October 2011

01/10/11 --  TDSAT organized a seminar on Complaint redressal mechanism in broadcasting sector at Chandigarh.

Ordinance to speed-up digitalization

Finally, we may see the D-Day of digitalization soon, may be within a month. This fact emerged from the news that trickled down from Shastri Bhavan after two meetings of the Task Force on implementing Digitalisation with Addressability in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, saying that the government will bring an ordinance on the subject to let the ball rolling. The news itself has lifted up the stocks of some large MSO companies. 

As the news reports go, first phase of total digitalization in the four metros will have to be completed by March 2012, as suggested by TRAI in their recommendations. Well, a great opportunity is coming up in the industry to catch up with rest of the world in technology as well as content. We have already seen this change take place in the DTH and the mobile sector. 

IBC this time was brimming with hopes for the broadcast industry. Technologies which were on trial last year were being deployed commercially in the developed world. HD is now passé and 3D and Super HiVision have moved in. As demonstrated by NHK in their booth, SuperHiVision will make HD obsolete soon, commencing from its first live broadcast during the 2012 London Olympics. 3D is going to be the next big thing as 3D viewing without the glasses has also been implemented. Moreover, all new technologies support multiplatform distribution on conventional as well as new media, ushering in real convergence. 

Although Indian economy has slowed down a bit following the trends in the developed world, particularly USA and Europe, Television Sector has shown positive results and grown at 12% in the last year. It is expected to grow at the same rate in future too, as projected by the Deloitte research presented by ASSOCHAM in Focus 2011, last month. 

Animation and gaming industry in India too is progressing well, showing a growth of 23% last year. According to Monica Tata of Turner who looks after the two top children channels, Pogo and Cartoon Network, 20% of their content is Indian. We find more information about the sector from her in an interview. 

TAM ratings are again under fire. This time by the News Broadcasters Association who have rejected the weekly ratings and demanded monthly figures as such short time ratings bring in unhealthy competition. 

Contrary to the last government's experience in Tamil Nadu, ARASU, this time is doing well under AIDMK. Already 3700 last mile operators and independent MSOs have joined the network in all the major districts. All pay channels except the rival Sun TV Group, have given their support to them. If it uses the right strategies, it may topple the MSO balance in their favour in the state, cutting down the monopoly of SCV. 

Festive season has commenced and we wish very happy celebrations to all of you. 

—— Lt. Col. (Retd.) K K Sharma

Editor

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/editorials/item/1776-ordinance-to-speed-up-digitalization.html

September 2011

1/9/11 -- MSM launched its music channel Sony Mix.

Anna, Anna and more Anna

Anna Hazare and his fight for corruption took over all headlines on the news channels in August. Almost all channels, in particular, the national news channel had relegated all other news for Anna's protest. 

The fight against corruption has been going on since long but the exposure that the media chose to give to Anna's protest made a hero out of a frail old man from an unknown village of Maharashtra overnight. Well, right or wrong, this was also the show of strength by the Indian Media. This is a second time in recent past when we watched the power of media being used/ misused. 

The first time was when we saw Rupert Murdoch and his tabloid ' News of the World' going down due to misuse of the media power by hacking phones of innocent people to get the breaking news. The incident rocked the British Parliament and embarrassed the government in power. In Anna Hazare's case too our overzealous media over-exposed the Civil Society demeaning the government, a matter which rocked the Indian Parliament. The reaction to the smear campaign is still occupying most of the time on our news channels.

Parliamentarians and many other organizations have criticized the media, in particular the television news channels for taking a one sided view of the protest and gathering the support of the masses by over exposing the discussions and incriminating speeches at the Ramlila Ground. 

This clearly highlights the damages that an unbridled media can to do to the society. But with the government resolve to let the media regulate itself, how long one will have to see such mishandled mass movements in the country? Perhaps the anchor sitting in the studio shouting, screaming and managing the discussions to bring home his/ the channel editor's point of view does not realize what damage his provocations can do to the viewer's psyche. 

Very rightly the election commission has issued guidelines for all the news channels regarding paid news before the elections. Even I & B ministry have issued guidelines for programmes involving children. This was long overdue, considering that almost every entertainment channel has live shows involving children and also child actors acting in TV serials and ads. 

Cloud computing is the latest phenomenon in the IT world making it more efficient and economical for enterprises without incurring heavy recurrent costs. It has a great value for large broadcasting organizations having their tentacles all over the globe. We introduce the concept in this issue. 

Video content of late, is finding many more distribution platforms to reach out to the viewers. Service providers have to find a single system to deliver content to all platforms. We discuss the matter in the issue highlighting some new content delivery methods. 

IBC is being held in this month and we hope to see many new technologies of content production management and distribution in the show. Hope to see many of you there. 

—— Lt. Col. (Retd.) K K Sharma

Editor

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/editorials/item/1777-anna,-anna-and-more-anna.html

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/editorials/item/1777-anna,-anna-and-more-anna.html

August 2011

1/8/11 -- The European soccer event, Euro 2012, has moved away from ESPN Star Sports (ESS) to Neo Sports. The rights will be for the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives).

Media Dominance is Dangerous

It was unimaginable to see Rupert Murdoch, world's greatest media Mogul, seated in front of the British Parliamentary committee along with his son James Murdoch, trying to answer the serious criminal allegations of phone hacking, including those of some murder victims, victims of crimes, royal family members and politicians. One could see his hesitation in answering some of the questions, accepting his inability to know everything that was happening in his media empire and finally apologizing to all when the proceedings were being broadcast to millions of TV viewers all across the world. 

It was also interesting to see how the Indian Media covered the event. Apart from carrying the live broadcast of three hours grilling of the tycoon in the Parliament by BBC and CNN, most of the Indian news media avoided discussing the UK issue in the news. They spent all the time discussing if Indian Politicians could do a similar questioning of a VVIP in front of the cameras. 

It was quite understandable because Rupert Murdoch has his fingers in every media pie in India which apart from Star Empire includes NDTV, TV Today, TAM, ABP, Wall Street Journal, Radio, MSOs, DTH and internet properties. I am surprised how the Indian system has no checks for such monopolisation. This laxity and subservient attitude of our government is responsible for the present state of the country marred by various scams where a few industrial houses rule the country's economy depriving the masses of their dues. Poorer are getting poorer and rich are getting richer. 

It does not make much of a difference when the fingers are raised at the political bigwigs as they have become shameless and find innovative ways to get out of the rut unscathed, be it Kalmadi of CWG fame, Raja of 2G scam and Yeddyurappa of Karnataka mining scam.

I am afraid, it may not stall the progress on digitalization which could be kept pending for some more time proving disastrous for the industry. The Ministry, however is doing its best and has constituted a task force to implement digitalization fast. 

DTH is making good progress in the country connecting 2.5 million people in the first quarter of the year, increasing its reach to 35 million connections. Thanks to DTH, new technologies like HDTV, VoD, DVR, Sling media etc. are fast penetrating into the Indian homes and now many 3D television brands have also entered the market even when there is no 3D broadcast as yet. This month we carry the main story on DTH Market giving views of some prominent people. 

TRAI has issued a consultation paper on Mobile VAS and asked for the views of the stake holders. Also, I & B Ministry has made guidelines on employing children for TV programmes. 

—— Lt. Col. (Retd.) K K Sharma

Editor

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/editorials/item/1778-media-dominance-is-dangerous.html

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/editorials/item/1778-media-dominance-is-dangerous.html

July 2011

2/7/11 -- Cartoon Network announced a joint agreement with Singapore's MDA to launch Snaptoons .