ITV

Tag: Vikramjit Sen

  • SC admits LCOs plea against Tdsat’s DAS order

    SC admits LCOs plea against Tdsat’s DAS order

    NEW DELHI: The supreme court today admitted for hearing an appeal by united cable operators welfare association (Ucowa) challenging the revenue sharing model under the digital addressable system (DAS) for cable television.

    Chief justice Altamis Kabir, justice Vikramjit Sen and justice S A Bobde also issued notice to the telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) and the information & broadcasting ministry.

    The court also decided to list for hearing this appeal along with the appeals filed earlier by Incable and Digicable.

    All the three appeals are against the judgment of the telecom disputes settlement and appellate tribunal (Tdsat) of 19 October last year.

    In its petition, the Ucowa said the tariff order and regulations were aimed at helping the television broadcasters and the direct-to-home platforms.

    They said it was also clear that the channels were deliberately not revealing their retail tariff per channel.

    The counsel stressed that they were not opposed to introduction of digital DAS but some infirmities had to be corrected.

    The LCOs had failed to get any relief from Tdsat on their plea that the revenue sharing pattern of 55:45 on the basic service tier (free to air television channels) of Rs 100 and 65:35 on the upper tier of Rs 150 (combination of FTA and pay channels), and their appeals were dismissed.

    The appeals by the MSOs had been filed against the unfair fixation of the wholesale rate the price broadcasters can charge of channels for DAS at not more than 42 percent of the non-Cas area rate. The MSOs are concerned about the rate that would be fixed after DAS is implemented countrywide (by December 2014).

  • SC postpones IBF petition on digitisation to 8 July

    SC postpones IBF petition on digitisation to 8 July

    NEW DELHI: The supreme court has once again rejected an application by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) for staying the court proceedings in the Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh high courts.

    Chief justice Altamis Kabir, justice Vikramjit Sen and justice S A Bobde fixed 8 July as the date for further hearing on the petition by the IBF challenging the orders in the Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh high courts.

    It also listed along with these cases a petition by IBF against the multi-system operator Digicable.

    Some more MSOs from Andhra Pradesh including Chalasani Narendra Varaprasad were allowed to be impleaded in the case.

    The IBF petition seeks to ensure that digitization is implemented as scheduled and without hindrance.

    When the special leave petition had been mentioned before the court on 16 April, it had declined the prayer to stay any of the proceedings in the various high courts as it was informed that the Karnataka high court judgment on the subject was due. The bench presided over by chief justice Altamas Kabir felt it would await the judgment of the high court before taking up the matter.

    The Karanataka, Gujarat and Allahabad high courts have since dismissed as having no merit the petitions seeking extension of the switch-of dates for phase II of digitisation in Bengaluru, Mysore, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara, Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi.

    Petitions challenging digitisation are currently pending in the Madras, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh high courts. These affect the cities of Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam Bhopal, Indore, and Jabalpur.

  • Neo Sports to give live feed to DD for 17 Feb ODI; no action against Nimbus

    Neo Sports to give live feed to DD for 17 Feb ODI; no action against Nimbus

    NEW DELHI: Following an assurance that it was prepared to give live feed to Prasar Bharati and action against it was unwarranted, Nimbus was today directed by the Delhi High Court to provide live feed for the cricket match between India and Sri Lanka to be played on 17 February in Visakhapatnam.

    The bench comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice JP Singh passed the order after Nimbus counsel Gopal Jain mentioned the matter before the bench seeking protection against the showcause notice issued by the information and broadcasting ministry alleging there had been violation of the provisions of the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007.
    Nimbus wanted the court to direct the Centre not to take action against it as it had offered to provide live feed of the match to the Prasar Bharati. Under the ordinance, the licence given to Neo Sports owned by Nimbus can be suspended.

    The court directed the government not to take any decision or action till 9 March, the next date of hearing.

    The court also issued notices to the Centre and Prasar Bharati on a petition filed by Nimbus challenging the ordinance, which makes it mandatory for private broadcaster to share live feed with the pubcaster.

    Earlier in the day, Nimbus had approached another Bench of the Delhi High Court presided over by Justice BD Ahmed seeking protection from the Centre’s threat to cancel its licence if it did not respond to the government’s show cause notice by today.

    However, Justice Ahmed had said then that the broadcaster should raise the issue before the Division Bench that was already hearing two cases on the issue – Nimbus’ challenge of the ordinance and the appeal by Prasar Bharati against a single bench’s order permitting a seven-minute deferred telecast of the cricket matches.

  • Delhi HC orders Government to implement CAS within four weeks

    Delhi HC orders Government to implement CAS within four weeks

    NEW DELHI / MUMBAI: In a decision that could have major ramifications for the Indian television industry, the Delhi High Court has ordered the government to enforce the rollout of addressability in cable pay television (conditional access system or CAS) in India within four weeks.

    Delivering its verdict on a writ petition filed by a bunch of MSOs, after reserving the judgement for several months, the court also directed the government to pay damages worth Rs 100,000 to the petitioners. The court has ordered the government to make haste on the report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which has been pending before it since October 2004.

    The court has ordered the government to revoke its notification of 27 February 2004 that scrapped the rollout of CAS in the three metros of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata in phases (it eventually got implemented only in Chennai). This in effect will revive the notification of 10 July 2003 which provided for partial CAS in these three metros.

    The Delhi HC also said that the government cannot denotify an earlier notification on CAS and keep the issue in limbo. The government has the right to appeal against the order in Delhi HC and Supreme Court.
    No immediate reaction, however, was available from the government as information and broadcasting ministry officials said that the court verdict is being “studied in its entirety.”

    The court gave the order in response to a writ petition filed by MSOs in response to the government’s decision to withdraw CAS. The petitioners include Hathway, INCablenet and RPG’s cable company that was bought over by Siti Cable last year.

    Reacting to the court direction on CAS, MSO Alliance president Ashok Mansukhani said that their viewpoint stands vindicated. “The verdict is a clear direction to the government to start the process of CAS, which will help bring transparency in the market and choice to consumers.”

    Added Hathway Cable & Datacom CEO K Jayaraman: “We will cooperate wholeheartedly with the government to roll out CAS.”

    But with Tata Sky preparing to launch in June, is the timing too close for cable to have an advantage over direct-to-home (DTH)? “The deployment of digital cable is going to be in a phased manner as directed by the court in line with the last notification. It will evolve first in the notified areas of the metros specified, like south Mumbai and Delhi. Besides, cable networks who can offer value additions to subscribers like data and telephony will stand to gain. Also, analogue cable will be available,” said Siticable CEO Jagjit Kohli.

    Will supply of boxes at such a short notice be a matter of concern? Cable Operators’ Federation of India head Roop Sharma brushes aside such criticisms saying, “The cable industry has enough stock of set-top boxes.”

    Welcoming the judgement, Sharma further said, “This would break the monopoly of broadcasters and bring respite to consumers also.”

    However, National Cable and Telecom Association president and owner of Delhi’s Home Cable Network Vikki Chowdhry was more cautious in his reaction, saying the full text of the court order has to be seen before jumping to any conclusion.

    According to Chowdhry, if the court order pertains to CAS rollout in only south zones of some cities, as once had been discussed earlier, then the impact would be neutralised and “create legal and operational problems.”

    Chowdhry added that if the south zone formula was implemented by the government, then his company would appeal against it to higher authorities, including the Supreme Court.

    The court dismissed the government’s contention that implementation of CAS was unjustifiable. The government has been ordered to compensate the MSOs for losses incurred due to the non implementation of CAS to the tune of Rs 100,000.

    In January, information and broadcasting secretary SK Arora appeared before the court and sought three months time to implement CAS in the country. The request was rejected by Justice Vikramjit Sen. Petitioner Hathway Cable Datacom’s counsel Indu Malhotra submitted that the government was only buying time to delay the implementation of CAS.

    Additional solicitor general PP Malhotra, who appeared for the government, had submitted that the issue of CAS had been decided by another division bench of the High Court in December 2003.

    CAS rollout plan as originally envisaged in 2003:

    * Initial 15-day period will be used primarily for creating consumer awareness about CAS, procurement of set-top boxes by cable operators and MSOs, and for broadcasters of pay channels to conduct promotional campaigns.

    * Each of the three notified metro cities (Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata) would be divided into four zones for the purpose of staggered rollout of the addressable system of transmission of pay channels.

    * After the initial 15-day period, within a one-month time frame, in Zone A in each metro, pay channels can be watched only with the use of STBs. Pay channel consumers in this zone will be charged, in addition to the price of the basic tier plus taxes, only for the individual channels of their choice as per the pre-announced rates set for them.

    Consumers of free-to-air (FTA) channels, who will not need an STB, will be charged only the basic FTA channel package charge plus taxes. In zones B, C, and D, cable operators will charged only for the basic tier plus taxes for all channels, including all available pay channels.

    * From Day 1 of the second month onwards, CAS will take effect in Zone B in each metro, while in zones C and D subscribers will pay only for the basic tier plus taxes for all channels.

    * And so it follows in Zone C from Day 1 of the third month onwards and Zone D from Day 1 of the fourth month onwards.