Broadcasters still awaiting to get benefit of digitisation

The year 2013 has been a tumultuous year for the media and entertainment industry marked by a lack of clarity- be it digitisation, ad cap, CAF or other regulations. These were the hot topics discussed on day one of FICCI FRAMES 2014 the 15th chapter of the annual convention held on 12th March.

The panel comprising, Star India CEO Uday Shankar; Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats; FCC commissioner Ajit Pai; MIB secretary Bimal Julka; discussed various aspects of ongoing process of mandatory digitisation and regulatory hurdles in the implementation.

The panel felt there should be clarity for the requirement of regulations and the regulator should stressed long term solution rather than short term remedies. The regulators should know that there are some ailments but immediate fixing is not a solution without knowing what the consequences will be.

Vimal Julka Secretary to MIB expressed the view that the media has come a long way from ‘license raj’ and is now moving towards partnerships and collaborations. “We must not forget that for us, our core target group is our viewers and listeners and we have to keep them in mind. So, whatever regulations we come up with, they have to benefit them. We don’t want to get into the revenue model or the business model. That’s TRAI’s jurisdiction and I think it is doing a fair job,” he said. Completing phases I and II of digitisation was a huge challenge considering the country’s demographics, he informed. “Thirty million set top boxes (STBs) have been installed and 110 million are yet to be seeded. It is a huge challenge for the industry as a whole. The government is just a facilitator.”

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4428-broadcasters-still-awaiting-to-get-benefit-of-digitisation.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4428-broadcasters-still-awaiting-to-get-benefit-of-digitisation.html