In his first major interaction with the top decision-makers at the CII CEOs Roundtable on Media and Entertainment held on June 19, Javadekar asked Broadcasters to reduce subscription fee, so that subscribers should also benefit from the implementation of digital addressable system (DAS).
Manufacturing of STBs: Putting all speculation to rest, the minister asserted that the government was committed to implementing Phases III and IV of DAS, but at the same time it wanted to give a fillip to the indigenous set-top box (STB) manufacturers.
While flagging the issue of domestic STB manufacturers, he affirmed that the process of digitisation will not be stalled because of that.
“As far as Phases III and IV are concerned, we have not abandoned it. As the STBs come from foreign countries, I have asked the secretary to bring some people who are ready with some plan on rolling out STB locally. Something should be manufactured here. Why should we import everything from China? But we will not delay just because of that,” Javadekar clarified.
On DTH Operators: Javadekar told DTH Operators, that with digitisation, their subscriber base has increased making their revenue grow. But so far only 4 crore (40 million) STBs have been seeded, which is just 25 per cent of the universe, while 75 per cent are still remain. He said he had no intention in delaying the digitalisation process wherever broadcasters benefited enormously, what is the trade-off for the government. He stated that government was committed for making benefits of digitalisation reach the mass which has not happened.
“Digitisation has resulted in increasing your subscriber base as you have reached up to 4 billion houses and revenues have grown. But what has been done is just 25 percent and we want to do the rest also. But what are you doing for viewers? I am asking for a trade-off. Will you reduce the subscription of the consumer?
In a lighter vein, the minister also asked DTH operators to pay at least 50 per cent of the Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) licence fee that is due. He also promised to look into the issue of reduction of DTH licence fee while emphasising that multiple taxation was the main issue.
Time-Bound Mechanism a Priority: Javadekar said that Modi government has promised a stable policy regime with transparency and time-bound mechanism and said efforts would be streamlined so as to make the process of clearances speedy and transparent.
“There won’t be any further delays; the word ‘delay’ has now been deleted. This government is about communication and consensus. We will create a process in which a decision will be taken in four weeks which was earlier taking four months,” Javadekar said.
Carrying Doordarshan: He also asked DTH and cable TV operators to sincerely carry Doordarshan channels on their networks. He was unhappy that Doordarshan channels were not reaching consumer on DTH or Cable TV.
News on FM Radio: Javadekar said that the Government is looking into the issue of allowing private radio players to broadcast news.
“I am unable to understand the logic that 24x7 news channels are allowed to show news but radio channels are not. We are looking at this issue positively and we will take decision on this soon,” he said.
Community Radio Stations: Javadekar has announced a move to set up a large network of community radio stations in the country.
“The government is keen to open a 1,000 community radio stations which operate in a radius of 15 to 20 km each,” said Javadekar after a closed-door meeting with top executives from the media and entertainment industry. “You talk about setting up 1,000 private FM radio stations, but the government will also encourage the expansion of community radio network,” he said.
Cross holdings in media: At a time when an increasing number of corporates are taking control of media organisations and paid media is becoming an issue of concern, Prakash Javadekar said that cross-media ownership is a ‘serious issue that needs to be discussed and debated.
Ads on Pay channels: He showed surprise that why channels earn from ads and also want subscribers to pay for them.
“Should I (the consumer) pay more and watch more advertisements as well? You say what you can do there," Javadekar told the top executives present.
Decency in advertisement: Javadekar said there were issues related to the advertising code which those in the field should address. "Somebody applies a deodorant and all women come running, this is demeaning and not the way an advertisement should be," he said.
"I am not saying that the government is imposing anything but as I have said earlier the industry should evolve a code about what is decent and what is not decent," he said.
Conspicuously this time in the Roundtable CII decided to keep Cable Operators and Independent MSOs out of it, which otherwise have been always represented in the past many years. Probably, CII thought there was a clash of interest between the sponsors of the event and the cable operators.
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/5272-cq-consumers-must-benefit-from-digitalisation-prakash-javadekar.html
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