IBS TO LOBBY AGAINST DD PROTECTIONISM

The Indian Broadcasting Society (IBS) plans to petition the government on a proposed move to amend the Cable TV Regulation Act (CATV) through an ordinance.

It is also preparing a paper for the government on the fruitlessness of effecting price controls on pay channels.

The upset private broadcasters feel that the government's proposal insisting on cable operators carrying three Doordarshan channels on the prime band and then keeping two adjoining frequencies free may just push some of the satellite channels out of the viewable frequencies on a majority of Indian television sets which are very old and can tune in to only about 12-16 channels.

Discovery India's country head Kiran Karnik admitted that the IBS plans to take up the issue with the Indian information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry as such a move will create unnecessary problems for the private cable and satellite industry.

"If the government amends the CATV Act making it mandatory for cable operators to carry three DD channels on prime band and for technical reasons also insists on keeping the adjoining two channels vacant, then out of about 10 channels which can be put on prime band on an average TV set, five would have already gone, leaving space for very little other."

A Delhi-based chief executive of another satellite channel, on condition of anonymity, said the IBS is not against DD channels being put on prime band, but the government's insistence that three channels and an additional two frequencies lie vacant will "rob viewers of choice." The newly-appointed acting chief executive of Prasar Bharati and also additional secretary in the I&B ministry, R.R. Shah, in an interview had recently said that Prasar Bharati plans to recommend to the government to amend the CATV Act through an ordinance making it mandatory for DD channels to be carried on prime band by operators keeping in mind the Pakistani propaganda being unleashed due to Kargil.

The IBS also plans to take up with the government the issue of controlling the subscription prices of encrypted channels.

The Union Cabinet had sometime back okayed a proposal to amend the CATV Act to include government control over the subscription rate of pay channels taking a sympathetic view of the fact that cable operators allege arm-twisting by pay channel operators.

"How and why should government have a control over subscription rates of pay channels. It does not exercise such control over pricing of newspapers," an office-bearer of IBS said.

The IBS is attempting to point out that by going the route of price controls the government will indirectly encourage free-to-air channels which are difficult to monitor as compared to pay channels which are more easily monitored because of the few thousand decoder boxes that allow them to be retransmitted into cable TV homes. In this regard, the IBS is preparing a paper to be presented to the I&B ministry.