NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has asked all departments of All India Radio and Doordarshan to start the process of recognition of the various associations and unions under the conditions laid down in the eight-year old Recognition of Service Associations office memorandum of 5 November 1993.

The heads of the departments have been asked to bring the memorandum to the notice of the employees and file an action taken report.

Report also has to be filed about fulfillment of the conditions or otherwise of the existing conditions by 30 November.

Earlier on 8 September, Prasar Bharati had issued an order to the effect that no association of employees of the pubcaster is recognised and therefore no employee can be given preferential treatment. It further said all employees are to be treated in a fair and transparent manner and nullified an earlier order issued by Director General of All India Radio on 18 December 2008.

Thereafter, the nine recognised associations went to the Delhi High Court, which has since referred the matter to the Central Administrative Tribunal.

In a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni at that time, the "Recognized Association?s Forum of Akashwani and Doordarshan" had said that the agitation is being resorted because of the ?Illegal and autocratic steps? by the Additional Secretary Rajiv Takru who is a Nominated Member in Prasar Bharati Board and its acting CEO ?to crush employees associations?.

The letter had said: ?it is shocking for the employees of AIR and Doordarshan that the Prasar Bharati Secretariat issued the order dated 08/09/2011, declaring that no Association in AIR and Doordarshan are recognised. This order is issued in spite of the fact that the various recognised Associations brought the facts repeatedly to the notice of Ministry that the recognition of these Associations is intact.? It then went on to quote various orders that proved that several of these associations were recognised.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The intervention of the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has helped All India Radio (AIR) get Nimbus to part with the radio broadcast rights of the three Tests of the India-West Indies series.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has granted the radio rights to the state-owned radio broadcaster after discussing with the rights holder, Nimbus Sport.

The commercial value of the rights is yet to be fixed, sources said.

AIR had failed to broadcast the commentary of the India-England cricket series as negotiations with Nimbus Sport over revenue sharing were inconclusive. 

"Nimbus and BCCI will be meeting next week to decide on the commercial value of the deal. AIR will broadcast the commentary of the three Tests of the West Indies tour of India following an assurance by the BCCI," a source familiar with the development said.

The Tests start on 6 November, 14 November and 22 November at Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai respectively.

Sources said no agreement has yet been worked out for the five one-dayers being held in November and December at Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Indore and Chennai.

When contacted, Neo Sport chief operating officer Yannick Colaco declined to comment on the issue.

For the India-England series, AIR was willing to pay $6000 per match for the broadcast rights, but Neo Sport wanted a 50:50 share in revenues.

The I&B Ministry had last month written to BCCI to allow radio broadcasting rights because a large number of people still depended on radio for their entertainment and information.

Sources said senior BCCI officials had taken up the issue with Nimbus Sport.

Doordarshan will telecast the one-dayers under the the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has been authorised to demand mandatory sharing of signals for important sports events since a law was passed in this regard in 2007, but it does not cover All India Radio.

With Team India having won two one day internationals on home ground after the humiliating tour of England, Prasar Bharati has taken umbrage to Neo Cricket refusing to sharing signals with AIR.

AIR sources, who confirmed that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had agreed to talk to the Board for Control of Cricket in India on this issue, said Neo Sports had been approached well in advance by AIR for sharing signals but had received a negative response.

These sources told indiantelevision.com that the Empowered Committee of Prasar Bharati dealing with this issue had then conveyed the matter to the Ministry with their resentment on the issue.

Neo Sports, which possesses the rights for broadcasting cricket played in India, had demanded that Prasar Bharati should accept a new revenue sharing model failing which it denied signals to AIR - which is the only radio channel permitted to broadcasts cricket commentary or news in India.

Sources said AIR has been paying up to $6000 per match in order to buy the broadcast rights, but Neo Sports had refused to even accept $6250. Instead, Neo Sports is demanding a 50:50 revenue sharing model.

Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco said that the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act ("Sports Act") clearly states that, in the case of radio coverage for International ODIs featuring India, all advertising revenues generated from the same must be shared in the ratio of 50:50 between both parties.

"Since the inception of the Sports Act, Nimbus has repeatedly urged AIR to follow the Law as required by the same in broadcasting radio commentary of International cricket events. However ,AIR has steadfastly refused to share revenues and instead offered meagre amounts as license fees, many times amounting to less than 10 per cent of total revenues generated."

He added that it is a matter of record that AIR made revenues of Rs 12 million for India versus New Zealand series last year and paid Nimbus a license fee of approximately Rs 1.9 million.

"It is, thus, very obvious that AIR has routinely manipulated its position to ensure that AIR makes enormous profits by not abiding by the Sports Act and by offering meagre amounts in the form of License Fees."

Giving more figures, Colaco said that in the England Tour of Indian 2008 it is understood that AIR made revenues of Rs 21 million ($470,000 ). Despite this revenue potential, AIR has offered Nimbus a license fee of $36,000 i.e. approximately Rs 1.7 million for the current England tour.
Meanwhile, the Prasar Bharati and the Ministry are writing to BCCI asking it to take up the issue with Neo Sports and also to ensure that in future it does not sell the frequency to such companies which themselves do not have the broadcasting facilities and are not ready to share feed with AIR.

Relations between Neo Sports and Prasar Bharati are not too good, with the live telecast of the second ODI on Doordarshan having started late, with both sides blaming the other for the last minute permission under the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

At present, the revenue split under the Act is 75:25 in favour of Neo, although the Empowered Committee has already demanded that this should be raised to 50:50 so that DD can earn more.

The provision under the Act says that any rights holder to "sporting events of national importance" (India?s international ODIs fall in that ambit) have to share the television feed with DD, and there is no reference to AIR in the Act.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has said that all issues relating to problems being faced by the print industry, including the issue of advertisements from the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, are being sorted so that the country can become a hub for the printing sector.

Soni said the magazine segment was expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8 per cent by 2015 and the country already had over 77,000 registered publications including magazines in various languages.

Addressing the 38th World Magazine Congress here, Soni said the niche magazine segment is presently seeing an influx of international titles in the country and "this trend can only continue". 

"The liberalisation of our print media policy has not only attracted FDI, it has also given a growth perspective to the magazine industry in India. Currently permission for 260 Indian editions of foreign specialty magazines has been given."

She said review of the print media policy of 1955 when a bar was put on foreign-owned publications and in 2002 and 2005 by the government had paved the way for the "spurt" in the magazine sector.

Concerns of Indian magazines on issues like circulation figures, paper pricing and enhanced advertisement support from DAVP would be resolved soon.

The Ministry is trying to streamline the mechanism to address concerns related to police verification for titles even as it has resolved some earlier issues.

The Minister said that the present situation in the magazine sector was "somewhat more optimistic" than two years earlier when the World Congress had met in London. The way forward for the sector was to "innovate, adapt and expand".