PANAJI: Doordarshan has, in principle, agreed to revive the slot for screening the films of the Indian Panorama though details have to be worked out.

This was conveyed to 42nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) director Shankar Mohan, by Doordarshan director general Tripurari Sharan during his visit to Panaji.

Addressing a press meet here, Mohan stressed that this was an industry-driven festival and so the stress was on artistic merit and technology, and not market driven. 

Though he emphasised that filmmakers had come all over the country, both he and producer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra admitted that only filmmakers who were invited and paid for agreed to come and few came on their own.

They were responding to a question on why film personalities failed to turn up despite the fact that the Festival was supported by the industry.

He said that the Festival was already touching its optimum with the infrastructure available, and would grow as the years go by.

Mohan defended the choice of films in the Competition, saying he would like the festival to come up to a level where it could attract world premieres. However, all foreign films shown at the Festival in all sections are Indian premieres.

He and IFFI Steering Committee Chairman Mike Pandey said in reply to a question that the Panorama films will be taken all over the country.

He refused to comment on the inauguration at Margao, saying this was a policy-level decision taken at the local level.

Pandey said the festival had reached a high level with 167 films from 65 countries, and a large number of films came on their own.

Chopra said the guest list showed some of the best names were in India and the Indian Panorama was very popular with foreign directors.

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: Germany?s International Broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has entered into a comprehensive partnership agreement with Doordarshan to cooperate in the areas of co-production, training, and joint events.

The agreement also provides for the telecast of selected programmes of DW TV and DW-Trans Tel on Doordarshan?s network. 

In addition, DD and DW will enter into a detailed agreement regarding the exchange of TV programmes in the field of science, technology, lifestyle, global issues, personalities and events.

The agreement was signed here by the Doordarshan director general Tripurai Sharan and DW director general Erik Bettermann.

NEW DELHI: Even as Nimbus remains adamant about sharing broadcasting rights with All India Radio, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take immediate action to ensure that the commentary of the on-going one-dayers between England and India should be given live to AIR.

The Ministry has said that the rights for AIR should not be clubbed with the rights given to Doordarshan under the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act.

In a letter to BCCI, the Ministry said the demand by Nimbus for 50 per cent of the revenues from the radio commentary ?appears to be an effort to arm twist Prasar Bharati?.

The Ministry has suggested that radio rights ?should be made available directly to AIR at a negotiated price as far as India is concerned?.

According to Nimbus Communications, AIR has refused to follow the 50:50 sharing of advertising revenues, which has been mandated by the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act.

According to the letter by the Ministry to BCCI, the provisions of the Sports Act apply only if the rights holder for TV telecast broadcasts the match either on television, cable, DTH, or the radio broadcast rights holder actually broadcasts the commentary over the respective medium in India.

?As regards radio, no private broadcaster is allowed to carry the commentary of sporting events of national level in India. The provisions of Sports Act relating to sharing of the signal do not apply to radio coverage,? the letter said.

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: Neo Cricket and Prasar Bharati have run into a row and blamed each other for the delayed telecast of the first one day international between India and England on Doordarshan.

Neo Cricket, the telecast rights holder, accused Prasar Bharati for delay in giving uplinking clearance, because of which viewers missed the first few balls of the match.

Neo Cricket said they were given the clearance after 2.30 pm only, after they submitted the bank guarantee by 12.37 pm as demanded by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Neo Cricket said it is "deeply disappointed" by what it believes could be construed to be unreasonable behaviour by Prasar Bharati and intends to approach the Government after consultation with industry bodies with a request that appropriate rules be framed to govern future events such that the process and rules governing the sharing of events with Prasar Bharati are equitable and reasonable.

However, DD sources told indiantelevision.com that the Neo application was not in accordance with the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007. The sources said application was made by Nimbus on 30 August, 45 days before the match in accordance with the Act, but Nimbus had mid-way changed the channel to Neo Cricket and, thus, the mandatory period of 45 days was not met.

Explaining its reasons for the late start of the live telecast of the match, Neo Cricket in a statement late in the evening blamed Doordarshan and the Government for its unreasonable demand of asking for the bank guarantee of Rs 40 million nine days before it was actually due. 

Neo Cricket said that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had sent a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after office hours yesterday stating that "uplink permission would be granted to BCCI only if Neo would submit a bank guarantee by the morning of today that is, in a few business hours to Prasar Bharati."

The statement added that this was despite the fact that Prasar Bharati?s own draft agreement stated that the bank guarantee was required to be furnished five days after the agreement was signed. It said Neo was given no choice but to accede to the demand of Prasar Bharat to ensure that the cricket loving public in India would get to see the cricket match.

Despite submitting the bank guarantee, Neo said, the uplink license to BCCI and Neo Cricket was issued past the match start time of 2:30 pm resulting in no coverage for the first few balls of the match.

Relating the sequence of events, Neo said despite repeated follow ups from Neo Cricket after 30 August, including three letter reminders and multiple phone calls, Prasar Bharati refused to confirm whether it wanted to share the live broadcast of the event. Finally on 9 October, a mere five days before the first match and a whole 40 days after receiving the original notification letter, Prasar Bharati wrote an email to Neo confirming that it wanted to share the live feed of the match and asking for a meeting on the next day to appoint the Revenue Management Company (RMC) for the match.

It may be noted that the RMC is the company responsible for selling advertising on the broadcast of the match on Doordarshan and is appointed by a process in which both Neo and Prasar Bharati are required to make sealed bids.

The RMC meet was held on the evening of 10 October, and awarded to Neo following the sealed bid process. On 12 October, Prasar Bharati submitted a draft agreement to Neo for comments and signature. This draft clearly stated that it wanted Neo to submit the bank guarantee of Rs 40 million within five days of signing of the agreement.

Neo was hoping the agreement would be signed by 13 or 14 October and the guarantee would be submitted on 19 or 20 October. Therefore when the Ministry sent its letter to BCCI, Neo said it "was obviously taken aback by this unreasonable demand of Prasar Bharati and requested a meeting to discuss the issue, and the meeting was held this morning".