Free-to-air broadcasters write to Prasar Bharti to wave off carriage fee

Fourteen free-to-air broadcasters have got together to write to Prasar Bharti to get the Government's support in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

 

They are seeking the Government to waive of 100 per cent of the carriage fees due to Prasar Bharati for the first quarter (April, May and June) and 50 per cent for second-quarter i.e. (July, August and September) for channels who have secured MPEG-2 slots on Prasar Bharati’s Free Dish Platform during the recently held 44th E-auction.

 

With commercial advertisements being the sole revenue stream for them, these channels are facing the heat as they believe that there will be a 70-80 per cent pull back in spends.

 

At the end of March, each FTA member, reached out to DD Free Dish with a certain request of waving carriage fees for a quarter (April, May and June) owed by them in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

The Government responded on 7 April 2020, offering a deferred payment schedule instead of the waiver. It also asked for a bank guarantee (valid up to 31.07.2020) of equivalent amount. Availing the said relief has been subjected to interest levy at 5.7 per cent per annum and GST on the interest amount.

 

The broadcasters believe this relief would not serve the purpose at this juncture, but instead, put additional hardships on the company in terms of bank guarantee charges, interest payments and GST amounts with effectively no relief on the total carriage fee payments.

 

The channels claim that they are paying all salaries on time to ensure livelihood but if this continues, they will not be in a position to meet the HR expenses leading to mass layoffs. The request was based on understanding the time that the entire industry would need for normalcy to return. 

 

The letter was signed by:

 

• Pradeep Guha,  MD, 9X Media, 9XM & 9X Jalwa

• Aditya Pittie, MD, IN 10 Media, Showbox & Filamchi

• Ajit A. Joshi, director, SwamiFilm Entertainment and SuperHit Broadcasting, Movie Plus & Satya

• Natasha Fernandes, director, B4U Broadband (India), B4U Music & B4U Movies

• Santosh Garg, authorised signatory, Ashirwad Telenetwork B4U Kadak &B4U Bhojpuri

• Manish Shah, director, Goldmines Telefilms, Blue

• Sandeep Gupta, Shemaroo Entertainment, Shemaroo Marathibana and Fun TV

• Sahib Chopra, director, Shopping Bazaar, Manoranjan TV, Manoranjan Movies and Manoranjan Grand

• Hitesh Sabharwal, CEO, Cinema 24*7, Cinema TV

• Dr Darshan Singh and Vishvajit Sharma, chairman and MD, Teleone Consumers Product, Maha Movie, Maha Punjabi, Lord Buddha TV

• Ranvir Singh, director, Skystar Entertainment, ABZY Cool, ABZY Movies, ABZY Dhakad

• Rakesh Gupta, Sadhna Media Group, Sadhna TV, Ishwar TV, Sadhna News Channel

• B.P. Aggarwal, MD, Surya Sagar Communication, Surya Cinema and Surya Bhojpuri

• Kailasnath Adhikari, promoter, Sri Adhikari Brothers- TV Vision Ltd., Mastiii and Dabangg