English Entertainment
Sony pictures networks india announce the indiawinners for the international environmental short film festival – ‘the picture this festival for the planet’
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India announced the three India winners including the 2 runners-up of the Picture This Festival for the Planet, a global short-film competition for emerging filmmakers, everyday storytellers and change makers worldwide, to showcase the positive future they see for our planet. The winner for the India region is Vinamra Pancharia, while Shashank Bhosale and Maulik Sisodia are the first and second runners-up, respectively. Winner Vinamra Pancharia, will represent India as a regional finalist at the Picture This Festival for the Planet event in Los Angeles on July 31, where his 5.15-minute film ‘Tubelight’, will be screened alongside films of the seven other regional finalists.
The Winning Entry – Tubelight, is an inspiring story of a homeless child who dreams of going to school but doesn’t have the means to study. He is steadfast in his efforts and sits outside a classroom window to learn everything he can. The film showcases how he never loses his enthusiasm to pursue his dream of education, by practicing what he learns daily under the street lights. Eventually, his dream sees the light of day.
Link to the film Tubelight:https://www.sonypicturethis.com/gallery?video=Oyr_y0KSntA
The first runner-up – The Birdman of Chorao, by Shashank Bhosale, depicts the story of a boatman Uday Tukaram Mandrekar, who lives on the island of Chorao in Goa, India. Intrigued by the influx of tourists who visit his island, he took to learning and guiding birdwatchers in his canoe. The film showcases his journey in protecting the various species of birds, their habitat, learning their migration patterns and engaging fellow villagers to help him in the conservation of the mangrove ecosystem.
The second runner-up – Resurgence, by Maulik Sisodia, is a story that encapsulates the survival sprit of Indians. It takes on the issue of climate change and how villagers in Rajasthan are dealing with water shortage and drought. The film highlights the journey and efforts taken by visionaries and organisations to educate and engage youth from villages to combat water problems in India.
In India, submissions were evaluated by a jury comprisingNitin Nadkarni, Chief Financial Officer, Sony Pictures Networks India; Neeraj Vyas, Business Head – SAB, PAL, Hindi Movies and Music, Sony Pictures Networks India and Tushar Shah, Business Head – English Cluster, Sony BBC Earth and AATH.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
