NEW DELHI : Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said that self-regulation by the electronic media has to be given a chance as this was a surer way of improving things than forcing regulations on the television or radio channels.

Soni said the progress of action against channels may appear slow, but the government had offending channels to go off air for short periods even as she added that she would not like to cancel the licence of any channel, though the Ministry had the power to do so.

She was responding to Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markanday Katju who said he had seen the self-regulation of TV channels working effectively and 90 per cent of the software on television channels was entertainment and just ten per cent dealt with crucial issues facing the nation.

She was giving her inaugural address at the 9th Annual Summit on Entertainment and Growth organised by ASSOCHAM, Focus 2012 on ?Digitization for Inclusive Growth?, where Justice Katju delivered the keynote address. Several awardees of the National Film Awards were felicitated by Film Federation of India President Vinod K Lamba. Two documents ? ?Digitizing Indian Broadcasting? by ASSOCHAM and Centre for Media Studies, and ?Digital Transformation in entertainment and media? by ASSOCHAM and PwC ? were also released.

She admitted that in the desire for growth, it was unfortunate that some provisions of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act had been overlooked by the media, but she said that self-regulation could help to correct this malaise.

Soni also justified digitisation of cable addressable systems and the sunset dates as she said any delay will only help the direct-to-home operators. She said that it would also bring in transparency and get over the dependence of channels on television rating points (TRPs) which were based on studies in less than 10,000 TV households. Cable operators must not lose sight of the fact that DTH was growing at the rate of around one million households per month.

She said that the government had had exhaustive consultations with stakeholders on all issues including the carriage fee, and the main aim of the new regulations had been to benefit the consumer.

She said the biggest benefit of digitisation would be that the viewer would be able to choose channels of his or her choice out of 900 channels on offer.

Referring to the National Film Awards given yesterday which showed a resurgence of regional cinema, she announced that all award-winning films would be shown on Doordarshan.

Answering another point made by Justice Katju, she said that while the malaise of paid news existed it was difficult to detect.

Earlier, Justice Katju was unsparing in his criticism of the media which he said worked only as a commercial enterprise which had blocked progress and had no care of the consequences on the people. He said the media had lost a sense of propriety and was diverting from the real issues.

He was categorical that self-regulation would not work and it was necessary to bring in a regulatory body which was statutory but not headed by anyone in the government. Stressing that he was a great votary of freedom of the media, he said he wanted regulation, and not control.

He said freedom of the press was like a knife which could be used to help or stab the people. At a time when 90 per cent of even the educated believed in casteism and superstition, it was very wrong for TV channels to propagate this through various serials, commercial advertisements, and the presence of so-called sages.

"Astrology is pure nonsense, but gets high TRPs and so media stoops to this low level," he added.

While Article 19(1)(a) is always referred to whenever the channels feel their freedom is being trampled upon, they forget the mention of promotion of scientific temper in the Fundamental Duties listed in Article 51.

He said cricket had become the opium of the masses in a country which saw an average of 47 farmer suicides a day and 47 per cent of the children were under-nourished.

Lamba said in his address called for a consultative committee of the film industry and the Ministry so that thorny subjects could be ironed out.

He said though the issue of service tax had been ironed out to an extent by the government, there were many other problems afflicting the film industry. He wanted the centre and states to help the growth of regional cinema.

He said the present losses because of piracy amount to around Rs 4.3 billion, but he was confident this would come down with newer technologies coming in.

MUMBAI: Leading DTH operator Tata Sky has associated with Universal Collectabillia to auction four exclusive and unique cricketing memorabilia autographed by Indian cricketers - Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh - on its power on channel ?Channel 100?.

The exclusive and personalised range would include a signed jersey from Dhoni and Yuvraj, a white cricket ball signed by Zaheer Khan and an engraved pen and signed memento by master blaster Sachin. In addition to the memorabilia, the highest bidder would receive a certificate of authenticity issued by UCPL that guarantees that the signatures are genuine and personally signed by the individual player himself.

The auction will begin on 5 May and would take place every Saturday during the month of May 2012. Each memorabilia will have a pre-defined price with the minimum bid starting at Rs 2500. The subscriber with the highest bidding price will become the proud owner of a part of his favourite cricketing star.

MUMBAI: Big RTL, the television JV between Reliance Broadcast Network (RBNL) and Europe?s entertainment firm RTL Group, has named its new channel as Thrill.

The new channel marks RTL Group?s entry into the Asian television market. This is Reliance ADAG?s second International JV in the broadcasting space, the first being with CBS Studios International.

Positioned as the ?first action entertainment? channel, it will be launched by the end of June. The company believes that there is a void in the action space. Thrill will serve international content from across the globe, dubbed in Hindi.

The target audience that the channel will cater to is males in the age group of 15-44, across metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas in the Hindi-speaking markets, who are action and adventure lovers.

RBNL CEO Tarun Katial said, ?We are excited to offer India its first action entertainment Channel, Thrill which will showcase world-class international content, dubbed in Hindi. The channel fills a need gap that exist in the entertainment landscape and we are confident that our proposition, backed by consumer insights, will resonate excellently with viewers and marketers alike.?

In order to provide diverse programming content, the channel has signed strategic deals with various leading international content providers for successful global formats and series across a variety of genres: action reality, action thrillers, fighting and wrestling championships, shocking, never seen before films, extreme sports, late night entertainment and a robust library of hit Hollywood action movies, all dubbed in Hindi.

Big RTL has teamed up with DTH service provider Reliance Digital TV, a Reliance ADAG company, to distribute Thrill. The company says that this will help in giving the channel access to 3 million digital television homes across India. It is in the process of closing deals with other operators.

Thrill will be distributed as part of a 7-channel bouquet of RBNL which includes Big CBS Prime, Big CBS Love, Big CBS Spark, Big CBS Spark Punjabi, Big Magic and UTV Bloomberg.

MUMBAI: India has 44.21 million private DTH subscribers as of 31 December 2011, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its quarterly report.

The total number of registered subscribers is from the six private direct-to-home operators - Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct.

Digital cable TV, however, is growing slowly in the Cas (conditional access system) notified areas.

Cable TV operators have marginally increased the seeding of set-top boxes (STBs) in the Cas areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai during this period.

According to Trai, the total number of STBs installed increased to 853,737 in the quarter ended December 2011, as compared to 819,960 STBs in the previous quarter.

Trai has also released the data on the number of TV channels in India till 31 December 2011. There are a total of 825 private satellite TV channels permitted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, out of which 163 channels are pay, as per the sector watchdog?s report based on the data received from 25 broadcasters and distributors across the country.

The maximum number of channels being carried by any of the reported multi-system operator (MSO) in digital mode is 277. In analogue form, however, the maximum number of channels being carried by any of the reported MSOs is 100 channels.

Trai also said that the number of private FM radio stations in operation remained at 245 till the end of Dec 2011.