The Hallmark channel is gallopping ahead if one goes by the annual numbers released by its parent Crown Media Holdings. Crown claims that its subscribers globally increased 35 per cent to 91.5 million worldwide as of 31 March 2002, from 67.6 million subscribers at the same time in 2001. Some 44.9 million of these subscribers are from the US while 46.6 million of them are spread over 110 countries.
Crown Media‘s gross revenues increased to $41.4 million in the first quarter of 2002, a 68 per cent increase from $24.7 million in the first quarter of 2001 while net revenue in the same period increased 71 per cent to $39.5 million, from $23.0 million in the prior year‘s quarter. The difference in gross and net revenues is due to the netting of subscriber acquisition costs and other fees against revenue.

Crown says the channel is in fine fettle in terms of viewership too. During the first quarter of 2002, it achieved its highest-rated quarter in network history in the US, according to Nielsen Media Research, averaging a 0.6 primetime household rating. This represented a 50 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2001. The Hallmark Channel US has shown the most growth in primetime household delivery among all advertising-supported cable networks since its launch on 5 August 2001, the company says.

It is taking steps to improve the viewership numbers further: in March 2002, it announced that it would commission 24 movies to be produced by Hallmark Entertainment, which will premier on the channel before Christmas 2002. These films cover a wide array of genres, including dramas, mysteries, and westerns.

Says a jubiliant Crown Media Holdings CEO David Evans: "We are very pleased with the continued success of the Hallmark Channel, as is evident by increased ratings performance both in the US and abroad."

Demand for a regulatory authority and implementation of the CAS ranked high on the agenda of the seminar on ‘Cable TV : New Age Dictatorship‘ held in Mumbai on Monday.
Organised by the Consumer Action Network (CAN), an organisation comprising citizens concerned about consumer welfare, the seminar aimed to highlight issues currently faced by cable TV viewers in India and to bring consumers together on a common platform. Speakers included former minister Pramod Navalkar, former sheriff Nana Chudasama, cable op Johnwin George and CAN national president Ahmed Abdi.

Topics discussed ranged from lack of choice for viewers, arbitary rate hikes, absence of any regulatory authority in India unlike other countries and lack of any government initiative. While Chudasama and George stressed the need for a regulatory authority in the broadcasting and cable industry, Navalkar called upon the consumers to unite and urge the government to take up cudgels on their behalf.

Even as the cabinet committee pondered the issue in New Delhi the same day, CAN president Abdi urged the government for implementation of the Task Force Report recommending the introduction of Conditional Access Systems (CAS). He lamented the present state of consumer who has neither choice in selection of channels nor in deciding the rates and stressed that it was in the interests of the broadcasters to delay the introduction of CAS, since they would no longer be able to bundle their weak channels with the more popular channels.

Despite information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj‘s assertion on 6 May that efforts will be made to bring in the Convergence Bill during the current session of Parliament, it is highly unlikely that the policy aiming to have a super regulator for the IT, broadcasting and telecom sectors will be introduced in Parliament before the current session comes to an end on May 16.
According to government sources, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and telecom, headed by Communist Party of India‘s Member of Parliament, Somnath Chatterjee, is yet to submit its report on the Convergence Bill.

The Convergence Bill, aiming to have a policy framework for the convergence era, was referred to the Standing Committee last year to examine the various clauses after being introduced in Parliament.

If India gets to enact this piece of legislation, it would only be the second country in the world, after Malaysia, to have such a convergence policy in place.

"The last date for feedback/representation on the Convergence Bill was April 22 and the members are yet to examine the feedback clause by clause," a member of the Standing Committee said, pointing out that it is highly unlikely that the panel would finalise its observation in the form of a report before 16 May.

On 6 May, replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), Swaraj had said the Convergence Bill provides for a panel to deliberate on contents of programmes to be shown on television. "The bill has been referred to a Parliamentary committee. We will try to bring it before 17 May," she had said.

But now with the member of the standing committee saying that the report has yet to be submitted Ms Swaraj and the industry will have to wait for a while - as has been happening for the past five years - for any major broadcasting regulation.

To another query, Swaraj had said the government is aware of some surrogate advertisements being shown on the small screen and moves were on to make advertisers accountable for their display.