MUMBAI: Sun TV Network’s over the top (OTT) platform Sun NXT has turned profitable and has amassed 15 million subscribers, the company’s management said during Q3 FY20 earnings conference call.

“Our Sun NXT platform is forging ahead with subscriber count reaching about 15 million people. And I’m also proud to share that our OTT has turned the corner and has now started making profits. So in the last couple of years, we were in an investing phase and now I’m delighted to share with the group that it has moved from red to black,” the management said.

MUMBAI: Colors continued to lead the list of top ten Hindi GECs in the urban market and in pay platform for more than four consecutive weeks. In urban market Viacom18's other Hindi GEC Colors Rishtey entered the list replacing Big Magic at tenth position. On pay platform Zee TV slipped to fourth position from third in the week 04 of BARC India ratings.

MUMBAI: Despite the biggest financial event in the country – Budget 2020, the viewership of news channels of across genre, except business news channels, slowed down in week 5 (1-7 February) as compared to week 4, according to the data released by Broadcasting Audience Research Council India.

Week 4 (25-31 January) had seen many national importance events such as Republic Day, Delhi Assembly poll campaigns, pre-budget preparation, and Shaheen Bagh firing. The news channels across genre had buzzing news information almost every day during week 4 of BARC.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced that the provisions of the tariff amendment order 2020 are to come into effect from 1 March 2020 and several preparatory activities are to be carried out by service providers in a time-bound manner. 

TRAI said that this is to ensure that sufficient time is actually available to the consumers to exercise their choice of channels and bouquets before 1 March 2020. Therefore, all service providers concerned may take suitable steps to ensure that the consumers have enough time to make their choices of channels so that the smooth transition takes place on 1 March 2020. 

Chrome Data Analytics and Media’s Optimal+ data has released the comparative study of the performance of various brands in week 4 against week 3. The report categorises the performance of brands under three broad categories namely Most Watched ads, Most Aired ads and the Most Liked ads based on analysis of data involving 34000 panel homes across the country.

MUMBAI: Discovery Communications India will discontinue three standard definition (SD) bouquets from 5th March. The broadcaster has also revised the pricing of its SD and HD bouquets with effect from 5th March.

The three bouquets to be discontinued are kids infotainment pack, kids infotainment Tamil pack, and kids infotainment HD pack. The three packs had infotainment and kids channels like Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC and Discovery Kids among others.

MUMBAI: Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has levied a penalty on direct to home (DTH) operator Independent TV for failing to clear IndiaCast Media Distribution‘s dues as well as non-disclosure of movable/immovable assets.

The tribunal has directed the DTH operator to pay a penalty of Rs. 5 lakh within two weeks in view of the continued act of disobedience by first not complying with the order passed on 6.11.2019 and then not making the disclosure with required details despite the order passed on 10.1.2020.

The Cable Operators Welfare Federation (COWF) India will meet the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 13 February. The meeting has been planned with the intention of discussing the issues regarding the revised tariff regime NTO 2.0 for which Indian Broadcasting Federation has already filed a writ petition against TRAI in the Bombay High Court. The case will be heard on 12 February.

There has been an increase of 1.31 per cent in the total number of insertions by advertisers in Week 4, according to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.

Data for Week 4 shows there have been 535419 insertions by advertisers as compared to 528502 in the previous week.

Hindustan Lever continues to lead among the top 10 advertisers and has registered a 6.84% increase in insertions to stand at 205133 this week as compared to 191992 insertions in Week 3. Meanwhile, Reckitt Benckiser (India) has maintained its second position with a 15.16% jump to 114491 insertions as compared to 99417 insertions in the previous week.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has said that it does not intend to levy a 10% licence fee on broadcasters and cable operators, according to reports.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar also informed that the Ministry continuously strives to create an enabling environment for strengthening of the broadcasting system through continuous review of policies and programmes and taking relevant measures to improve ease of doing business.