NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) feels that the telecast of a Bangla dubbed version of the serial ?Mahabharata? by the late B R Chopra will not affect the fortunes of the film industry and, therefore, cannot be stopped.

It has also directed the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association to ?dispense? or modify from its articles of association, rules and regulations any move to oppose telecast of or ban of dubbed films or television serials.

Similarly, the Commission has asked the Co-ordination Committee of Artist and Technicians of West Bengal Film and Television Industry not to impose any restrictions in any manner on distribution and exhibition of the films or TV serials in the areas under its control.

The Commission has also decided to separately take action against members of the Coordination Committee (other than the EIMPA) for not filing any financial details in the present matter.

The directive came on a complaint filed by Sajjan Khaitan of Heart Video who was assigned a Power of Attorney by B.R. TV, Mumbai, the producer of the TV serial and was appointed the sub-assignor of Magnum TV Serials, Delhi, who had been entrusted the sole and exclusive right holders to dub the Hindi version of the serial in Bengali language for exploiting the Video, Satellite, Cable etc. of the said TV serial till September 2016.

Khaitan entered into agreement for time slot on revenue sharing basis for the telecast of dubbed serial with Bengal Media, Kolkata (owner of ‘Channel 10‘) and Calcutta Television Network, Kolkata (‘Owner of CTVN Plus Channel‘) in February 2011, but the two channels received letters asking them to desist from such telecasts.

Following the threat of a strike by the employees, Channel 10 discontinued the telecasts in March 2011 when approached through its chief advisor Mithun Chakraborty.

An investigation by the Director General of the CCI found that the number of television channels in Bengali language has been on the increasing trend for last many years. The telecast of Bengali language channels is done through satellite all over the world including Bangladesh, which makes Bengali language television channels a lucrative industry.

The information gathered shows that many new general entertainment channels in Bengali language have started recently. Thus the argument of the opposite parties regarding detrimental effect of dubbed version of ‘Mahabharata‘ serial on local industry is not based on facts.

According to the DG, there is a huge potential for the local film artistes. There is no empirical study or analysis to support the claim of the OP‘s that dubbed programs will lead to downfall of the local industry. In fact, these dubbed programs make the local industry improve the quality and efficiency to compete with the dubbed programs. Further no local producer was planning to produce a serial based on ‘Mahabharata‘, whom the telecast of dubbed version of the serial might have affected.

The DG has argued that it is not clear how a serial made in late eighties with old technology and limited budget can destroy the local industry which has no dearth of artistic, financial or technological resources.

The DG has further said the argument that by allowing telecast of dubbed serials the Bengali language film and TV industry will be affected and may result in joblessness of local artistes is also not valid. In the present era of information technology, all the popular programmes are available on Internet or by way of pirated CD/DVDs. In such a scenario it is very difficult to assess as to how the telecast of a legally licensed dubbed version of a serial could have affected the local industry.

MUMBAI: Viacom18, a joint venture of Network18 Group and US-based Viacom, has suffered losses for the fourth straight quarter, dragged down by new channel launches and its motion pictures business.

The loss for the fiscal first-quarter have, however, narrowed from the trailing quarter as revenue has started flowing from these channels. The increase in its expenses during the quarter ended June 30, 2012 was on account Rs 711 million spent on its earlier-shelved Hindi movie channel (against no expenses a year ago), a 53 per cent increase in its marketing and distribution costs to Rs 1.03 billion from Rs 674 million a year earlier.

The company reported a net loss in the first quarter of 2012-13 against a small profit a year earlier, due to losses in the motion pictures and new broadcasting businesses.

Viacom18, which owns a group of entertainment channels including flagship Hindi entertainment channel Colors, posted a net loss of Rs 249 million in the first quarter against a profit of Rs 26 million a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of 2011-12, the broadcaster had reported a net loss of Rs 337 million.

The company reported operating losses of Rs 166 million from new broadcasting operations and Rs 153 million from motion pictures business. Operating profit of Rs 238 million came from Viacom18?s continuing broadcasting operations.

Viacom18 said, "Our continuing business, including new operations, grew at about 12 per cent over the corresponding quarter last year. Colors turned in another steady quarter in the Hindi GEC space in a highly competitive market environment. It continues to be the No. 2 channel during weekday prime time with 5 shows that are slot leaders in their respective slots."

The operating losses in new broadcasting operations and motion pictures business pulled down the company?s overall operating profit by 87 per cent to Rs 24 million in the first quarter from Rs 189 million a year earlier.

The discontinued HMC and The Indian Film Company businesses earned the company operating profit of Rs 105 million against a loss of Rs 28 million, primarily because of the revenue flow of Rs 911 million from the sale of a library of 500 movies to Star India in January.

Viacom18?s total operating revenues were up 44 per cent in the first quarter of 2012-13 to Rs 4.0 billion (which included revenue realised from sale of the movie library) from Rs 2.76 billion a year earlier.

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry has rejected Hyderabad based VIL Media?s proposal to raise funds for a news and current affairs channel.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) rejected the proposal filed by the company for induction of foreign equity to carry out the business of uplinking news and current affairs television channel.

Meanwhile, the Ministry said Pared Media and Entertainment?s proposal does not require any post facto approval since the company has deleted all reference to broadcasting. 

The company had sought post facto approval for induction of foreign equity to carry out the business of film production and distribution of films, cinemas, motion pictures, television entertainment, animation and internet portals.

The proposal involved foreign direct investment/non resident Indian inflows of Rs 19.1 million ($3.96 million), which has already been received.