News Broadcasting
Govt admits pay channel fees are market driven
NEW DELHI: It may sound contradictory, but the government has admitted in Parliament that “market forces” guide the subscription fee of pay channels and at present the government has “no role to play” in the fixing of money which is payable by cable operators to broadcasters for pay channels.
This admission is in sharp contrast to what the information and broadcasting ministry has been maintaining while trying to push through the implementation of conditional access system (CAS) which, the government has been saying, will help it to come to the cable viewing public’s help.
In reply to a question on cable operators’ huge earnings which is a bone of contention between cable ops and broadcasters, Swaraj told the Indian Parliament’s Upper House (Rajya Sabha) earlier this week, “There are no legal provisions in the CATV regulation Act 1995 or the Rules framed thereunder to regulate the subscription charges levied by the pay channels/cable operators or the charges payable by the cable operators to TV broadcasting companies.”
The minister went on to reiterate that these are purely “contractual affairs between the broadcasting companies, cable operators and the subscribers and are market driven.”
Even while stating that subscription fees of pay channels are “market driven, the government hinted in Parliament that introduction of CAS would solve many of the problems.
To a part of the question (‘what are the actions proposed to be taken to help subscribers having rights to view channels paid for without any harassment from cable ops?’), Swaraj pointed out that CAS is the cure for all such ills.
“The government has introduced the CATV Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002 with a view to mandating an addressable system for pay channels through cable networks. The system, when mandated, will allow the consumer to choose and pay for the channel(s) he wishes to watch,” she added.
However, some of the MPs are not buying this argument. A senior CPM member of Rajya Sabha told indiantelevision.com that indirectly the government is trying to have a control over what people can and should watch on television through CAS.
News Broadcasting
News18 India to air Sabse Bada Dangal on 4 May counting day
Channel promises fastest results, live trends and analysis across five states.
MUMBAI: Ballots will do the talking and screens will do the shouting. As counting day approaches for high-stakes Assembly elections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, News18 India is gearing up for an all-day broadcast of its flagship election show, Sabse Bada Dangal, on 4 May from 6 am onwards. The Hindi news channel plans to deliver continuous, real-time updates as votes are tallied, combining live counting data with on-ground reporting and studio analysis. With political fortunes set to shift through the day, the coverage will track every swing, surge and surprise as trends turn into results.
The broadcast will feature a mix of senior political leaders, analysts and experts, offering instant reactions and decoding the evolving electoral picture. Expect heated debates, quick takes and detailed breakdowns as the numbers settle across all five states.
For News18 India, counting day has long been a high-visibility moment. The network is banking on its reporting reach, editorial bandwidth and technology-driven coverage to stay ahead in what is often a fiercely competitive news cycle.
With multiple battlegrounds and shifting narratives, the day promises both drama and data in equal measure. And if all goes to plan, Sabse Bada Dangal will once again turn the counting of votes into prime-time spectacle.
