Heena Sharma Blog

  The Mumbai Police has busted a racket where three channels -Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema - manipulated (TRP) Television Rating Points. So far, the police have arrested four persons in the case. Tune in to the podcast to better understand why TRP is a big deal for TV channels and how does it actually work. Read More

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday launched a channel selector application which will facilitate consumers to view their TV subscription and choose the channels of their interest while removing the unwanted ones. In a statement, TRAI said that after issuing the new tariff order for broadcasting services it was noticed that consumers were facing difficulty to opt for TV channels or bouquets of their choice on the web portal or applications of their respective Distributed Platform Operators (DPO). Therefore, the authority decided to develop an app which will fetch data from DPOs. The channel selector app is presently functional with major DTH operators and Multi System Operators (MSO/cable operators). However, efforts are being made to integrate other service providers also on the platform, TRAI said. Read More

Amazon is considering including television channels to its Prime Video service, according to a news report in technology portal Protocol. Some publicly available job listings from the technology giant also point to the same intention. The new channels in Prime Video may bring live news, music, sports, award shows and special events besides movies and TV shows. Amazon is "actively pursuing" deals to license live and linear programming, said the report, citing an unnamed industry insider. "Linear TV enables customers to watch 24/7 streams of their favourite TV stations airing programmes including sports, news, movies, award shows, special events and TV shows," said one of the job listings which is seeking application for a Principal Product Manager, Technical for Prime Video Linear TV. Read More

If there is one thing that the lockdown imposed by the government due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic brought back to life was popular soaps aired on television during 1990s. From the mythological Ramayan and Mahabharat telecast back in 1990s, cricket matches between arch rivals India and Pakistan across formats – one-day and T20 – were a silver lining for many stuck at home. A recent report by CARE Ratings has sourced and analysed the latest available data (for week between April 4 and 10) from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India on what Indians have been watching. The study, however, does not include content streamed on over-the-top (OTT) platforms in India. Read More

To protect consumer interests, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday has released amendments to the New Tariff Orde r (NTO). According to the new order, number of free-to-air channels has increased, pricing for pay channels has reduced and TRAI has capped the number of bouquets of pay channels offered by broadcasters. Analysts say this move is likely to lower the average revenue per user (ARPU) for TV operators. It had surged by close to 60 per cent, on an average, after the NTO took effect. This would mean a lower share of revenue for broadcasters, who used to get almost 50 per cent share after the NTO came into being in February last year. It will negatively impact broadcasters’ revenue, which had grown 30-40 per cent year-on-year due to the higher share and increased ARPU. At present, direct-to-home (DTH) or cable TV operators provide only 100 channels for a network capacity fee (NCF) levy of Rs 153. Now, cable operators will have to provide 200 ch...