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National Cable & Telecommunications Association

Email: mail@ncta.in Fax: 91112692 2347 Website: www.ncta.in



NCTA PRESS RELEASE: In response to an e-article published on 19.05.2014 in the portal
www.exchange4media.com Broadcasters keep wishlist ready for new I&B Minister

NCTA - The principal trade association of the Cable television industry in India. With its primary
mission to provide its members with a strong national presence by providing a single, unified
voice on issues affecting the Cable TV and the telecommunications industry keeping with the
interest of the subscribers and customers connected at large.

After going through this said e-article the NCTA immediately posted its comments on the portal
as below: (But the portal choose not to publish the industry comments)
.
Dear News Broadcasters and NBA members, firstly you all have to decide whether
you are coming together as News Broadcasters or you want to come in as just Pay
TV Broadcasters, I really find it pertinent to mention here that, you all have been
a party to this forced digitization SCAM at the expense of the consumers at large,
as well " knowingly or Unknowingly" it depends. (As none of you covered any Cable
Subscriber woes faced during this forced implementation of DAS, You did not even
bother to take on account and report the hard ship , blackouts of basic cable
viewing for days, weeks and months faced by the Consumers in the 42 DAS
notified cities)

The entire Digitization law has been made in utmost hurry and its forceful
implementation by the UPA run MIB ministry and the attached most corrupt
bureaucrats was to benefit certain broadcaster aligned MSOs specially DEN that
operates in a personal partnership of Mr. Uday Shankar. Who has made all
endeavors to promote his personal partnership business venture DEN. As for
this forced Digitalization Millions of Substandard STBs have been imported from
China, though we have adequate manufacturing and technology in our own
country, These STBs were over invoiced and then imported in order to facilitate
money laundering, transfer/siphoning of public invested money in MSOs, to settle
kick backs and to further Bribe the Govt. officials actively involved in DAS Scam.

In spite of this Digitization as supported by NBA and IBF the Carriage pay out to
distribution platforms specially DEN and Siti did not get reduced. Whereas this
Carriage fee / Channel Placement charge was just a consequence of "imbalance in
Supply & Demand" and after this forced Digitization there should have been no
need to pay Carriage/ Placement fee to MSOs in the 42 DAS notified Cities.

In case the News Broadcaster companies have any internal vigilance system in
place? On investigations they will be surprised to find that their own distribution
and placement teams have negotiated a separate kick back deal (Carriage
Fee Refund scheme in own or some Benami Accounts) with the MSOs and their JV
Distributors. ( PleaseNote : These Carriage deals runs in Crores of Rupees /Channel)





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In this same article Ritu Dhawan, MD & CEO, India TV is quoted, as said, The
sub-judice & proposed ad cap regime of 10+2 minutes should be removed
completely for news channels. (Now it is to be decided amongst the News Channels
whether they want to be a Free to Consumer service or a Pay TV service, as most of
the News channels i.e NDTV Channels, TIMES NOW, ET NOW, ZEE NEWS, ZEE
BUSINESS, CNBC, IBN7, CNNIBN, AAJ TAK Channels are Pay TV services that are
being distributed through various Channel aggregators compulsorily packaged
with the other packages offered of Star TV, ZEE TV, Colors and Sony Discovery.)
Now you cant have best of the both worlds. Being a Pay TV service as well as no
10+2 Advertisement CAP imposed on them. So consumers are firstly forced to pay
for the News as well forced to also watch unwanted advertisements with no Cap or
regulation in effect for them.

In view of the above how can the News broadcasters look forward to be heard by
the new I&B Minister when they don't have their own houses set in order.

This same portal along with other print, Internet and the electronic media were sent an
COFI |NCTA CATV industry memorandum dated 2
nd
April 2014 addressed to all the
Political parties in the electoral fray that enumerated few reasonable demands of the
Industry as below ( For ready reference) were never published in by the print media ( for
obvious reasons of India not having any Cross Media restriction regulations in place, fear
of losing Advertising revenues that are generated to them through the interested parties/
business houses like Broadcaster and their aligned DTH operators and the MSOs. News
Channels deliberately ignored it as it may affect their ongoing business or fear of being
blacked out or boycotted by the Re- Distribution platforms, and as for these Internet
portals, their revenues are solely dependent on Broadcaster advertisements and
sponsorship of various seminar / conferences / Awards functions organized by them from
time to time.

COFI | NCTA CATV Industry Demands: Vide Memorandum dated 2
nd
April 2013

1. A fair and independent time bound enquiry to be ordered for being conducting by a Commission or
SI T (Special I nvestigation Team), on the implementation of this Mandatory Digitization of Cable TV
in such a hurry and to take strict penal action against all the beneficiaries involved and been a party
to this Digitization of Cable TV services Scam. In case its found that this law was passed to benefit
certain beneficiaries then some relaxation should be extended till the time entire country gets digital,
by allowing Analogue transmission again of about basic 30- 36 TV channels including all the DD
services so that there is no black out experienced of basic TV viewing in case the Set top box goes
faulty or there is a default of payment by the consumer for any unforeseen reason and the
alternative choice is given to the consumers.
2. TRAI the industry regulator has to be immediately instructed to ensure a level playing field for all the
stake holders in the distribution value chain with a prescribed revenue share arrangement on non
discriminatory terms of doing business, to fix reasonable and affordable MRP price for the Pay TV
channels that should benefit the consumers at large and to ensure that the Advertisement Cap for the
pay TV channels should be lowered to maximum 6 minutes in an hour while there should be no
Advertisement Cap or the existing 10+2 minutes Advertisement cap regulation should be made for
the FTA free to air for consumers TV channels.
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3. Strict laws to be passed on Cross Media Holdings and to check Monopoly in the Cable TV
industry as of today that are being blatantly misused again by the Murdoch owned entities and strict
penal action to be taken in case anyone tries to circumvent these laws. The CCI ( Competition
Commission of India ) has been entrusted to do all these jobs but they never did anything since its
very inception as the Chairman has been all for sale, and have only touched matters that could only
help him and his member team to get some personal benefits ( i.e Sponsored education of children
abroad, properties , vacation homes abroad )
4. The Government shall ensure that the Phase I I I and Phase I V of this mandatory digitization of
Cable TV services is only implemented when, there are adequate indigenous digital Set Top Box
manufacturing has been already set up in India , Where these STB manufacturing units will be
provided a subsidy on the Excise and VAT till the time Implementation is achieved 100% in the
country, as this subsidy in the Excise and VAT will certainly help the rural India to get digital
enabled.
5. Cable TV Industry demands abolishing of the Entertainment TAX as levied by the various State
Governments, as TV viewing at home, no longer construe as an entertainment. It should be termed as
an essential information service.
6. All the Rupert Murdoch entities and associated partner companies i.e. A.C Nielson, Star India, News
Television, Fox India, Star Sports India, Hathway Cable Ltd, Star Den {P} Limited, TATA SKY and
many more, that have continuously been evading to follow the law of the land and have
circumvented the law to suit their business interests, should be put to a thorough scrutiny since their
very inception here in India, and strict penal actions to be taken for all the misdemeanors,
Bribing/Corrupting Govt. Officials, floating Ponzi schemes at the Stock market through subsidiaries
like DEN Network Ltd, to defraud millions of Indian investors, misappropriation of funds by a public
Ltd Company, evasion of taxes and laundering money out of the Country.


It should be evident from our representations, comments and various memorandums that the
NCTA | COFI are only representing the interest of the millions of consumers at large, that is being
blatantly neglected by the Media for reasons best known to them in pursuit of their own business
interests THOUGH SAD



For any further Information and clarifications feel free to contact:


Vikki Choudhry
President NCTA
Email: vikki@ncta.in

M: +91 98111 44467

W: www.ncta.in




NCTA Regd. Office: 19 CSC (DDA) Sukhdev Vihar, New Delhi 1100 25 [INDIA]