The government's 2006 directive making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share the feed of sports events of "national importance" with state-owned Doordarshan seems to have backfired.
IPTV and Mobile TV, the new cable distribution platforms that have emerged recently. A clarification issued by the ministry of information and broadcasting recently makes it compulsory for all broadcasters to immediately share their channels with Wire & Wireless India Ltd, the HITS licence holding company of Essel Group.
In two years, Mumbaikars will be able to take the waterway, forking out Rs 70 for a 45-minute journey between the city's commercial centre Nariman Point and its suburbs in Borivali, while enjoying the Arabian sea breeze. The high power committee chaired by Maharashtra chief secretary Johnny Joseph, in a meeting on Thursday, has finalised the bidding criteria for the ambitious passenger water transport project along the western coast of Mumbai.
Consider this. Leading broadcaster Star India's mobile interactive division, Star Mobile Entertainment -- which made some serious headway in the space by launching a service whereby mobile users could opt to view soaps from across Star India's network -- recently reviewed its operational strategy.
Twenty20 cricket is back again, but this time in an international avatar. The Board of Control for Cricket in India is expected to offer telecast rights for the Champions Twenty20 tournament in which domestic clubs from various countries will battle it out for top honours this September.
The health ministry plans to oppose the application from Japan Tobacco International Ltd, the world's third largest tobacco company, to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to raise its stake in its Indian venture from 50 to 74 per cent. The application is slated for consideration in the FIPB meeting on Tuesday.
NDTV Imagine, the entertainment wing of Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV Network, is close to forming a 50:50 joint venture with Manmohan Shetty - the former promoter of Adlabs - to enter film production.
At least half a dozen foreign satellite firms with over 100 C-band transponders have initiated their talks with domestic media firms which are interested in launching headend-in-the-sky cable distribution platform.
In a sure sign that recent changes in the business of cricket are here to stay, Saturday's India-Pakistan one-day final of a tri-series failed to attract television viewers to the extent recent Indian Premier League matches did.
Sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports and direct-to-home operator Tata Sky may soon get entangled in a legal battle as Tata Sky has dropped ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket from its basic package offerings. The move, according to ESPN's lawyers, may go against a recent Delhi high court order that restrains Tata Sky to do so, but the second largest DTH operator maintains that it is operating within the permissible rules.
This means the cable companies engaged in last-mile distribution of TV channels will qualify for the existing 49 per cent FDI limit, while operators of DTH, HITS, IPTV and multi-system operators will be able to bring in up to 74 per cent FDI, a limit proposed by broadcast regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
This move will make Dish TV, an Essel Group company, the first DTH operator to have installed their DTH services in consumer homes, cars, buses, aircraft, cruise liners and on trains. "Dish everywhere is our motto. We aim to provide our DTH services across all platforms, whether moving, flying or stationary," a senior Dish TV executive said. This move is likely to help the company market its services to the potential consumers more effectively.
The regulator may ask broadcasters to abide by the tribunal's pricing formula.
The govt was supposed to issue the CAS expansion notification by April 30. The expansion of the conditional access system beyond southern parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and subsequently to 55 more cities, may be further delayed with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting seeking a detailed report from the cable industry on tackling piracy of pay channels after the system comes into effect.
The price-war has begun in the direct-to-home market with the country's largest DTH company Dish TV with over three million subscribers getting ready to offer its connection virtually free. Any consumer who wants to buy a Dish TV connection will not have to pay for the set-top box, the hardware essential to access DTH services, which normally costs Rs 2,500.
Commercials aired during the original show time will also be re-run without charging advertisers additional fee, said sources. In other words, an advertiser will get three times more air time on Star Plus for the same amount it had paid originally.
The battle for subscribers in the direct-to-home space is set to get hotter, with new player Big TV expected to fire a price war. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's Big TV will be commercially launched sometime in May and is looking at tying up over 5 to 5.5 million subscribers even before its launch.
According to the ratings data released by the online media ratings agency Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd (aMap) for April 25-27, SetMax not only got higher average viewership ratings than Star Plus between 8 pm and 9 pm, when the quiz show aired, but the average time spent on SetMax (40 minutes) was double what viewers spent on Star Plus.
In order to take on the competition posed by the direct-to-home (DTH) operators, large cable distribution companies will soon bring in their own digital-quality cable television offerings in select cities at competitive fees and offer quality service support.
Bollywood's King of Romances Yash Chopra is flexing his muscle once again over revenue-sharing with theatre chains.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances