News Broadcasting
Pay channel prices to remain stable for 1-2 years post-CAS: Jawahar Goel
NEW DELHI: The prices of pay channels are not expected to be revised upward over the next 12 to 24 months after conditional access system in introduced in the four metros, Zee Telefilms additional vice-chairman Jawahar Goel said today.
“I don’t foresee the pay channels increasing their susbscription rates in the next two years or as done by them regularly after CAS comes into force,” Goel said at a seminar organised here on ‘CAS: Myths & Reality’. The seminar was supported by the Cable Operators Federation of India and the National Cable & Telecom Association (NCTA), while indiantelevision.com was the online partner.
Pointing out that CAS is good for the Indian cable industry, Goel said that he would not differentiate between pay and free to air channels, but would implore the cable industry to work towards carrying on the good work that has been done by them till now.
Goel, along with TV Today Network CEO G Krishnan, Sahara TV president Mahesh Prasad, Eenadu’s I Venkat, Balle Balle TV’s JK Jain and TV Live’s Nalini Singh, was speaking at a session on broadcasters and the scenario that would emerge for them in a post-CAS regime. The session was moderated by indiantelevision.com’s executive editor Anjan Mitra.
Goel also felt that the cable industry, which has grown quite comfortably up till now, is likely to grow to be a Rs 600 billion industry by 2010 if present growth rates are maintained.
Taking this argument futher, Krishnan said that there is a huge opportunity for cable operators with the onset of CAS. “If there are 45 million cable homes at present in the country, the cable industry hs the potential of tapping the remaining 75 million TV homes,” he said.
According to Krishnan, if the cable industry can convert the remaining TV homes into cable homes in a post-CAS regime, there is a goldmine waiting to be tapped. He also urged the cable industry to provide good service to the consumers as alternative technologies like DTH could kill the cable industry.
Sahara TV’s Prasad said that in a post-CAS regime content would be king and the content would decide the fate of a channel irrespective of the fact whether it’s pay or FTA.
Prasad also made a case that post-CAS these talks about pay channels’ suffering or FTA channels gaining are all humbug because if the content is good viewers will come to that channel.
Earlier in the day, during another session Bhaskar Rao, chairman of Centre for Media Studies made a valid point that the government should not have mandated CAS as market forces would have made it an inevitability in due course of time.
Those who spoke during the day-long seminar included Ashok Mansukhani of the HTMT, Vikas Srikand from Satyam Infoway, lawyer Prabhat Kumar. PK Acharya, director Konark Communication, amongst a host of others from the broadcast and cable industry.
Parallel to the seminar attended by over 300 delegates, several companies also exhibited their products and technology.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
