Prasar Bharati – VikkiChoudhry

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS ON THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT OF The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS OF -CONSUMER OF TELEVISION SERVICES, LAST MILE SERVICE PROVIDERS AND THE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM OPERATORS DPOs ON THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT OF The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007 has been enacted with the objective to provide free access of events of national importance to 100 + crore citizens as reflected in the Parliamentary debate to the bill. The Government of India has power under Sec. 2(1) (s) of this 2007 Act, to declare any sporting event as event of national importance, which can be accessed on a free to air basis by citizen to protect citizens’ cultural right to have unhindered access to such events. Since, every citizen cannot be physically present in the stadium to watch sports events or can afford the payment of exorbitant subscription fee being charged on a monthly basis, towards the Pay TV Channel(s) subscription telecasting these events of national importance.

The union parliament, passed this law in 2007 to provide free to air basis access to them. The 2007 act, has been made in the line of ‘Listed events’ of UK and ‘anti- siphoning list’ of Australia, whereby these events are protected for free to air access to the citizens. In UK and Australia, these are protected events as part of cultural rights of the citizens and recognized in European Union also. Objective is to curb commercial monopoly and exploitation, and to facilitate and protect the cultural rights of citizens.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007 is nothing but the adoption of well-established global regulation and practices adopted by all civilized nations, to protect the interest of its citizen’s with respect to, cultural rights, sporting events, etc. of national or international importance and use of airwaves in public good.

Since August 2017 Indian citizens have been deprived from watching sports events of national and international importance on Prasar Bharti DD channels , such as , Commonwealth Games , French Open, ODI World Cup of Women, South East Asian Games, Australia Open, Winter Olympics , FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon, Asian Games, Summer Youth Olympics, US Open, Women Hockey World Cup, Indian Premiere League Cricket etc. The top 10 popular sports in India are :- Cricket including IPL, Football, Kabaddi , Badminton, Hockey, Tennis, Wrestling, Boxing, Motorsports and Basketball.

Whereas Prasar Bharati Doordarshan services are being operated on Indian tax payers’ contribution made to the public exchequer where the government provides a budgetary support to Prasar Bharati. Since there is tax payers’ money flowing into this Prasar Bharati Corporation, the government is equally answerable to the Parliament and as well to the citizens of this country especially the tax payers and the underprivileged.

The analogue terrestrial network and mode of transmission have become completely obsolete and redundant during the past one decade, that have been adequately replaced by the mandatory Digitalization of Television services. Whereas there aren’t any manufacturers or suppliers of the aluminum rod element based terrestrial Yagi Antenna that is necessarily required for tuning in towards terrestrial television transmission towers and thereafter receiving the analogue terrestrial transmissions signals of Prasar Bharati DD Channel (s)

Moreover if the consumers of TV services, have to compulsorily also get a DD FreeDish (DTH) installed for only watching the events of national and international importance in free-to-air mode, then why do they also have to pay a basic service charge of Rs. 130 plus GST each month to a Cable TV service provider or DTH service provider or an IPTV service provider, under the new TRAI notified tariff regulation of 2017 where the DPO (Distribution Platform Operator ) is also compulsorily carrying all the Prasar Bharti- DD channels under the mandated must carry provisions and notifications made by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India from time to time.

Whereas enumerated below are the few salient features of “The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007 (Act 11 of 2007) and rules made there under :

……5. Responsibility of a television or radio channel broadcasting the sporting event—If the television or radio broadcasting service provider is different from the content rights owner or holder, it shall be its duty to ensure that adequate arrangements for compliance with the provisions of the Act and the rules are made at the time of acquisition of the rights from the content rights owner or holder.

Manner of declaration of sporting events of national importance— (1) The list of sporting events of national importance shall be determined and notified by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in consultation with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Prasar Bharti.

(2) An event of national importance once included in the list shall remain a sporting event as such for a period of four years from the date of its inclusion unless deleted or withdrawn earlier.

(3) The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting may, review the list of sporting events of national importance at any time and at least once in the month of February of each calendar year as per sub-rule (1), and consider new proposals for inclusion or deletion and notify amendments, if any” ……….

However It becomes imperative to also state here, that the notifications made by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in consultation with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Prasar Bharti. “In exercise of the powers conferred under clause (s) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 (11 of 2007) read with sub-rule (1) of rule 6 of the Sports Broadcast Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati ) Rules 2007 have been being issued in the most arbitrary manner without considering relevant aspects and in complete apathy to common citizens of this country and their interest in sporting events.

Where by, an individual or a few decision makers in the Government cannot decide on behalf of 125 + crore citizens of this country w.r.t what event(s) is/ are of national and international importance. This undemocratic practice in past have led to manipulations / corruption, that was easily susceptible to mal practices with a compelling reason for not doing so in order to protect some private pay TV broadcasters’ commercial interests, monopoly and exploitation of these sports broadcasting rights and they have therefore failed to exercise its powers in a fair, just and transparent manner and such notifications run contrary to the Rights Guaranteed to the Citizens of India under Part III of the Constitution in addition to it being sans objective rules, International best practices or adequate mechanism to adequately address the interest of Millions of Viewers in the country.

As now, upon finally realizing its shortcomings of past few years, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, have invited comments and suggestion from the Stakeholders, industry and the public at large on its proposal to make the required amendments, due for a long time in The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007 . Wherein the DPOs and the end consumers of the television services (Public at large ) makes the following suggestions and recommendations in the 2007 Act: w.r.t inserting the relevant amendments.

3. Mandatory sharing of certain sports broadcasting signals.–(1) No content rights owner or holder and no television or radio broadcasting service provider shall carry a live television broadcast on any cable or Direct-to-Home network or radio commentary broadcast in India of sporting events of national / international importance, unless it simultaneously shares the live broadcasting signal, without its advertisements, with the Prasar Bharati to enable them to re-transmit the same on its terrestrial networks and Direct-to-Home networks and also on the Prasar Bharati Channel (s) that are being mandated for carrying compulsorily by (a) “distribution platform” means distribution network of a DTH operator, multi-system operator, HITS operator or IPTV operator; in such manner and on such terms and conditions as may be specified. (2) The terms and conditions under sub-section (1) shall also provide that the advertisement revenue sharing between the content rights owner or holder and the Prasar Bharati shall be in the ratio of not less than 75:25 (Insert and replace to 50:50 ) in case of television coverage and 50:50 (Insert and replace to 35 :65) in case of radio coverage. ( The duration of advertisement / commercials shown in a clock hour, shall not exceed the permissible duration as defined in Rule 7 (11) CTNR Act. 1995 and TRAI prescribed QoS and QoE Regulations of 2012)

6. Manner of declaration of sporting events of national importance— (1) The list of sporting events of national / international importance shall be determined and notified by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in consultation with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Prasar Bharti and the committee constituted of eminent citizens, sportspersons, Hon’ble Retd. Judges and members of civil society who only in consultation with each other decide on what event(s) is / are of national and international importance and the same shall be notified for mandatory sharing with – Prasar Bharati.

Broadcasting is a natural monopoly and governed by the principles of public utility

The airwaves or frequencies are a public property. Their use has to be controlled and regulated by a public authority in the interests of the public and to prevent the invasion of their rights. Since the electronic media involves the use of the airwaves, this factor creates an in-built restriction on its use as in the case of any other public property.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has also rightly held that the right to impart and receive information is a species of the right of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution. A citizen has a fundamental right to use the best means of imparting and receiving information and as such to have an access to telecasting for the purpose. However, this right to have an access to telecasting has limitations on account of the use of the public property

Whereas it’s a settled law that broadcasting is a natural monopoly and governed by the principles of public utility, which deal with the public at large under the license from Government to use the airwaves in fair manner

There are relevant laws enacted to protect interest of citizen’s such as

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act enacted in 2007. That aims to provide access to the largest number of listeners and viewers, on a free to air basis, of sporting events, which are of national importance through mandatory sharing of sports broadcasting signals with Prasar Bharati, the public broadcaster”

This is nothing but the adoption of well-established global regulation and practices adopted by all civilized nations, to protect the interest of its citizen’s with respect to, cultural rights, sporting events, etc. of national or international importance and use of airwaves in public good.

Citizens also have to collectively ensure compliances and periodically watch, that these laws enacted in their interest are not being violated or ignored for some vested interest.

My representation dated 28.02.2018 in #PublicInterest addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports : –

Reference: News article published in various News publications in the first week of December 2017 “IPL 2018: STAR India may be asked to share live cricket feed with Doordarshan”…..The I&B ministry is working on a proposal to make IPL available on Doordarshan and has asked the sports ministry to weigh in on the matter….

VC Letter to Secretary MIB MYAS copy to Prasar Bharati 28.02.2018

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS OF END-CONSUMERS OF TELEVISION SERVICES (THE PUBLIC AT LARGE) AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM OPERATORS (DPO)s i.e. (distributor of television channels” or “distributor” means any DTH operator, multi-system operator, HITS operator or an IPTV operator;) on the proposed amendment of The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007.

Comments and Suggestions on Sports Act 2007 Proposed Ammendment by VC

PrasarBharati losing huge potential advertisement revenue due to the increasing number of private TV channels on DD-Freedish DTH

Doordarshan channels were launched in India to disseminate news regarding matter of national and international importance as well as cultural programs and entertainment throughout the country. Doordarshan channels are funded from tax payers money by way of huge grants/subsidies received from Government of India. Government grant to the tune of about Rs 2400 crores were given in FY2014-15. Because of the inherent limitation of the obsolete terrestrial mode of transmission along with the cable operators’ reluctance to carry DD channels on their network due to the increasing popularity of private TV channels, the ‘must carry’ regulation was put in place by Government for compulsory carriage of all DD channels by the cable operators, DPOs

However, cable operators were still reluctant to carry all channels of DD on their network. As a result DD- Freedish DTH was launched in 2002 to ensure maximum access and reach of all the DD channels across TV households in the country including rural and remote areas. In fact recently launched TV channels (more than two dozen)of Ministry of HRD are not carried by any private distribution platform as same is not been mandated by any regulation.

What started as a good initiative was soon lost in sight as DD-Freedish began commercialization of its services by auctioning the slots to private channels thus resulting in private broadcasters capturing majority of the capacity and thereby increasing their reach at a very negligible rate. As a result relegating the interest of PrasarBharati and Doordarshan to the backburner.

A review of the ratings of Channels on DD-Freedish indicates that the ratings of Doordarshan are not even 10% of the ratings of the private broadcasters. The top rated 15 channels on DD-Freedish platform have ratings which range from 50-80 almost all of them are private TV channels. The DD channels languish at ratings of zero to 3 meaning that the DD channels are going unwatched. For this reason they also are losing hundreds of crores on advertising revenue, as the advertising revenues are dependent on viewership ratings.

The private broadcasters, while paying an average of about Rs 6-8 Crores per annum to DD-Freedish are now earning Rs 500-700 Crores per channel in advertising revenues due to the high reach obtained via DD-Direct while relegating DD channels to the category of unwatched channels, DD losing hundreds of crores in its own potential advertising revenues. The cause of DD is being sold out to private channels for a pitiful revenue of about Rs 98 crores (2014-15), Rs 180 crores (2015-15), Rs 275 crores (2016-17) barely covering the expenses, but on the other hand the loss per channel to DD is unmeasured, but estimated at over Rs 700-Rs 800 crores. Also by paying merely about Rs 200 crores as carriage fee the private broadcasters are earning about Rs 2000crores as advertisement revenues collectively from their FTA channels.

Moreover, private broadcaster leverage their respective Free-to Air (FTA) channels, on the DD-Freedish platform, to promote the programming of their pay channels at no cost to the broadcaster and no financial benefits accruing to PrasarBharati in the form of potential advertisement revenue.

It is evident from the viewership data that by pole-vaulting private channels to GRPs of 50-75, its own channels have been relegated to virtually no viewership as the ratings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha indicate (Zero ratings). Even DD-News run as a national news channel has a rating of just 3, which is 20 times lower than that those of a private channel n the same platform. The viewership have seen a steep decline. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, DD National no longer finds a place among the 10 most-watched Hindi general entertainment channels in the urban and rural viewership matrix. Among the top three channels in the rural markets are Zee Anmol, Sony Pal and Star Utsav. In 2015, DD National garnered 115 million impressions on an average, according to BARC India, while the most-viewed television channels like Star Plus, Colors and Zee TV, on an average, command anywhere between 400 million and 700 million impressions every year.

Pertinent to also mention that “ It is difficult to imagine that the country’s television measurement system is being controlled by select TV broadcasters, advertising agencies, pay TV channel aggregators and large FMCG companies – all having a direct stake in the outcomes and hence a strong motive to manipulate the ratings to their advantage. The fact that Star India sits on the Board of Directors while its’ channel, Star Plus, has been rated No. 1 in Hindi GEC for over more than a decade, does merit investigation and inspection into the methodology and the working of BARC the only Television Audience Measurement system in the country.

No efforts have been made by PrasarBharati management to improve the programming of DD channels. It is also understood that some leading production houses like Balaji Telefilms had evinced interest in the auction, but Doordarshan decided to scrap it, citing shortcomings etc., in the applications. The broadcaster had received many applications from production houses, including Ekta Kapoor-promoted Balaji Telefilms and Optymistix Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, which produces Comedy Nights Live on Colors, in the first round of the application process. As a result of this DD channels have very low advertisement from private sectors and heavily depending on Government and public sector department advertisements.

According to recent media reports which indicate that the Star TV group with a planning to launch of ‘Star Sports First’ in the free to air (FTA) genre, will target people who do not have access to pay television and have only watched sports content on Doordarshan. If this happens then advertisement revenue of DD channels will further reduce significantly. Doordarshan has seen its advertisement revenue decline from Rs911.01 crore in 2014-15 to Rs755.79 crore in 2015-16. In the past four years, its revenue has slipped by 26%, from Rs1, 025.78 crore in 2012-13 to Rs755.79 crore in 2015-16.

It is therefore necessary that immediate corrective steps should be taken and a policy regarding limiting the DD-Freedish slots to private TV broadcasters should be brought out immediately. Necessary action should also be initiated to check the reason for declining advertisement revenue of DD channels. In fact PrasarBharati should immediately take corrective measures to increase the advertisement revenue of DD.

In India, the task of television audience measurement is entrusted to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), a body promoted by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) which is primarily formed to protect and promote interests of pay TV Broadcasters; along with the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), IBF holds majority i.e. 60% equity in BARC.

The BARC Board of Directors is comprised of the CEOs and MDs of Star India Pvt. Ltd, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd, Multiscreen Media Pvt. Ltd, Zee Entertainment, Eenadu TV, Procter & Gamble, Godrej Consumer Products and others. Further, BARC has a Technical Committee and Sub Committees each for TV and Digital which too are predominantly comprised of the likes of Star India Pvt. Ltd and its subsidiaries. It is difficult to imagine that the country’s television audience measurement system is being controlled by select TV broadcasters, advertising agencies, pay TV channel aggregators and large FMCG companies – all having a direct stake in the outcomes and hence a strong motive to manipulate the ratings to their advantage.