Decision on Broadcast Bill soon

The government has said that it will take a decision on the Broadcast Bill soon after it receives comments from all States and Union Territories (UTs) on the proposed Bill which would deal with regulation of content. The center has received replies from 11 states and four UTs till now. The quality of content in electronic media is one area which deserves special attention, according to the I&B ministry. The Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill calls for regulation of television content and also proposes setting up of a body to monitor content. The ministry has a monitoring committee in place and it takes action whenever any violation on part of any channel or broadcaster is reported. The government is in the process of finalizing Phase-III, which will follow a more liberal dispensation than before and would promote healthy competition to benefit the masses.

CAS expansion possible by lowering costs: I&B

The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry will expand the conditional access system (CAS) after strengthening the regulatory mechanism and bringing down costs. Currently CAS has been implemented since January 2007 in Chennai, parts of Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. The government has also expressed concern over the lack of enforcement over cable operators to ensure proper implementation of the CAS. The surveys conducted by the ministry and TRAI have also indicated that penetration of this system is low and consumers are unwilling to adopt it unless certain changes are made. There is also reluctance from state governments to accept CAS. TRAI had recommended CAS roll out in a phased manner in 55 cities between October 2008 and March 2011.

Political advertisements on radio allowed

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has amended the All India Radio code allowing political advertisements. Accordingly, such advertisements will be allowed to be carried on All India Radio. This would include FM radio also since they too adhere to the AIR code. Such advertisements shall be subject to pre-broadcast scrutiny by the Election Commission of India and authorities under it during the period when model code of conduct is in operation.

FDI limit to be 74 percent for DTH

The Information and Broadcasting secretary Sushma Singh has said that government feels the foreign investment for services and infrastructure in the television sector can be increased to 74 percent while there are no plans to change the limit in the TV news and current affairs segment. According to Singh, the policy on headend-in-the-sky (HITS) was being hurried since two-thirds of the viewers were still getting their TV through cable operators. While the policy on HITS was on the anvil, the ministry was actively considering the policy on mobile television. She also said that the regulatory format for digitization was being worked out. While the cost of converting analog to digital all over the country could be as high as Rs. 640 billion in India, HITS could help reduce this cost.

The Ministry is also extending conditional access system (CAS) to the remaining parts of Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Currently, only the southern parts of these cities and the entire city of Chennai have this facility. Direct-to-home (DTH) was expected to rise covering 115 million TV homes by 2012 at an annual CAGR of 48 percent. The government was hoping to increase the number of FM channels to 780 in 80 cities over the next few years. Singh said the government had been taking several steps for providing a level playing field to all stakeholders and had succeeded in this. Committed to increasing broadband in the country, she said the expeditious clearance of the IPTV policy was a step in this direction to give greater interactivity and create diverse business platforms.

TRAI seeks space for public service broadcasting

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued recommendations on "issues relating to entry of certain entities into broadcasting and distribution activities." TRAI has recommended that certain public service broadcasting obligations be imposed on the broadcasters in the country. The preparation of content for public service broadcasting may be done by individuals including private broadcasters, NGOs, and social action groups in addition to Prasar Bharati, DAVP, state governments, and their organs. The Government of India (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) may set up a regular body to approve and certify programs as being fit for broadcast as part of the public service broadcasting (PSB) obligation.

As a beginning in this direction, every private broadcaster may be mandated to carry such approved programs at least for a total duration of thirty minutes in a week. As regards the entry of state governments into the distribution platform such as cable TV and DTH, and in the interest of fair competition, level playing field, and also considering the need to ensure proper enforcement mechanism equally applicable to all the players in the field, TRAI has recommended that the state governments and their organs should stay away from distribution activities.

TRAI to regulate quality of service in non-CAS areas

TRAI has issued a consultation paper on quality of service issues for cable TV services in non-CAS areas and for DTH services.

The consultation paper attempts to solicit the views of stakeholders on the following issues involving quality of service aspects of cable television service in non-CAS area:

Proper procedures and timelines for connections, disconnections, and transfer of cable services
• Proper procedure for billing and effective mechanism for handling technical and billing related complaints.
• Procedure for overall complaint handling and redressal by the service provider.
• Timeline and the procedure for services relating to provision of digital decoders and STBs in non-CAS areas, wherever service providers are providing digital services.
• Procedure for informing the subscribers about change of channels alongwith their channel position.
• Mechanism of rebates in cases of interruption of service.
• Effective monitoring of quality of service standards.

The issues raised for DTH quality of services pertain to dropping of channels by the service providers, maintenance and visiting charges, and protection to the subscribers regarding their tariff plans.

TRAI favors government views on news on radio

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided to accept the views of the government on limiting the sources of news and current affairs for FM radio but recommended that a review for expansion of sources may be considered after three years. Similarly, while it accepted the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's categorization of content to be treated as non-news and current affairs broadcast, the scope of such content may be enlarged after a period of three years after reviewing the experience. TRAI has reiterated its earlier recommendation for removal of ceiling limit of ownership of 15 percent of total permitted FM radio stations in the country by any permission holder. The Ministry had requested TRAI to respond to certain issues relating to its earlier recommendations in terms of the provisions of Section 11 of TRAI Act. The main issues on which a response was sought from TRAI were geographical basis for licensing - city vis-à-vis district, restriction on ownership of multiple channels, change in ownership of permission holder company, news and current affairs, floor price of the bids, and automatic renewal of permission.

Recommendations on media ownership soon: TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will submit its recommendations on media ownership to the government soon.The issues under consideration are cross media ownership across different segments of media such as print/television/radio (horizontal integration), cross holding restrictions to prevent consolidation including "vertical integration" within a media segment such as television or radio, market share in the city/state/country within each media segment, and cross control/ownership across telecom and media segments.

MSOs to blacklist default broadcasters

Multi-system operators (MSOs) have initiated discussions to blacklist those broadcasters who do not pay their carriage fee. Facing an economic slowdown, several broadcasters have not honored their carriage fee agreements with cable TV operators. Most of them are also in the process of scaling down their distribution costs which are beginning to hurt the profitability of TV channels. The MSO Alliance also intends to take up issues like pushing for digitization and lobbying for clearance on several recommendations that the sector regulator TRAI has put forward before the I&B Ministry.