I&B Ministry-bashingunwarranted, says NDTV’sNarayan Rao

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MUMBAI: For the past one and a half years,
India has been undergoing stomach
churning change in the television industry thanks to the government mandated rollout of digitisation.With the due date to complete digitisation nationwide getting closer (31 December), much
needs to be done. Now, with a new
government in place and new Information and
Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar
assuring the industry that digitisation will be
implemented, expectations are only rising.
The recent CII meeting that took place with
Javadekar saw industry stalwarts express their
woes and wish-lists to the minister. They also
expressed their displeasure at the inefficiency
of the I&B bureaucracy.
I&B joint secretary of broadcasting Supriya
Sahu and I&B secretary Bimal Julka were
targets of accusations of delays in clearances
and permissions.
Some other industry leaders - while
appreciating the fact that the I&B
Ministry pushed through DAS, whereas CAS in
2006-2007 just fell through - have lambasted
even the TRAI - along with the I&B Ministry -
at industry gatherings over the past six
months for not moving fast and determinedly
enough on many issues that have impacted
their businesses.
NDTV vice chairperson and News Broadcasters
Association president KVL Narayan Rao thinks
that industry needs to keep a cool head and
not resort to bureaucracy bashing. Narayan
Rao has nearly 30 years work experience; half
of that was spent in the bureaucracy with the
Indian Revenue Service (1979-1994); the other
half has been with the news network NDTV.
Says he: “I think the attack on the
bureaucracy, particularly that on the I&B
Ministry, was quite unfair. We currently have
some highly efficient officials at the I&B
Ministry who have shown a lot of
understanding of our issues and have tried to
do all they can to solve them. Supriya Sahu
and Bimal Julka come immediately to mind."
At the CASBAA India 2014 conference in New
Delhi earlier this year, Sahu made a detailed
presentation on the progress and benefits of
digitisation stating that only 10 broadcasters
had shared data with the Ministry. She
appealed to other broadcasters to share
revenue data with them so that the
government could ascertain whether the
digitisation dividend was really coming the way
of industry.
If one harks back to 2012 almost everyone was
cynical that the government mandated digital
addressable system (DAS) rollout would ever
become a reality. Almost everyone scoffed at
even the suggestion. But it was a determined
ministerial secretariat led by the then secretary
Uday Kumar Varma and his team which
consisted of Supriya Sahu and her directors
Reijemon who pushed it through - along with
the TRAI. Julka who replaced Varma has been
following the same narrow strait.
Hence Rao feels that constant hurling of barbs
at ministry officials is unpalatable. Says he:
“Please remember that this is virtually the
same lot of officials who ensured the
implementation of the first two phases of
digitisation which isn’t an easy task at all, who
also issued the notification on ratings
agencies, a long pending demand of the
industry, and issued over 400 permissions for
channels and who have allowed self/
independent regulation to prevail. Yes there
have been delays now and then but how much
of that can be attributed to the bureaucrats is
debatable."
Indeed, several initiatives were taken by the
I&B mandarins. Officials regularly met (at one
time it was almost weekly) with industry
executives - whether from broadcasting, MSOs,
or LCOs - to asses digitisation’s progress. The
security clearance check that directors of
various channels were subject to – which
pained many a broadcaster – came at the
behest of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
When a large grouping from the broadcasting
industry rose against the only TV ratings
agency TAM, it was the I&B Ministry that took
note of it and came up with policy guidelines
for TV viewership monitoring. It was the
Ministry which also pushed the institution of
Broadcasting Audience Research Council, which
the industry had kept in cold storage for
almost half a decade.
After the Saradha chit fund scam, the Ministry
quickly stepped in and did a check of the
shareholding pattern of various channels tou
prevent repeats of a similar nature.
When TRAI came out with the 10+2 ad cap
regulation, the Ministry supported the
broadcasters’ view in keeping it at bay till
digitisation pans out, though nothing concrete
has come out of it as yet.
Additionally, while the Ministry did use the
stick, it also doled out carrots by extending
DAS deadlines on more than a few occasions –
keeping in mind the realities on the ground -
to give it a reasonable chance at success.
Despite the long rope extended by both TRAI
and the I&B Ministry, industry at the cable TV
and MSO level has yet to begun physical billing
for DAS subscribers even in some phase I
cities. Forget about phase II.
Says a media observer: “Agreed for the last
three or four months of the UPA regime the
Ministry’s focus was on the election; industry
issues were not a high priority. It was not a
fault of the civil servants alone; the Ministry
itself and the government on the whole could
not move, thanks to the losses in the New
Delhi state elections, and the stigma of
corruption which kept hitting the Congress I in
its face. I can understand some sections of the
industry getting edgy, nervous and agitated for
many a broadcaster’s, DTH operator’s business
plans are linked to digitisation’s success and
the fact that bureaucrats and ministries don’t
throw a spanner in the works.”
She adds: “But we have to remember we have
a new government led by Narendra Kumar
Modi who has a lot more freedom than the
previous regime. There’s a lot of positivity
around, even though there are economic
challenges on hand. The industry should look
ahead, and not back. Things can only get
better, and with experienced officials in the
Ministry at helm, it will be easier to push
through things. New ones could end up taking
longer as they will have to come to grips with
the sector – and that takes time.”
That’s a piece of advice which the irate
members of the industry can ponder upon
 
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