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Media Pulse A Swale Day The Institution of Kindness |
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Subscriptions to dominate revenue pie The importance of subscription revenue for the broadcaster is going to increase even further in the post CAS scenario. That was the main message sent out by Kunal Das Gupta, CEO Sony Entertainment Television. He was speaking at ‘Broadcast 2008–Crystal Gazing’ at Frames 2003. Said Dasgupta: "The next few years will see a huge jump in cable subscription revenues which today stand at Rs. 60 billion compared to Rs. 40 billion of ad revenue. I expect subscription revenue to have 80 per cent share of the total revenue with division of this revenue among different broadcasters depending on the quality of content, size and role of broadband players." The cable broadband scenario, according to Dasgupta, will be a surprising development with two-way boxes mechanism eventually making addressability much faster.Dasgupta created a flutter with his comment that in order to compete for their pie in the post CAS scenario, cable operators might well offer even popular pay channels as part of Free to Air bouquet. Reacting sharply to this comment, Rakesh Dutta of the Cable Network Association and a member of the CAS taskforce said that this was against the CAS legislation. Also speaking on the occasion, Patrick Cross, MD, BBC World, talked about the impact of CAS in terms of the changing landscape where currently news broadcasting is at centre stage. He said that the way ahead was to tap niche markets, fulfilling regional needs. He added that when the broadcast world was seeing technological revolution with digitalisation and convergence, BBC had gone for seamless integration, combining TV, radio and online news besides setting up the world’s first fully integrated 24-hour newsroom. The other perspectives were shared by Ian Carrol, Sr
VP & GM, Turner Broadcasting System – Asia Pacific and Rik Dovey of ESPN
Star Sports. |
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Dileep Padgaonkar rejoins The Times of
India
Dileep Padgaonkar, the former executive managing editor of The Times of India returned to the newspaper as its Publishing Director. Padgaonkar had left TOI on November 30 last following the expiry of his extended contract. The TOI management at that time did not renew his contract. And his exit was seen as part of the ongoing restructuring process in the organisation, particularly after the induction of the top ad man and deputy MD of Leo Burnett, Rahul Kansal, as the brand director of TOI to oversee both content and brand aspects of the newspaper. But at the time of Padgaonkar’s departure, it was
reported quoting top management sources of Bennett Coleman that he would
be re-joining TOI in a different capacity. Now Padgaonkar rejoins at a
time when the process of change is once again on at the New Delhi
editions of The Times of India. Following the major initiative to
go all colour, TOI has just brought in Bachi Karkaria as the new
resident editor in place of Umesh Anand. It may be mentioned that ever
since the exit of Padgaonkar in November last, the top editorial post in
TOI had been lying vacant, with executive editor Shekhar Bhatia holding
the fort. And now with Padgaonkar’s appointment as Publishing Director,
speculation is ripe in media circles that TOI may not bring in any full
credit editor. |
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Sixteen channels get nod to uplink news The government has allowed seven broadcasting companies to uplink news and current affairs programmes on 16 channels from India.The ones granted permission include TV Today Network for its Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, the Chennai-based Sun TV for four channels—Sun News, Udaya News, Surya News and Teja News, the Sahara Group for seven channels—Samay National and International, Sahara Samay UP, Sahara Samay MP, Sahara Samay Bihar, Sahara Samay Mumbai, Sahara Samay Rajasthan and Sahara Samay NCT, STV Enterprises for Punjab Today, Jain TV, Zee Telefilms and New Delhi Television (NDTV). Firms awaiting the government’s approval to uplink include Star TV, BBC and Prannoy Roy’s NDTV World. Aroon Purie-promoted TV Today’s English channel is also waiting for approval. Also in the queue is a lesser known company, Independent News Service, for its channel, India TV. According to the present norms, satellite channels, irrespective of their ownership, equity structure or management control, are permitted to uplink from India if permitted by the Central Government. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is planning a policy on Indian news and current affairs channels in consultation with the Cabinet. After receiving a proposal from STAR TV to start a
news channel, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry feels a greater
consensus is needed before a decision is taken. |
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I & B Ministry non-committal on DTH roll out While the I & B Ministry’s top brass has taken a categorical stand to implement CAS from July 14, it is however non-committal on the launch of the DTH that has been hanging for quite some time and broadcasters like Star TV have sunk in millions in their DTH project that could not take off. Rakesh Mohan Joint Secretary, Ministry of I & B, who chaired a session on ‘DTH—making it a viable option’ at FICCI Frames 2003 said that the Ministry was serious about the roll out of DTH. "But I can not hazard a guess on when it will take off. It all depends on the DTH contenders."Jatin Sanghvi, Senior VP, Morgan Stanley, says that with CAS set to roll out in four months time, it is the right time for DTH launch. But industry players see current regulations with regard to financing and set top boxes besides the high operational cost as the main impediments before DTH. Prahlad Shatigram, Senior VP, Merril Lynch, too sees great opportunity for DTH in India with 40 million pay TV homes and unorganised and fragmented cable TV industry without enough funds to upgrade its infrastructure. But at the same time, he finds ownership restrictions as a major challenge in financing DTH. S. H. Bhojani, Partner, Amarchand and Mangal Das, makes a strong case for the I & B Ministry to have a fresh look at the licensing norms for DTH. "DTH does not have a level playing field vis-à-vis Cable TV. As per the licensing regulations, a total of 49 per cent foreign equity is allowed and within that only 20 per cent FDI has been permitted. There is non-refundable entry fee of Rs. 10 crore besides an annual fee of 10 per cent of gross revenue licence fee and royalty for the spectrum utilised as prescribed by Wireless Planning and Co-ordination Authority. Moreover, the bank guarantee of Rs. 40 crore valid for the duration of the licence fee is too steep even for the cash rich companies." But Rakesh Mohan dismisses the demand for a re-look at the government policy on licensing and regulatory framework for DTH. "Even with the existing policy, we have serious contenders. So I don’t think we need any changes in our policy," he argues. |
