BROADCASTING SOCIETY TO TACKLE CABLE TV ISSUES

The Indian Broadcasting Society (IBS) is taking steps to tackle problems faced by programmers on account of cable TV operators, especially in the area of subscription channels. IBS secretary general - and a former DD director general and information and broadcasting secretary - Bhaskar Ghose said last week that no real efforts have been made at an industry level to resolve outstanding issues between subscription TV channels and the cable TV industry. "Both will have to find a 'common meeting ground' for a mutually beneficial relationship," he said.

He added that pay TV charges in India are amongst the lowest in the world. "Even newspapers here charge about Rs 30-120 per month. Subscription channels, however, charge just Rs 3-7 per subscriber per month. There is no way that television channels can survive in India on advertising revenues alone. You are going to see more and more channels turning pay," he said.

He added that subscription-oriented TV channels today are faced with issues such as under-declaration of subscriber bases by cable operators, frequent black-outs of broadcasts, non-payments and piracy through unauthorised transmission of signals. He, however, said that even the cable industry has its own set of problems. "We understand that the cable industry has not been able to pass on a portion of the pay channels' charges to the consumers because of the current market dynamics of the cable industry," said Ghose.

The cable industry today faces issues of MSOs, independent operators, DTH and addressability. "The cable TV industry has come a long way since the launch of satellite channels, but is still evolving. In fact, it is on the verge of a virtual revolution with the technology hitherto only available in advanced countries becoming available in India. The IBS will make every effort to come up with viable options which are acceptable to both the TV channels and the cable industry," says Ghose.

The IBS is also preparing an action plan to tackle copyright issues such as cable TV advertising and the unauthorised distribution of pay TV signals. Stating that the substitution of commercials by cable operators on pay TV channels is illegal, Ghose said, "Consumers suffer as a substantial portion of the TV screen is blocked by cable TV ads while viewing a program. The program image is made smaller or half the image is covered by cable ads or 'crawlies' (scroll ads) which distract the viewers from concentrating on the show."

Meanwhile, the IBS executive committee is scheduled to meet on 20 May in Mumbai. It has also acquired an office in New Delhi in the last fortnight and is slated to get one in Mumbai soon.