Even as the channel owners today took TRAI to the courts over changes to channel pricing rules, the regulator has issued a statement responding to their concerns. Broadly, it said the latest changes were required to overcome ‘teething problems’ associated with such a radical shift to a choice-oriented television distribution regime, but also criticized some […]
With just two days remaining for a deadline to file amended TV channel tariffs, a case filed by India’s big broadcasters in the Bombay High Court has been listed for hearing tomorrow in front of Justice SC Dharmadhikari. Broadcasters, including Star India, Zee Entertainment, Sony Networks and others, have come together under the banner of […]
Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ Zee5 has become the latest content app from a major Indian broadcaster to be added to Reliance Jio’s Fiber box, following close on the heels of Star India’s Hotstar and Sony Pictures Networks’ Liv. With this, Jio Fiber now offers apps from nearly all the major entertainment broadcasters of India with the […]
India Ratings, a unit of Fitch Group, said new tweaks to TRAI’s 2017 tariff order — scheduled to come into effect on March 1 — are likely to reduce revenue for channel owners, be neutral for cable and DTH players and reduce costs for consumers. “India Ratings & Research (Fitch Group) believes that Telecom Regulatory […]
Media and telecom sector regulator TRAI has amended its 2017 tariff order — which came into effect a year ago — introducing a new price-cap of Rs 12 per pay channel, down from Rs 19 earlier. It also introduced new safeguards and conditions to curtail the practice of forcing unwanted channels upon consumers. However, these […]
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has assured an industry disputes tribunal that it will take a decision on the name-change application of Horizon Satellite Services, a unit of Raghav Bahl-led Quintillion Business Media Private Limited (QBM), by December 25. Quintillion Business Media has been trying to get its channel renamed as Bloomberg Quint to […]
A story from moneycontrol.com, a news portal run by the Network18 media group, drew an unusually sharp reaction from Raghav Bahl, one of the pioneers of television news broadcasting in India who now operates Quintillion Media Pvt Ltd. In an message to his employees, Bahl attributed the report — titled “Bloomberg’s India Venture with Raghav […]
DD Free Dish, the free direct-to-home service from Prasar Bharati, has bounced back from the impact of the boycott of the platform by major broadcasters like Star India, Zee Entertainment, Sony Pictures and Viacom18, according to industry sources. According to the CEO of a rival DTH agency, the number of subscribers of DD Free Dish […]
Dish TV India, the country’s largest DTH network by number of subscribers, reported a 4.1% decline in its subscription revenue for the July-September quarter as the company showed signs of stabilizing from the twin impacts of a new system of TV channel pricing and a merger with Videocon D2h. Dish TV completed the merger with […]
DTH operators, who offer various programs and services on their in-house channels, may soon be prevented from carrying popular serials, films and other licensed content, going by TRAI’s latest recommendations. TRAI also recommended that the ministry of information and broadcasting should stop the broadcasting of delayed feeds of existing channels, branded as +1 channels, on […]
Recent changes in how television channels are priced and distributed have given an advantage to large broadcasting companies, helping them push out smaller and regional channels, India’s biggest association of news broadcasters warned. If left unchecked, the current trends would result in a loss of plurality and the establishment of monopolistic market in the country, […]
Sun Direct, the Chennai-based direct-to-home satellite TV service, has started giving free access to nearly all Sun Group channels to anyone who activates the base packs designed by the DTH company. The base packs designed by Sun Direct — called DPO packs — start at Rs 200 per month, including tax, for the Tamil market, […]
An average Airtel Digital customer spent 4.1% more money on their DTH service in July-September period compared to the previous three months, beating back the seasonal effect of the monsoons and indicating that customers may be gradually spending more on their cable and DTH bills. The monsoon season tends to see smaller recharges by prepaid […]
BARC India, India’s top TV viewership measurement company, said CEO Partho Dasgupta has resigned, and will be replaced by Sunil Lulla, who was with Eros International Media and Balaji Telefilms before. BARC said Dasgupta had “relinquished his position” and moved on, indicating that it was a voluntary move. The change in leadership comes at a […]
Media regulator TRAI will come up with a modified set of rules to increase transparency in the pricing of television channels in the next 20-25 days, Chairman RS Sharma said on the sidelines of the open house discussion on the subject in New Delhi. Sharma’s statement comes in the wake of widespread complaints about broadcasters […]
Zee Entertainment Enterprises CEO Punit Goenka reassured investors that the recent cut in the price of some of its popular TV channels, such as Zee TV, is short-term in nature, and won’t leave any long-term impact on the company. Zee Entertainment, Star India, Sony India and TV18 Broadcast have cut the a-la carte prices of […]
Hathway Cable and Datacom, one of India’s biggest cable feed providers, has again turned profitable, but it also reported an increase of Rs 87 mn in its pay channel costs while subscription revenue increased by only Rs 37 mn. Given that subscription revenue increased only 1% while pay channel costs increased 7%, it is likely […]
TV18 Broadcast, which operates channels like Colors and News18, has reported a dip of Rs 71 cr in its revenue after a shift from free to pay for some of its entertainment channels and a soft economy hurt advertising sales. “Macro-weakness and shift of channels from DD Freedish to Pay ecosystem continues to drag ad-revenues […]
Den Networks, one of India’s top cable feed providers, reported better profit margins for the three months ended September after it was able to keep a lid on payments made to broadcasters like Star, Zee and Sony. The company has been seeing a lot of volatility and uncertainty over its margins and financial performance after […]
Some of the popular television channels owned by major broadcasters like Star India, Zee Entertainment and TV18 have seen their prices reduced on a temporary basis as the broadcasting regulator puts the final touches on a new law aimed at bringing down individual channel prices and curbing anti-competitive practices. The cuts come barely a week […]
