Focus on Consumer in Phase III & IV - I&B Minister at CII’s 5th CEOs Roundtable

The digitization process during Phase-III and IV would have to focus on the interest of the consumers in order to ensure that they were partners in the process rather than adversaries said Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister Manish Tewari while addressing the 5th CEOs ‘Roundtable on Broadcast’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at New Delhi on 24 January 2014. For this purpose, the industry would have to run a focussed consumer awareness campaign, whereby the consumer would have to be sensitized about the benefits accruing from this process. 

Elaborating further, Tewari stated that the campaign would have to focus on improved quality of viewing and related qualitative benefits accruing to the consumer as a result of the implementation process. The learnings of the implementation during Phase-I and Phase-II would also have to be taken into account while outlining the implementation roadmap for the remaining phases. For digitization to succeed, the industry would have to make efforts to ensure that the consumer was an integral component in the digitization value chain. At the same time, the comprehensive approach would also ensure the emergence of viable business model for the industry.

On the issue of Television Rating Points (TRPs) the Minister said that this initiative was an attempt to make the process transparent, credible and accountable. At the same time, the endeavor was to address aberrations in the existing rating system. The Minister added that this initiative was based on the past recommendations of the Standing Committee, TRAI, and Dr. Amit Mitra Committee. The Government had also been approached in the past by the industry stakeholders to rectify the existing flaws. The long term objective was an attempt to usher a system with defined rules within an existing framework.

On the issue of monopolies in the Cable TV sector, Tewari said that regulator had already made its recommendation and the issues involved were being examined by the Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC). The Minister also mentioned that for the broadcasting sector to grow the regulatory framework ought to be stable and transparent for all stakeholders. This would ensure orderly growth for the sector in the long run.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/4155-focus-on-consumer-in-phase-iii-iv-i-b-minister-at-cii%E2%80%99s-5th-ceos-roundtable.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/4155-focus-on-consumer-in-phase-iii-iv-i-b-minister-at-cii%E2%80%99s-5th-ceos-roundtable.html