NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has been authorised to demand mandatory sharing of signals for important sports events since a law was passed in this regard in 2007, but it does not cover All India Radio.

With Team India having won two one day internationals on home ground after the humiliating tour of England, Prasar Bharati has taken umbrage to Neo Cricket refusing to sharing signals with AIR.

AIR sources, who confirmed that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had agreed to talk to the Board for Control of Cricket in India on this issue, said Neo Sports had been approached well in advance by AIR for sharing signals but had received a negative response.

These sources told indiantelevision.com that the Empowered Committee of Prasar Bharati dealing with this issue had then conveyed the matter to the Ministry with their resentment on the issue.

Neo Sports, which possesses the rights for broadcasting cricket played in India, had demanded that Prasar Bharati should accept a new revenue sharing model failing which it denied signals to AIR - which is the only radio channel permitted to broadcasts cricket commentary or news in India.

Sources said AIR has been paying up to $6000 per match in order to buy the broadcast rights, but Neo Sports had refused to even accept $6250. Instead, Neo Sports is demanding a 50:50 revenue sharing model.

Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco said that the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act ("Sports Act") clearly states that, in the case of radio coverage for International ODIs featuring India, all advertising revenues generated from the same must be shared in the ratio of 50:50 between both parties.

"Since the inception of the Sports Act, Nimbus has repeatedly urged AIR to follow the Law as required by the same in broadcasting radio commentary of International cricket events. However ,AIR has steadfastly refused to share revenues and instead offered meagre amounts as license fees, many times amounting to less than 10 per cent of total revenues generated."

He added that it is a matter of record that AIR made revenues of Rs 12 million for India versus New Zealand series last year and paid Nimbus a license fee of approximately Rs 1.9 million.

"It is, thus, very obvious that AIR has routinely manipulated its position to ensure that AIR makes enormous profits by not abiding by the Sports Act and by offering meagre amounts in the form of License Fees."

Giving more figures, Colaco said that in the England Tour of Indian 2008 it is understood that AIR made revenues of Rs 21 million ($470,000 ). Despite this revenue potential, AIR has offered Nimbus a license fee of $36,000 i.e. approximately Rs 1.7 million for the current England tour.
Meanwhile, the Prasar Bharati and the Ministry are writing to BCCI asking it to take up the issue with Neo Sports and also to ensure that in future it does not sell the frequency to such companies which themselves do not have the broadcasting facilities and are not ready to share feed with AIR.

Relations between Neo Sports and Prasar Bharati are not too good, with the live telecast of the second ODI on Doordarshan having started late, with both sides blaming the other for the last minute permission under the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

At present, the revenue split under the Act is 75:25 in favour of Neo, although the Empowered Committee has already demanded that this should be raised to 50:50 so that DD can earn more.

The provision under the Act says that any rights holder to "sporting events of national importance" (India?s international ODIs fall in that ambit) have to share the television feed with DD, and there is no reference to AIR in the Act.

NEW DELHI: Neo Cricket and Prasar Bharati have run into a row and blamed each other for the delayed telecast of the first one day international between India and England on Doordarshan.

Neo Cricket, the telecast rights holder, accused Prasar Bharati for delay in giving uplinking clearance, because of which viewers missed the first few balls of the match.

Neo Cricket said they were given the clearance after 2.30 pm only, after they submitted the bank guarantee by 12.37 pm as demanded by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Neo Cricket said it is "deeply disappointed" by what it believes could be construed to be unreasonable behaviour by Prasar Bharati and intends to approach the Government after consultation with industry bodies with a request that appropriate rules be framed to govern future events such that the process and rules governing the sharing of events with Prasar Bharati are equitable and reasonable.

However, DD sources told indiantelevision.com that the Neo application was not in accordance with the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007. The sources said application was made by Nimbus on 30 August, 45 days before the match in accordance with the Act, but Nimbus had mid-way changed the channel to Neo Cricket and, thus, the mandatory period of 45 days was not met.

Explaining its reasons for the late start of the live telecast of the match, Neo Cricket in a statement late in the evening blamed Doordarshan and the Government for its unreasonable demand of asking for the bank guarantee of Rs 40 million nine days before it was actually due. 

Neo Cricket said that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had sent a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after office hours yesterday stating that "uplink permission would be granted to BCCI only if Neo would submit a bank guarantee by the morning of today that is, in a few business hours to Prasar Bharati."

The statement added that this was despite the fact that Prasar Bharati?s own draft agreement stated that the bank guarantee was required to be furnished five days after the agreement was signed. It said Neo was given no choice but to accede to the demand of Prasar Bharat to ensure that the cricket loving public in India would get to see the cricket match.

Despite submitting the bank guarantee, Neo said, the uplink license to BCCI and Neo Cricket was issued past the match start time of 2:30 pm resulting in no coverage for the first few balls of the match.

Relating the sequence of events, Neo said despite repeated follow ups from Neo Cricket after 30 August, including three letter reminders and multiple phone calls, Prasar Bharati refused to confirm whether it wanted to share the live broadcast of the event. Finally on 9 October, a mere five days before the first match and a whole 40 days after receiving the original notification letter, Prasar Bharati wrote an email to Neo confirming that it wanted to share the live feed of the match and asking for a meeting on the next day to appoint the Revenue Management Company (RMC) for the match.

It may be noted that the RMC is the company responsible for selling advertising on the broadcast of the match on Doordarshan and is appointed by a process in which both Neo and Prasar Bharati are required to make sealed bids.

The RMC meet was held on the evening of 10 October, and awarded to Neo following the sealed bid process. On 12 October, Prasar Bharati submitted a draft agreement to Neo for comments and signature. This draft clearly stated that it wanted Neo to submit the bank guarantee of Rs 40 million within five days of signing of the agreement.

Neo was hoping the agreement would be signed by 13 or 14 October and the guarantee would be submitted on 19 or 20 October. Therefore when the Ministry sent its letter to BCCI, Neo said it "was obviously taken aback by this unreasonable demand of Prasar Bharati and requested a meeting to discuss the issue, and the meeting was held this morning".

NEW DELHI: An ordinance is expected to be promulgated shortly to make changes in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 following the recommendations of a Group of Ministers which examined various issues relating to the pubcaster.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has done a comprehensive review of the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act and has recommended certain amendments to the Act, which have been approved by the Law Ministry.

Asked why these amendments could not wait for the winter session of Parliament, Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that the posts of Chief Executive Officer as well as Member (Personnel) were becoming vacant in December and October respectively, and the Government wanted to take new incumbents under new rules. 

The GoM also considered the various recommendations of the High Level Committee on the Commonwealth Games headed by V K Shunglu with regard to the pubcaster.

Acting against the then CEO B S Lalli had proved to be a long process with the Ministry approaching the President through the Prime Minister and the apex court appointing a Judge to probe the charges. The amendments also aim at simplifying this process and by instituting a three member panel comprising the Vice -President, Chairman of the Press Council of India and a nominee of the government, currently responsible for appointments of top officials ? to take action in such cases.

Inefficiency, indiscipline and misbehaviour are also sought to be added as grounds for removal of a CEO, or the DGs of All India Radio and Doordarshan, apart from the permanent members of the Prasar Bharati Board.

The GoM in particular made recommendations regarding the relationship between the Government and Prasar Bharati and the CEO and the Prasar Bharati Board.

Not merely that, but the GoM had also recommended addition of two more permanent members: Member (Technical) and Member (Marketing).

Earlier this year, the GoM also studied the recommendations of a Committee of four joint secretaries on disparity in pay scales of Prasar Bharati employees and also made some recommendations with regard to the waiver of some dues from Prasar Bharati. The Committees for studying the amendments to the Act and the pay scale anomalies had been formed by the GoM headed by P Chidambaram in June last year.

The GoM had also given its recommendations on the Prasar Bharati Board?s proposal that the Government should meet 100 per cent of the expenses on salaries and allowances of the employees and 50 per cent of operating expenses of Prasar Bharati, while the pubcaster will meet the balance 50 per cent of the operating expenses.The existing provision requires Prasar Bharati to generate at least 50 per cent of its operating expenses as commercial revenue.

The long-pending Recruitment Rules for 196 cadres of employees in Prasar Bharati were considered for forwarding to Government. Non-existence of these Rules ever since Prasar Bharati came into being in 1997 was a major reason for the huge backlog in filling up the vacancies and making vital appointments, something which has come under heavy criticism in Parliamentary Committees.

NEW DELHI: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has sought the Government?s response on the petition filed by employees? associations challenging their de-recognition by Prasar Bharati.

A bench comprising Member Judicial Meera Chhibber and Member Administration Dr A K Misra directed the government to reply by 17 October on the plea of the employees for derecognising their unions.

The three petitioners - Association of Radio and TV Engineering Employees (ARTEE), AIR and DD Technical Employees Association, and the Programme Staff Association had approached CAT after Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court earlier this week said all matters under service rules should first be heard by the Tribunal and only an appeal can come to the Court.

The Associations had last week approached the Delhi High Court challenging the office order of 8 September de-recognising all associations. The Court heard the matter for three days.

The petitioners have alleged that Prasar Bharati had not only de-recognised their associations but also transferred 500-odd employees including 24 office bearers of various associations to different parts across the country.

According to the petitioners, nine associations of employees were formally recognised by the management and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has been talking to their representatives on various issues.

However, the order of 8 September said no association of employees of the pubcaster is recognised and, therefore, no employee can be given preferential treatment.

It further said all employees are to be treated in a fair and transparent manner and nullified an earlier order issued by Director General of All India Radio on 18 December 2008.

The staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan protested against this move and observed a day-long dharna from 10 am to 5 pm without disrupting work on 21 September.

In addition to the Union of India, the Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Prasar Bharati Chairperson Mrinal Pande, and nominated member and officiating CEO Rajiv Takru have been named as respondents in the petition.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has referred to the Central Administrative Tribunal a petition challenging the decision of Prasar Bharati de-recognising all associations of employees.

The Court said after hearing the matter for three days that all cases under Service Rules should be heard by the Tribunal and should only come to the Court if there is an appeal.

On commencement of the hearing on 23 September, the Court had rejected a plea by counsel for the pubcaster seeking dismissal of the plea.

According to the petitioners, nine associations of employees were formally recognised by the management and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has been talking to their representatives on various issues.

 
However, an order issued on 8 September said no association of employees of the pubcaster is recognised and, therefore, no employee can be given preferential treatment.

It further said all employees are to be treated in a fair and transparent manner and nullified an earlier order issued by Director General of All India Radio on 18 December 2008.
The staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan protested against this move and observed a day-long dharna from 10 am to 5 pm without disrupting work on 21 September.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati earned revenue of Rs 3.29 billion for the fiscal first-quarter ended June.

Doordarshan?s contribution was Rs 2.08 billion while All India Radio?s (AIR) net commercial revenue stood at Rs 1.11 billion. Other resources earned Rs 101.1 million for the three months ended June 2011.

Prasar Bharati?s net revenue for 2010-11 ? subject to reconciliation ? was Rs 12.76 billion, of which Rs 9.44 billion came from DD and Rs 2.57 billion from AIR as net commercial revenue. A total of Rs 746 million came from other resources.

Prasar Bharati?s net revenue in 2009-10 was Rs 11.46 billion, of which the net commercial revenue from DD and AIR was Rs 8.28 billion and Rs 2.16 billion respectively, with Rs 1.02 billion coming from other resources.

In comparison, the total revenue in 2008-09 was Rs 10.01 billion, of which DD and AIR contributed commercial revenue of Rs 7.37 billion and Rs 1.94 billion respectively. A sum of Rs 694.4 million came from other resources.

Interestingly, Prasar Bharati itself owes a total amount of Rs 13.05 billion as on 31 March to various ministries and departments on account of space segment and spectrum charges, for which waiver has been sought by the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati.

While Doordarshan owed Rs 10.94 billion, AIR has an outstanding of Rs 2.11 billion on account of space segment and spectrum charges.

DD and AIR owe Rs 4.47 billion and Rs 324 million as spectrum charges respectively to the WPC Wing of the Department of Telecommunications. Similarly, DD and AIR have to pay Rs 6.47 billion and Rs 1.79 billion as space segment charges to the Indian Space Research Organisation.