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Paul Noronha

Mr Anand Sharma (left), Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting and External Affairs; Mr Yash Chopra, Chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee, and actor Deepika Padukone at the inaugural session of FICCI -Frames 2009 in Mumbai on Tuesday. —

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Feb. 17 The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has decided to hike the advertising rates of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).

Mr Anand Sharma, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting & External Affairs, said on the sidelines of FICCI Frames 2009 that the Government has decided to hike the advertising rates of the DAVP by 10 per cent across the board.

Earlier, the I&B Ministry had accepted the proposal of the print media industry to waive the 15 per cent commission that was given on the ads. Overall, this would mean a 25 per cent increase in DAVP ad rates.

“We believe adequate measures have been taken but if there is a need, the Government was prepared to consider the further requirements of the media and entertainment industry to weather the adverse fallout of the global economic crisis,” said Mr Sharma.

Last year, the Government had increased the DAVP advertisement rates by 24 per cent to give relief to the media industry in view of the recent hike in newsprint rates and recently the customs duty on imported newsprint has been lowered. “We are still open and are willing to come out will a new relief packages to provide a stimulus to the industry,” he added.

The Government will also allow political advertisements on FM radio due to decrease in ad spends, he added.

Direct-to-home operators will also be cushioned by the Government as Mr Sharma said that the Government is considering a reduction in licence fee for Direct-to Home (DTH) to six per cent of gross revenue from the prevailing rate of 10 per cent.

Ms Sushma Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, said that the Government was in the process of amending the FM Phase II policy for the launch of FM Phase III. “This phase will cover 275 cities with around 790 channels,” she said.

She added the Government was working on devising a suitable regulatory framework for digitalisation of cable services. “This is a key factor in getting rid of problems such as under-declaration of subscribers and the practice of carriage fee being charged by cable operators, particularly in TRP cities.”

Ms Singh said another policy intervention being considered by the government is the prescription of a time period of five years within which the existing and new Multi Service Operators and Local Cable Operators will have to digitalise with some incentivisation from the license fee. “Beyond the five-year period, no new license for cable operation will be given for analog services,” she added.

The ministry is also working on extending the CAS area first to the remaining parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and then to the 55 cities as suggested by the TRAI group.

“Because of the large potential of the mobile TV sector and the interest shown by the industry, the Government was also working on laying down a suitable regulatory framework for enabling the private players to provide mobile TV services. This will take the convergence of services to the next higher level,” Ms Singh pointed out.

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