"The entire broadcasting industry, not only in
India, but
internationally, is poised for a metamorphosis. Many channels have
already gone pay, but soon technology will make it possible for a
subscriber to pay for the number of minutes for which he has watched
a channel," Dasgupta said.
According to the SET India chief, the future would be technology
driven and, at present, broadcasters have no control over technology
and its developments. Dasgupta also felt that in the coming days
"viewership would get broken up in bits and pieces and technology
would enable subscribers to even zap ads and also clear ads."
"The time is round the corner when people would watch what
they want and when they want it," Dasgupta said.
Quickly linking this march of technology with the topic of the
seminar, which was incidentally sponsored by Star, amongst others,
Dasgupta exclaimed, "It is very difficult for broadcasters
to control what is happening and therefore they can not control
piracy too. Cable operators have been picking up signals without
paying for them, leading to a huge loss for those who (have) invested
in the rights."
And it’s not just the cable ops who have been flouting the copyright
laws, Dasgupta pointed out, citing the instances of various cinema
halls in the country holding (illegal) special shows of the last
cricket World Cup matches on a commercial basis by showing signals
that were technically not theirs.
So, what’s the solution? There is no one solution, but one, according
to Dasgupta, for broadcasters could be to "own as many rights
to content as possible and going forward, channels will have to
create a lot of their content" so that the copyright lies with
them and with others to be unlawfully exploited.
If Dasgupta’s presentation bristled through some important and
unusual aspects of broadcast industry’s growth in times of piracy
and on the eve of a global law being proposed to curb such activities;
broadcast and cable sector’s chief regulator Pardip Baijal did not
waver much from the oft-trodden path.
Sample this. "The recommendations on issues relating to broadcasting
and distribution of TV channels made by the Authority will protect
the interests of existing players. The idea is not to kill an existing
business, but to allow new technologies to help increase business,"
said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Baijal.
The entire business model should not collapse as it has been seen
that in the markets where the regulator has not been able to intervene
effectively, entire markets have “collapsed,” he said.
While referring to the possibilities of Unified Licensing becoming
a law, Baijal pointed out that the only "salvation for India"
would be the "availability" of all services on one platform.
This would, for example, see how voice-over-Internet can be allowed
"without killing existing players."
According to Baijal, the passage of this law on unified licensing
regime is expected to lead to fierce competition at the delivery
platform level, leading to very aggressive rates, which would lead
to market expansion.
To substantiate this point, Baijal referred to the mobile telephony
experience. Last year when Trai reduced the tariffs, all operators
were up in arms against the regulator. "However, the reduction
lead to a three-fold increase in the market, thus helping the operators
to wipe out losses
accumulated over the last six-seven years," he added.
While dwelling on the point of regulating the use of Internet to
curb piracy, Baijal said that technology is in many ways counter
productive, as it has killed many businesses. For example, he said,
telephony over the Internet is possible due to digitisation, but
that is exactly what has also allowed piracy, where operators have
completely bypassed the licensed ones to make international calls.
Keeping to the usual was also Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma. He referred
to the proposed launch of a free KU-band DTH service from Doordarshan,
which has been in the making since July, and also used the platform
to send out signals to news channels to pay up for using excess
footage of the Olympics, for which DD had exclusive rights.
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