Major television channel broadcasters had a disappointing Friday as their application against TRAI’s move to impose the new tariff order could not be heard due to paucity of time, marking the second day the application has been listed and went unheard. Big broadcasters had approached the Bombay High Court earlier this week against TRAI’s Aug […]
Bombay High Court will tomorrow hear a plea filed by various channel broadcasters against TRAI’s direction two weeks ago asking them to publish new channel and pack prices in line new rules issued on Jan 1 this year. UPDATE: Hearing on the matter has been pushed to Friday, Aug 7. On January 1, TRAI had […]
Bharti Airtel, which announced a program to partner with cable operators after Reliance Jio acquired Den and Hathway, said it has cracked the best model for the partnership and is planning to rapidly expand the program in the next 6-12 months. Airtel announced its cable operator collaborative program in late 2018, and has been trying […]
Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, hinted that his company may follow suit after Sony Pictures Networks shut down some channels due to evolving market conditions. “We constantly re-evaluate our portfolio of content offering that’s out there, whether in linear form or digital form. And we have taken certain decisions in the […]
Punit Goenka, the MD and CEO of content maker Zee Entertainment Enterprises, expressed reservations about the possibility of implementing TRAI’s revised tariff order in the current financial year. Responding to an investor query on what impact he saw the implementation of the January 1 tariff order would have on his company’s subscription incomes this year, […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said it is abandoning its voluntary restraint in the implementation of new TV channel pricing rules announced on January 1 as channel broadcasters are taking advantage of the same to push through price increases. TRAI has so far not taken any action against those who did not implement its […]
GTPL Hathway, the country’s second biggest cable feed provider, has been forced to postpone the launch of its hybrid Android set-top-box for the second time after the COVID-19 pandemic hit its supply line. The company had originally planned to launch a new Android-based set-top-box, similar Tata Sky Binge+ and Airtel XStream, on April 1, but […]
In keeping with the recently announced move to decriminalize smaller offences — especially those of a technical or financial nature — Government of India today proposed to remove jail terms for violating Cable TV Networks Regulation Act. At present, the violation of the cable TV Act can result in jail terms of up to two […]
Bharti Airtel has become the first major DTH or cable company to free up its content app, Airtel XStream, from its hardware. All other major cable and DTH companies in India offer their app only on their own device — typically a stick or a set-top-box — and do not allow the software to be […]
Five regional Hindi news channels were among the 15 that found themselves in the results of the 46th e-auction for broadcasting on the DD Free Dish DTH platform. These channels have won the right to transmit their signals on the country’s largest TV channel distribution system for a period of one year from July 1. […]
Sun TV Network, which operates television channels such as Sun TV, Udaya TV and Gemini TV, saw a 41% fall its revenue from advertising and other non-subscription sources during the three months from January to March 2020. The company, which owns the Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL team, was hurt by the impact of Coronavirus on the […]
India’s Coronavirus lockdown seems to have led to a sharp increase in demand for televisions sold via online retailers, according to inputs from Dixon Technologies, India’s biggest maker of TVs. Company CEO Atul Lall said that while the demand and sales of other consumer durables dipped during the lockdown, demand for TVs rose. Dixon Technologies, […]
FYI TV18, the most watched ‘lifestyle’ channel in India, will shut down on July 8, TV18 group said, while announcing an increase in the prices of several of its channel packages and the conversion of a free channel into pay. FYI SHUT DOWN The move to shut down FYI TV18 makes the channel the latest […]
Prasar Bharti, India’s public broadcaster which operates DD Free Dish satellite TV service, has given five slots on the DTH platform to major private sector broadcasters such as Star India, Sony Pictures Networks, TV18 Broadcast and Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Two slots have been allocated to Zee Entertainment Enterprises, while one each has been allocated to […]
Data costs on Reliance Jio network have gone up again as the operator has withdrawn its only data-only data and has made it mandatory for all consumers to also activate a voice pack to consume data services. The only data-only plan it had on offer — Jio Cricket Pack — used to give 2 GB […]
After oil producers, metro rail operators, pipeline operators, power distributors and railways, it is the turn of cable operators to feel the impact of the AGR judgment of a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra last year. In October last year, the bench had ruled that any company that took a license from […]
Premium Hindi general entertainment channels, including Star Plus, Zee TV and Colors, have seen a sharp decline in their viewership during the COVID-19 lockdown, even as viewership of Doordarshan, movie channels and news channels have seen sharp increases, reveals ratings from BARC, India’s largest TV ratings agency. Even as general TV viewership increased, no category […]
Government of India has “requested” cable and DTH operators to not disconnect those subscribers who do not recharge or pay their monthly bill during the COVID-19 lock-down. The request has been made based on two justifications: First, doing so will help keep the people indoors, and second, it will help counter fake news that spreads […]
Prasar Bharati has set up a committee to explore an alternative way of allowing private TV channels to use its DD Free Dish DTH service without going through an auction process. Traditionally, private channels have to pay crores of rupees per year if they want to get a slot on the free satellite broadcasting (DTH) […]
Four pay channels — Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, Colors Rishtey and Sony Pal — are likely to go ‘free to air’ for two months from today. These channels had earlier been put in a ‘promotional scheme’ while remaining pay channels, with their prices slashed from Rs 1-2/month to Rs 0. This was intended to increase […]
