Self Regulation at Risk

The process of Self Regulations initiated by the News Broad-casters Association received its first jolt last month when the News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority (NBSDRA) set up by the Association held that the Independent News Services (which broadcasts the India TV news channel) had violated the guidelines and asked it to pay a fine of Rs.1lakh and run an apology on its channel. The case pertained to a report carried by India TV on the statements made by a US resident, Farhana Ali, which the Authority decided was a misrepresentation of facts.

This was the first order passed by the Authority since its formation last October but instead of creating a sense of confidence amongst the stake holders, it has created a controversy that has put the whole process of self regulation in jeopardy. Instead of accepting the verdict, India TV has decided to quit NBA after lodging a protest over the manner in which the Authority decided to penalise it. It has alleged that it was not given a fair hearing, and till now there is no response from either NBA or the Authority.

THIS WAS COMING

Spate of fights and killings among the cable operators in the last few months indicate a dark chapter opening once again

in the history of cable television. Hope the Government does something before it goes out of control.

STB MARKET TRENDS IN INDIA

A couple of years back, STBs were associated with CAS under a tough regulatory regime imposed by the government. Doordarshan started Free to Air service (DD Direct,) which made TV penetrations among remote villages a dream come true. The picture quality, however, distributed over analog cable network has been sub-par. Today, however, STB is increasingly seen as a technology easily deployed in living rooms. It is fuelling consumer appetite for ‘high-quality’ digital picture displayed on big screen TVs including fast growing LCD TV segment. Already, there are five DTH operators and the 6th one is about to launch service, along side of a host of cable operators.

When is a Signal Good Enough?

While measuring television signal in Cable, Satellite or terrestrial, many complicated factors and parameters coome in play. However, if the measuring instrument is efficient and good, it relieves the engineer of remembering all the parameters and taking them in consideration while judging a signal quality. It simply

We are get asked the question, what typical readings shall I have to judge if my signal is good or not? Is it 40 dB/uv ? SNR of 15 dB ? MER of 14 dB or preBER of 1 x E-6 ? Well the answer is NONE. There is no universal way to say a typical value is good enough.

DTH on Upswing

Television was never so busy as in these days when the two most eyeball grabbing events are going on; IPL the Cricket’s favorite event in South Africa and the drama of General Elections. All other TRP grabbing entertainment programmes have been pushed to the backyard. Every news channel has come out with a different kind of election entertainment. Frankly Speaking, it is no news, it is a grand big 'Mela' on television and we find everyone including the anchors, political leaders the crowds and the viewers are enjoying it to the hilt.

The Election Commission had to issue so many new directions and advisories to control the over enthusiasm of the news channels. 

May 2009

Monday, May 04, 2009 -- The Supreme Court directed TRAI to go ahead with its consultations related to the fixing of tariff for DTH services.