Mumbai: Broadcasters on Wednesday night will begin the phased genre-wise pullout of analogue television channels from the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai three weeks ahead of the complete shift to digitised delivery from 1 November.

The switching off of analogue signals of all English movie channels will start from 11 pm. They will serve a big jolt on 12 October by shutting analogue signals of Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) for two hours between from 2 pm on Friday, 12 October, before going ahead with the switching off of analogue signals of more genres.

In a letter to multi-system operators (MSOs), Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) president and Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh said analogue signals of Hindi movie channels will be switched off in the four metros from 11 pm on 15 October, followed by English, Hindi and business news channels from 11 pm on 18 October and Hindi GECs from 11 pm on 22 October. A copy of that letter is with Indiantelevision.com.

The decision to switch off analogue channels in the four metro as part of the final push for digitisation was taken during discussions held under the aegis of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Will there not be a consumer reaction? "For subscribers who will demand these channels, we are ready to install free digital set-top boxes till 31 October. They can then watch these channels. They will need to pay for the digital services only after 31 October. Since this is a short window, there shouldn‘t be a problem," a senior executive of a leading MSO said on condition of anonymity.

MSOs who have not agreed to the switch off will, however, continue to get these channels. The major MSOs like Hathway Cable & Datacom, Den, Siticable and Digicable have, however, agreed for a genre-wise switch off ahead of digitisation.

The government on Wednesday said an average of 77 per cent of cable TV homes in the four metros have installed set-top boxes required for receiving digital television signals, led by Mumbai with 99 per cent of homes digitised. Kolkata follows with 73 per cent homes digitised, Delhi 66 per cent and Chennai 59 per cent.

As agreed during meetings at the I&B Ministry, MSOs will be giving separate letters to the broadcasters as per a draft prepared by the IBF requesting them to switch off analogue signals. MSOs are required to give complete details of the analogue signals they receive along with the letter. Such request letters were sought from MSOs as otherwise switching off analogue signals would not have been legally tenable, particularly after a recent order by the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) on a petition by ESPN Star Sports barring MSOs from switching off analogue signals of its sports channels before 1 November.

Also read:

Broadcasters, MSOs agree for genre-wise switch off ahead of 1 November

New Delhi: Indian broadcaster New Delhi Television (NDTV) has cut down on its staff strength, mostly in Mumbai.

NDTV Group CEO KVL Narayan Rao told Indiantelevision.com that only around 40 people, most of them from Mumbai had been asked to go out of a total workforce of 1800 members.

He said this step had been taken only where "we found we were over staffed, and to build a more robust organisation."

It had been reported in the media that this step was taken by the broadcaster in order to curtail costs. Reacting to this Rao said, "We would have taken this step even if we had achieved great profits. It is the part of every vibrant organisation to trim itself from time to time."

Another spokesperson from the broadcaster confirmed that 40 to 50 people from its Mumbai bureau had been given the pink slip after Ernst and Young reported that it was over staffed. "In April, we had identified the people who had to be laid off and had given them options to either change their post/position or their city. It is only after they have refused to do either that we have taken this step," the spokesperson informed.

It is learnt that apart from its internal study, NDTV had also sought the help of Ernst & Young to make suggestions to make the organization more vibrant.

The employees that have been asked to leave are all from the junior to mid level in the hierarchy.

MUMBAI: Mumbai-based club RN Sports Club, backed by a celebrity and a businessman, is willing to purchase the Deccan chargers team outright and bypass the bidding process.

The club located in South Mumbai is willing to pay Rs 9-11 billion for the team and will have a meeting with Deccan Chronicle tomorrow.

According to the club?s marketing head Ankush Tripathi, the BCCI has also been informed of the intention.

"There is a clause in the bid document which allows a party to buy the franchise if the owners agree. We do not want to go through the bid process. RN Sports Club management is constantly in conversations with the BCCI and the Deccan Chargers management for this deal," he tells Indiantelevision.com.

Tripathy believes the breakeven period can be achieved in three years. "The team will retain the same name and be based in Hyderabad. As per the terms in the bid document, this cannot be changed," he says.

The club?s promoter is Vijay Barhate. The aim of R.N. Sports club is to promote cricket. "We have been wanting to purchase an IPL team since IPL-4, as we already conduct various successful talent hunt camps at an all India school level. We have also done talent hunt camps aboard, We have cricket coaching centres in several places including Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. We also have cricket academies in Mumbai. The aim of purchasing our own team is to promote the young cricketers of nation."

Interestingly R.N. Sports Club had a deal with Rajasthan Royals for running a talent hunt. Tripathi says that the MoU expired and so the club chose not to renew it. Earlier Rajasthan Royals had said that it had terminated the deal over non payment of dues which Tripathi flatly denied. For him, owning a franchise is the next step.

Other names doing the rounds who could bid for the franchise include Videcon, Adani Group and former Satyam COO Srini Raju who is now Peepul Capital co-founder, chairman.

New Delhi: Any attempt to justify the conduct of the news television channels for their live coverage of the terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26 November 2008 by citing the right to freedom of speech and expression would be totally wrong and unacceptable, the Supreme Court has said.

In its judgment confirming the death sentence of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the court said ?the freedom of speech and expression, like all other freedoms under Article 19, is subject to reasonable restrictions.?

In a strong rebuke of the electronic media, Justices Aftab Alam and CK Prasad said ?an action tending to violate another person?s right to life guaranteed under Article 21 or putting the national security in jeopardy can never be justified by taking the plea of freedom of speech and expression?.

?It is beyond doubt that the way their (security forces) operations were freely shown made the task of the security forces not only exceedingly difficult but also dangerous and risky.?

?It is in such extreme cases that the credibility of an institution is tested. The coverage of the Mumbai terror attack by the mainstream electronic media has done much harm to the argument that any regulatory mechanism for the media must only come from within.?

The Judges said the shots and visuals that were shown live by the TV channels could have also been shown after all the terrorists were neutralised and the security operations were over. But in that case the TV programmes would not have had the ?same shrill, scintillating and chilling effect and would not have shot up the TRP ratings of the channels?.