NEW DELHI: For those who believe that the government is sure to shift the digitisation deadline for Phase II, there is a cautionary note. Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari has made it clear that an extension of datelines can turn out more harmful.

Tewari, who took over as I&B minister two days before the deadline for the first phase of DAS in four metros, said he did not relent under pressure to extend the deadline.

?I was under tremendous amount of pressure to relax the deadline of phase I, but we decided that we would stay the course. I knew the pitfalls of reneging on deadline and the implications it has on the entire process,? Tewari revealed.

Tewari today said he would have preferred a social contract wherein all stakeholders came together to implement digitisation by taking each other into confidence rather than pushing it down the throat of consumers through a legal mandate.

Giving a keynote at Infocom?Assocham Mets Forum 2013, Tewari said a social contract would have been consensual way of implementing digitisation. He also said that digitisation was eventually between broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSOs), local cable operators (LCOs) and consumers.

?A social contract would have been possibly the most consensual way of taking this course forward. But the government in its wisdom thought it will do it in a legal compact by mandating it,? Tewari said.

He also stressed on the need to take all the stakeholders on board for smooth implementation of DAS (Digital Addressable System) going forward in the remaining phases.

?No stakeholder in this process should feel shortchanged and that?s a responsibility that the industry has to take upon itself so that all the stakeholders are on board and it?s a win-win situation for all,? Tewari stated.

?As we go into phase II, phase III and phase IV we would want the industry to walk that extra mile to get all their recalcitrant fellow travelers on board.?

He also said that the industry needs to move faster on the Broadcasters Audience Research Council (Barc) to replace the current television audience measurement system which is inadequate considering the size of the Indian television industry.
?I will not get into the debate whether a particular model is flawed or kosher because of a lack of alternative but I think it would worthwhile for the broadcasting industry to really move on the Barc. It?s unfair to the broadcasting industry and it?s unfair for the advertisers to have such a small sample which determines how thousands of crores of advertising revenue is spent,? he asserted.

Tewari also assured that the government would walk the extra mile should the industry fast-track the process of forming Barc.

?I don?t know why there is hesitation in the industry to move on it, but I can assure that if the industry decides to take the first step forward we will walk the extra mile to implement Barc provided the industry puts it in the front burner,? he averred.

In a veiled reference to news broadcasters, the minister said that the quality of discourse has to be in tune with the steps taken by the government to correct the flawed business model that exists. He said that the digitisation would in the long run help correct the flawed business model that is currently dependent on ad revenue.

?We are told that the reason why the discourse is so sensational because the ad pie is decided by those 8,000 meters. As we go on digitising, it is important that the stakeholders in media industry need to realise that because the discourse was sensational due to flawed revenue model. Now that there is an attempt to correct it , there has to be a certain amount of equanimity and certain amount of responsibility,? he elaborated.

?I do not say this because we have 2014 in mind or 2019. As a country we have gone through 1999 and 2004 and 2009, so we will go through the democratic cycle - it?s neither here nor there. If you look at India?s interest in the long-term this is an issue that needs to be flagged in a deliberation of this sort.?

Speaking on the contribution of the Film Industry, Tewari stated the Industry had grown on its own adopting innovation and creativity at every stage of development. The industry needed to be appreciated for the role played by it over a period of 100 years through the cinematic portrayal of moving images which had contributed to India?s soft power.

The endeavour of the Government was to initiate suitable measures so as to ensure the growth of India as a soft power in the centenary year of Indian Cinema. The Minister said he was confident that a lot of taxation issues would be resolved for the industry once there was a shift towards the GST regime.

On the Certification process, Tewari said the Ministry was mindful of the fact that the whole process needed to be examined in the light of recent events. In this context, the Ministry had set up a panel under Justice Mudgal to review the mandate and functioning of CBFC and recommend measures including statutory changes to enable CBFC to deal with contemporary requirements of certification and increased transparency / efficiency.