherjee, representatives of Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal gave details of the progress of implementation of digitization in phase lll and measures being undertaken by them to implement the last phase of digitization in their respective States.

    Almost all of them said they were holding regular meetings to monitor the progress and are trying to resolve the issues with stakeholders in order to achieve the target of compfete digitization by the cut-off date.

    However, the Chairperson observed that more action was required to be taken by the Nodal Officers of UP, Bihar and Karnataka.

    Considering that there were around 6000 MSOs operating in the country but only about 1300 had applied for MSO registration to the Ministry, the broadcasters were requested to ask the MSOs with whom they have interconnect agreements but who have not applied for MSO registration wherher they were interested to work as MSO in the DAS notified area failing which they would not be able to act as MSO after the cut-off date.

    The representative of Sony mentioned that they have interconnect agreements with about 1500 MSOs,out of which 1101 have not applied to the Ministry for MSO registration. He confirmed that these MSOs have been advised to apply for MSO registration if they want to continue as MSO in DAS notified areas.

    The representative of Star also mentioned that they have issued similar letters to their MSOs who have not taken MSO registration from the Ministry.

    The Indian Broadcasting Foundation representative was requested to ensure that the similar action is taken by all other members of the IBF and also to supply the list with their e-mail addresses, including those from Sony, to the Ministry so that the Ministry can also write to them.

    The representative of CEAMA said they are not getting sufficient orders of STBs from the big players, though they have enough stock of STBs.

    Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Sanjay Murthy said an issue of setting up of grievance redressal mechanism at national level for MSOs, LCOs and consumers was discussed with the representatives of broadcasters a few days back. He wanted to know the status of setting up of such a system. The representative of IBF said it was working on it and would submit a proposed plan by 10 September 2016 to the Ministry.

    While reviewing the progress of the court cases pending in Delhi High Court with regard to cut off date of phase lll digitization, the representative of IBF said it had filed an application in the Hon’ble Delhi High Court to implead them in these cases.

    Regarding the public awareness campaign, the representative of the IBF said its members have already started the public campaign using 2 AV Spots provided by the Ministry. He also said scrolls are being planned by their members. The Chairperson emphasized the need for IBF members to develop their own AV Spots as had been done on earlier occasions.

    Also read:

    DAS Phase IV: IBF asked to up campaign in addition to MIB ads

  • MSOs urged to buy domestic set top boxes as there is no shortage

    MSOs urged to buy domestic set top boxes as there is no shortage

    NEW DELHI: Reiterating that there was no scarcity of digitally addressable set top boxes and the cut-off date of the final phase was fast approaching, Information and Broadcasting Additional Secretary Jayashree Mukherjee has urged multi system and local cable operators to place orders with domestic manufacturers.

    She has also also said that the broadcasters should develop their own AV Spots and start using these by 30 Septemberr 2016 and start a scroll on their channels to mount publicity campaign about digital addressable system.

    Chairing the 17th meeting of the DAS Task Force, Mukherjee agreed with a suggestion that an advisory may be issued by the Ministry to all MSOs to carry public awareness campaign on their local channels also.

    She said considering that the cut-off date of 31 December 2016 was fast approaching, the State Nodal Officers were requested to take help of the Assistant project Directors of Regional Units to implement complete digitization in their States and carry out regular monitoring of the progress at the State as well as District level, preferably on weekly basis.

    She said the schedule of the meeting planned at State level may be sent to the Ministry so that if required, the Ministry’s representative can also be present in some of these meetings.

    She also felt that the Ministry should regularly release Press Notes/Press Releases on the status of Cable TV Digitization.

    At the meeting held on 31 August 2016, Mukherjee, representatives of Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal gave details of the progress of implementation of digitization in phase lll and measures being undertaken by them to implement the last phase of digitization in their respective States.

    Almost all of them said they were holding regular meetings to monitor the progress and are trying to resolve the issues with stakeholders in order to achieve the target of compfete digitization by the cut-off date.

    However, the Chairperson observed that more action was required to be taken by the Nodal Officers of UP, Bihar and Karnataka.

    Considering that there were around 6000 MSOs operating in the country but only about 1300 had applied for MSO registration to the Ministry, the broadcasters were requested to ask the MSOs with whom they have interconnect agreements but who have not applied for MSO registration wherher they were interested to work as MSO in the DAS notified area failing which they would not be able to act as MSO after the cut-off date.

    The representative of Sony mentioned that they have interconnect agreements with about 1500 MSOs,out of which 1101 have not applied to the Ministry for MSO registration. He confirmed that these MSOs have been advised to apply for MSO registration if they want to continue as MSO in DAS notified areas.

    The representative of Star also mentioned that they have issued similar letters to their MSOs who have not taken MSO registration from the Ministry.

    The Indian Broadcasting Foundation representative was requested to ensure that the similar action is taken by all other members of the IBF and also to supply the list with their e-mail addresses, including those from Sony, to the Ministry so that the Ministry can also write to them.

    The representative of CEAMA said they are not getting sufficient orders of STBs from the big players, though they have enough stock of STBs.

    Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Sanjay Murthy said an issue of setting up of grievance redressal mechanism at national level for MSOs, LCOs and consumers was discussed with the representatives of broadcasters a few days back. He wanted to know the status of setting up of such a system. The representative of IBF said it was working on it and would submit a proposed plan by 10 September 2016 to the Ministry.

    While reviewing the progress of the court cases pending in Delhi High Court with regard to cut off date of phase lll digitization, the representative of IBF said it had filed an application in the Hon’ble Delhi High Court to implead them in these cases.

    Regarding the public awareness campaign, the representative of the IBF said its members have already started the public campaign using 2 AV Spots provided by the Ministry. He also said scrolls are being planned by their members. The Chairperson emphasized the need for IBF members to develop their own AV Spots as had been done on earlier occasions.

    Also read:

    DAS Phase IV: IBF asked to up campaign in addition to MIB ads

  • Prabhu Chawla’s National Voice channel to focus on investigative journalism

    Prabhu Chawla’s National Voice channel to focus on investigative journalism

    MUMBAI: Seeing a need to break-free from the journalism that is followed on news channels, Prabhu Chawla is all geared up to launch a news channel called National Voice. With the core focus on laying out the problems and solutions of UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand, he will also launch other channels for the markets of Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, etc.

    Chawla will be associated with the channel as its chief editorial advisor. The channel is majorly banking on investigative journalism and will use sting without stink, he says.

    With an aim to connect various states to one language, the new channel will strive on news first and views later. The motto of the channel is Aapka Sawal, Aapka Jawab. Commenting on the launch Chawla says, “We will fear none and favour none. We have built a team of professional editors who have a combined experience of 50 years in the television news genre. We have a heavily decentralised system in which each one takes an independent decision, but all think collectively”.

    The channel has two promoters – the main promoter is an UP-based industrialist while Chawla holds a minor stake in the channel. He also admits that many leading brands have approached him for sponsoring a couple of his channel’s shows, although he was reluctant at disclosing commercial details at this stage.

    The channel is banking on content, tone and its vision as its differentiating factor over the rest of the available channels. Focussed at answering the 5 Ws (what, when, why, where, who) and 1 H (how), the channel will chase the story and also provide follow-ups to its viewers. It is starting off with the heartland of the country and will be available on various DTH platforms.

    “We are taking UP to India, not India to UP like the national channels. We will go behind and beyond the news. Content is king for us and reporters are the best news smiths. Our channel will be not be led by anchors. On the contrary news will lead the anchor”, he reveals.

    Chawla is of the opinion that regional channels are more successful than English and national Hindi channels. His channel will manifest what the people want to see and are curious about and will connect to local people through their vision.

    After ideating for over a year, the channel’s logo has been designed by a group of young professionals and is all ready to come out by June. “It is not meant to be in the public domain. It is a team of young professional from a design institute who have been guided by experienced people”, concludes Chawla.

     

  • Prabhu Chawla’s National Voice channel to focus on investigative journalism

    Prabhu Chawla’s National Voice channel to focus on investigative journalism

    MUMBAI: Seeing a need to break-free from the journalism that is followed on news channels, Prabhu Chawla is all geared up to launch a news channel called National Voice. With the core focus on laying out the problems and solutions of UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand, he will also launch other channels for the markets of Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, etc.

    Chawla will be associated with the channel as its chief editorial advisor. The channel is majorly banking on investigative journalism and will use sting without stink, he says.

    With an aim to connect various states to one language, the new channel will strive on news first and views later. The motto of the channel is Aapka Sawal, Aapka Jawab. Commenting on the launch Chawla says, “We will fear none and favour none. We have built a team of professional editors who have a combined experience of 50 years in the television news genre. We have a heavily decentralised system in which each one takes an independent decision, but all think collectively”.

    The channel has two promoters – the main promoter is an UP-based industrialist while Chawla holds a minor stake in the channel. He also admits that many leading brands have approached him for sponsoring a couple of his channel’s shows, although he was reluctant at disclosing commercial details at this stage.

    The channel is banking on content, tone and its vision as its differentiating factor over the rest of the available channels. Focussed at answering the 5 Ws (what, when, why, where, who) and 1 H (how), the channel will chase the story and also provide follow-ups to its viewers. It is starting off with the heartland of the country and will be available on various DTH platforms.

    “We are taking UP to India, not India to UP like the national channels. We will go behind and beyond the news. Content is king for us and reporters are the best news smiths. Our channel will be not be led by anchors. On the contrary news will lead the anchor”, he reveals.

    Chawla is of the opinion that regional channels are more successful than English and national Hindi channels. His channel will manifest what the people want to see and are curious about and will connect to local people through their vision.

    After ideating for over a year, the channel’s logo has been designed by a group of young professionals and is all ready to come out by June. “It is not meant to be in the public domain. It is a team of young professional from a design institute who have been guided by experienced people”, concludes Chawla.

     

  • Network18’s News18.com re-branded as Pradesh.com

    Network18’s News18.com re-branded as Pradesh.com

    MUMBAI: Network18’s English news portal targeting global audiences – News18.com, has been re-branded as Pradesh18.com.

    The new portal will be available in five regional languages and bring news content from the heart of India with a dynamic, responsive website, which will cater to readers across languages and regions.

    Touting it as News18 2.0, Pradesh18 will be a more refined and improved version of Network18’s hyper-local website.

    The Pradesh18.com website will be dedicated to the eight Hindi speaking states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

    Manned 24×7, Pradesh18.com is powered by ETV journalists as well as by Network18’s team of news professionals.

    The website’s user friendly interface gives a unique experience of live 24X7 news straight from the TV sets to laptops and mobile screens.

  • Network18’s News18.com re-branded as Pradesh.com

    Network18’s News18.com re-branded as Pradesh.com

    MUMBAI: Network18’s English news portal targeting global audiences – News18.com, has been re-branded as Pradesh18.com.

    The new portal will be available in five regional languages and bring news content from the heart of India with a dynamic, responsive website, which will cater to readers across languages and regions.

    Touting it as News18 2.0, Pradesh18 will be a more refined and improved version of Network18’s hyper-local website.

    The Pradesh18.com website will be dedicated to the eight Hindi speaking states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

    Manned 24×7, Pradesh18.com is powered by ETV journalists as well as by Network18’s team of news professionals.

    The website’s user friendly interface gives a unique experience of live 24X7 news straight from the TV sets to laptops and mobile screens.

  • ‘The Silent Heroes:’ Childish film for children

    ‘The Silent Heroes:’ Childish film for children

    It seems a nice idea to project differently-abled children in a challenging situation as a film to inspire other children. The Silent Heroes has been written and directed by a Mahesh Bhatt, not “the” veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

    Priyanka Panchal along with four others educates deaf and mute students in Uttarakhand. The school is surrounded by the scenic mountains of the Himalayas. Priyanka’s colleagues, for one of whom she has special feelings, become victims of an avalanche while on an expedition in the mountains. He dies leaving his dream of training a bunch of his deaf and mute students into adventurous mountaineers. Priyanka rues both, losing her love as well as his incomplete dream.

    That is when she comes across Maanuv Bhardwaj, who specialises in survival tactics. The local mountaineering academy also gets involved and the project is taken up to train volunteer deaf and mute children for a mountain climbing expedition. It starts with training the kids. But, sadly for the children, Maanuv meets with an accident and is replaced by Simran Deep, a sadist without a cause, who acts bitchy for the sake of it and thinks it is futile to waste time on these children. She derides them all the time. She also makes sure she sets impossible targets for them.

    While she is setting up the climb for children, Simran and her help both fall off a cliff and are rendered inactive. Now the very children she derided and thought good for nothing, use their other gifts they have instead of speech and ability to hear. They tend to her. They use their basic training and carry her to a river to await a stray rafter. But, when no rafter comes along, they use their bedding sheets and empty water bottles to put together a makeshift raft to carry her to the closest place of humanity where she can get medical attention without which she would need amputation of her leg. 

    While the children are carrying her on a raft they created, help is on the way in the form of Maanuv and Priyanka. The raft is coming apart in the heavy current of Gangotri but, things work out eventually.

    This could have been an inspirational film for children. Instead, it is so slack and overly dramatised, that it is tough to sit through the film. The script just never stabilises and carries on painfully. As for direction, it is patchy. There are songs galore in the background, which do not mean anything. Editing is nonexistent. Background music is jarring. Performances are bad to passable.

    The Silent Heroes is a worthless film, which serves no purpose whatsoever.

    Producers: Kamal Birani, Mahesh Bhatt.

    Director: Mahesh Bhatt.

    Cast: Maanuv Bharadwaj, Priyanka Panchal, Mann Bagga, Simran Deep, Nirmal Kumar, TarunBhargav, Gurfareen Bano, Khwaish Gupta, Aashish Chauhan, Jaideep Rawat, SamrennBano, Prakhar Chamoli, Renu singh, ShwetaRawat, Radhika Chauhan, Nikhil Bhargav, Shalini Rawat.

  • Continental Wrestling Entertainment to be kick-started by Great Khali to promote wrestling in India

    Continental Wrestling Entertainment to be kick-started by Great Khali to promote wrestling in India

    The Great Khali, who had emerged as the champion at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) IN 2007, has today announced the launch of his Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE).

     

    The new venture was formally launched by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat who invited the tall Khali to kick-start the first event of CWE on February 2016 with a two-day spectacle of international standard fights to be held in Uttarakhand.

     

    The Chief Minister said that Uttarakhand was slated to host the National Games in 2018 and the event in February would also be used to encourage more people from the state to come forward for sports. He said two stadiums were being built for the purpose in Haldwani and Dehradun. Rawat added that he was sending six or seven wrestlers to Punjab to train under the tutelage of Khali at his academy in Jalandhar.

     

    The CWE would initially train around forty wrestlers, Khali whose real name is Dalip Singh Rana and who stands 7 feet 3 inches tall. check this sentence

     

    In fact, Rawat had to stand on a stool to put a shawl around Khali while welcoming him, providing a great photographic moment.

     

    Rawat said “I have always said that the youth is not just our future but also our present and in a young country and state like ours their development and betterment is of prime importance to any ruling dispensation. I was really impressed by what Khali is attempting to do with this very popular modern day version of one of our most traditional sports – Wrestling.”  He said the aim of his youth outreach initiative, #CM4Youth, was to understand the aspirations of the young and draw up programmes to fulfill these.

     

    “Pro-wrestling is very popular with the Uttarakhandi youth. Khali’s own story of his rise from being a very ordinary worker in the hills to being amongst the world’s greatest pro-wrestlers ever through single minded focus, hard work and absolute dedication is nothing short of inspirational”, he added.

     

    Others present included Ranjit Rawat and Haripal Rawat, both conveners of #CM4Youth, IBS CEO Amardeep Singh., and leading sporting luminary Jaspal Rana. The CWE programme will focus on aggressively promoting the sport in India as well as scouting and developing pro-wrestling talent from across the country.

     

    Khali said that talks were on with different television channels who want to cover his events, but declined to give further details.

     

    Commenting on the reason behind this initiative, Khali said: “I have come a long way since my humble beginning as an ordinary stone cutter in the hills. A simple response to a chance question by a Punjab police inspector who passed me one day while I was working along a road, changed my life for ever. He asked me why was I working so hard even after my shift was completed. My response that unlike others I had a bigger stomach to fill and thus needed to work harder than the rest landed me a job in Punjab police. For the first time in my life, when I got my second salary there, I could actually buy a TV; a decision that changed my life forever – I not just got introduced to wrestling through seeing WWE but decided to make it my passion and profession.”

     

    “My journey was not at all simple to say the least. Having gone through all the trials and tribulations of setting out on a journey to conquer the world of pro-wrestling with only my ambition in hand and then being able to rise to the zenith at the world platform, I was determined even while in the United States that I would return to my country and help create the right platform and facilities for my fellow Indians to also make it big in this sport.” Added the wrestler.

     

    He further went on to say that the Uttarakhand CM had agreed to help his endeavour without any pre-conditions as it was a very good initiative for the youth.

     

    The fights which are scheduled for February 2016 will feature both international as well as Indian pro-wrestlers including The Great Khali himself.

     

    Asked why he was not participating in the WWE Live event in India, he indicated that he had not been invited but would love to wrestle with Americans on Indian soil. He said that he had gone through a lot of difficulty when he landed there in 2006 and used to sleep in the ring after the day’s matches as he had no other place to go to!

     

    The spectacle of International standard fights will be held in association with specialist sports and brand management company, ‘Integrated Brand Solutions (IBS)’ and will be supported by Harish Rawat’s ‘#CM4Youth’. IBS is a full service Brand solutions agency dedicated to maximizing experiences and ROI for client brands. With offices in Mumbai, Pune, Dehradun, Delhi, Bangalore, US & UK and through its extensive partner network span across the globe, it ensures seamless geographic and product outreach to discerning clients.

  • Only 188 community radio stations operational even after a decade of this sector

    Only 188 community radio stations operational even after a decade of this sector

    New Delhi, 25 November: Even as 235 entities have signed the grant of permission agreement (GOPA) for setting up community radio stations in the country, the actual number of operational CRS is only 188 after more than a decade of launch of this sector.

     

    This shows an increase of only eight community radio stations since the last list issued in May this year.

     

    A total of 960 applications for CRS had been either rejected or withdrawn as on 15 November.

     

    However, another 323 applications are still under the consideration of the government from educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, Krishi Viguan Kendras and State Agriclture Universities. Some of these date back to 2011.

     

    The operational stations include 105 by universities and private and government educational institutions, seven by NGOs, seven by Krishi Vigyan Kendras, and five by State Agricultural Universities.

     

    State-wise, Tamil Nadu has the hghest number of CRS with 27, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 23. Maharashtra has 17, Madhya Pradesh has 15, and Karnataka has 14 stations. Uttarakhand, Haryana and Odisha have nine each; Kerala and Rajasthan have eight each; Delhi and Gujarat have six each; Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Telangana have five each; Assam, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Puducherry, Punjab, and West Bengal have three each; Himachal Pradesh has two and Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand have one each.

     

    Thus, there are only three CRS in the northeast, and only one in J and K.    

     

    Though the scheme was launched around a decade earlier, the outreach of the Community Radio Stations was enhanced in 2006 to include non Governmental and Community based organizations with at least three years of legal existence.

  • News channels in new organization to promote ethical journalism

    News channels in new organization to promote ethical journalism

    NEW DELHI: A number of Indian television news channels have tied up with the government and various agencies to put together a unified platform for ensuring ethical journalism and to look at a collective solution for ridding the industry of the various problems that continue to plague it without a workable solution in sight.

     

    S.K. Gupta (from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh’s channel TV100) is the chairman of the All India News Broadcasters Association, while I.D. Garg (of Khabarein Abhi Tak) and Vikram  Nevar (Tazaa TV, Kolkata) are the vice chairmen.

     

    The new organization, comprising heads and owners of small and medium news channels, held its election meeting under the interim chairmanship of Anil Gaba of Total TV.

     

    The first committee, with a two-year tenure, was elected and put in place to take the agenda of the association further.

     

    The other members of the new committee are:

     

    General Secretary – Patiala based Channel 2’s Tejinder Pal Singh

     

    Secretary – SMBC Insight’s Dr. Prakash Sharma

     

    Treasurer – Khabarein Abhi Tak’s I.D. Garg

     

    Member-Working Committee – Khabar Fast’s A.K. Samaa, Azad News’ MS Walia

     

    An interim committee was formed in June 2014. The elections followed the formal process of applying to the government for the registration of the association, and getting the association formally registered by the registrar of societies.

     

    Speaking on the Association, secretary Prakash Sharma said, “The association will work towards creating a level playing field in the country at par with the national news channels. Apart from focusing on the problems of the industry, the association will work towards ensuring clean and ethical journalism, and work towards curbing paid news and ensuring guidelines for self-regulation. The association will also work towards creating a platform for news syndication and exchange amongst member organisations, collective marketing and distribution.”

     

    The All India News Broadcasters association will also act as a unified body working in conjunction with the government and representing the views, issues and concerns of the broadcasting industry, and play an exemplary role in finding workable solutions.