MUMBAI: ESPN‘s live telecast of the NatWest series finals on 13 July registered an unprecedented viewership with ratings touching a record high of 19.31 TVR for all C&S homes 4+ category, the company has asserted.
The final hour of the NatWest finals on ESPN thus created a record for the most watched television programme this year across all channels by registering an average of 14.7 TVR for all C&S homes, 4 + category, an official release states, quoting TAM Media Research data.

During the nail-biting finish which saw some electric performances by India‘s young turks led by new batting sensation Mohammed Kaif , Male, 15+, SEC ABC, all India, the target group for media buyers on sports channels, registered a record TVR of 22.16, the highest for any sports broadcast across C&S homes for the last two years.

Over 23.6 million people across all C&S homes tuned in to watch an amazing Indian victory scoring over 325 runs playing second! Over 42 per cent of all males in 15+ SEC ABC category across the C&S homes India tuned in, the data shows.

The average sport ratings during the entire Indian batting session of the NatWest series final telecast on ESPN recorded a TVR of 13.4 offering tremendous value to sponsors Pepsi, LG, Samsung, TVS, Sahara India and Hindustan Lever, the release says.

NEW DELHI: Till date Rs 79.77 million has accrued to the government as licence fee from FM radio broadcasters.

Bank guarantees of Rs 19 million in respect of three non-metro stations of Bhopal, Indore and Vishakapatnam of Vertex Broadcasting Company Ltd had been encashed, according to government data. Though Vertex had filed a writ petition against it in the New Delhi High Court, it was dismissed.
The bank guarantees were encashed as Vertex, along with Entertainment Network India Ltd for Hyderabad and Lucknow and Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd (to which Star supplies content) for Nagpur and Patna had not deposited the balance of the first year‘s licence fee within the due date.

While Vertex‘s case was dismissed, Entertainment Network and Music Broadcast‘s got a stay against encashment of bank guarantees in respect of Hyderabad, Lucknow and Nagpur and Patna, respectively. The reprieve had come from the Mumbai high court, the government data has pointed out.

NEW DELHI: At a time when the government is attempting to push through a Central legislation to mandate what people should see (or not see) on television and what sort of technology should be used for set-top boxes, the Planning Commission has said that "deregulation" is the need of the hour.
"There is a need for moving away towards a lighter regulatory stance which is less directly involved in product launches of firms," the Planning Commission in its approach paper for the 10th five-year plan has said, hinting that in an era where increasing convergence will take place between telecommunications, IT and broadcasting government involvement should be minimal.

Going beyond policies that uphold connections between consenting economic agents, there is also a need to proceed with the complete deregulation of value-added services such as e-mails, ISPs, etc, where the services being produced are not public goods and, hence, can be handled by purely private competitive markets.