MUMBAI: The Cable Operators Welfare Federation (COWF) has countered the IBF’s claims regarding NCF. The IBF had said that by keeping NCF at Rs 160, distributors could charge for something that DD Free Dish is giving out free.

COWF said that DD Free Dish is run on taxpayers’ money and channels pay a hefty sum to get a slot on it which they recover through ad rev.

According to BARC data of HSM NCCS All India (Urban+Rural) for week 1 and we see no change as usual, Star Plus leads the chart for Hindi GEC Pay TV category with 733mn impressions, followed by Colors on the second spot with 672mn impressions. Sony SAB on the third spot with 619mn impressions, Zee TV on the fourth spot with 581mn impressions. On the fifth spot we have Sony Entertainment Television with 498mn impressions and on the sixth spot is Star Bharat with 290mn impressions. Dangal TV on the 7th position with 260mn impressions. Bottom 3 positions on this category were Star Utsav with 202mn impressions, Colors Rishtey with 173mn impressions and &TV with 166mn impressions.

According to BARC Ratings of South GEC for week 1, The following are the ranking of various Regional GECs.

Malayalam:

Asianet leads the Malayalam All Platform Top 5 channels category with 325mn impressions followed by Flowers TV with 88mn impressions. MazhavilManoramaon the 3rd position with 85mn impressions and Zee Keralam on the 4th spot with 65mn impressions.  Surya TV secures the 5th spot with 63mn impressions.

Two weeks since it was announced, NTO 2.0 has taken the industry by storm. While for broadcasters it is a major disruption, it is expected to hit the Distribution Platform Operators also in a big way.

As per a particular clause of the New Tariff Order, DPOs have been directed to ensure that all the channels of a particular genre must be placed together and any change in position of a channel cannot take place without prior approval from TRAI. Broadcasters claim that change of LCN for any channel has a direct impact on its viewership.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its annual report for the year 2018-19 which states that India’s television industry has registered growth of 12.12% to Rs 74,000 crore in 2018-19 as compared to Rs 66000 crore in 2017-18.  The report also reveals that subscription revenues account for a 58.7% share of the overall industry revenue, the other part being the advertising revenue. 

On January 1, 2020, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued fresh amendments to the New Tariff Order (NTO) which it had implemented nine months ago, in February 2019. TRAI said the amendments are to "protect consumer interests". However, the amendments served to irk the broadcasters who said the frequent changes in tariff would directly affect their business. The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), an industry body that represents the broadcasting fraternity, held a press conference in Mumbai and shared its views on the new amendments.

MUMBAI: Demanding that change is the need of the hour and that every legislation should in terms with updated technologies, the Madras High Court on Monday questioned the government about the PIL seeking the approval to tweak sports broadcasting laws. The court has given the centre three months to decide on amendments that will allow Doordarshan to stream top sports events on its over-the-top (OTT) platform in addition to its DTH networks on a free-to-air basis.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) decision to allow 200 free-to-air (FTA) channels for the base pack of Rs 130 is likely to be a boon for these channels as it will give them a wider reach and would eventually lead to better pricing of ad inventories.

TRAI in its amendment to the New Tariff Order mandated DPOs to carry 200 SD (plus mandatory channels) television channels in a basic NCF (network capacity fee) of Rs 130 per month. Even for a higher number of channels, the maximum network capacity fee has been capped at Rs 160 per month.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked for suggestions/feedback from the general public and stakeholders on the draft ‘Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020’. 

The MIB said that any person/stakeholder desirous of sending their views/comments/suggestions on the proposed amendments may do so by 17 February 2020. 

MUMBAI: Media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl’s attempts to launch English business news channel BloombergQuint has once again failed as the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) rejected Horizon Satellite Services’ (HSS) applications for change of name/logo and directors.

HSS, which has been acquired by Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Business Media, had moved TDSAT against the delay by MIB to process its name change application. The company wants to change the name of its licence from Y TV to BloombergQuint.