Broadcast bad news

For broadcasting in India, last week was so tragically absurd, you don't know whether to cry out of sadness or laugh at the absurdity. Witne...

For broadcasting in India, last week was so tragically absurd, you don8217;t know whether to cry out of sadness or laugh at the absurdity. Witness a Government bending over every which way to let the Internet take flight it does sound a bit like an airline, doesn8217;t it? while simultaneously grounding television and radio.

Inspite of a few genuflections in the direction of the regulations raj, there has been an effort to promote the Internet though as someone on Question Time India BBC so pertinently observed, how can you regulate the Internet, a species which has flourished precisely because it defies all regulations or controls?. The Prime Minister who is, by the way, in charge of Iamp;B until and unless Sushma Swaraj loses the Delhi state elections led the way by announcing the privatisation of Internet services, and with almost indecent alacrity the policy was unveiled last Friday. Earlier, Sushmaji, in her capacity as Communications Minister, had promised an Internet connection in every district of India. Internet, Internet, Internet.

She also declared the film industry an industry, which the industry, at least, believes will do it some good.

The only policy decision regarding broadcasting has been the promulgation of a new ordinance regarding Prasar Bharati, the nateeja of which has been the removal of its CEO. Now Prasar Bharati functions under the aegis of an acting CEO and without a full-fledged governing body. Consequently no plans, long or of centimetre length, can be made for Doordarshan and AIR, because no Chairman or members Finance and Personnel have as yet been selected.

Does this mean that the Ministry of Iamp;B rules in absentia? Well, well, whaddya know? Is this a Machiavellian masterstroke? With state elections around the corner and onions, potatoes flying thick and fast, it makes sense to control DD and AIR, doesn8217;t it?

Meanwhile, a few fading sheets of neatly-typed paper, representing the Broadcast Bill, are under study. They8217;re being studied since the summer of 1997; undoubtedly, they8217;re written in some outer Galactic script. Now there8217;s talk of parading the Bill in Parliament during the winter of 1998. We8217;d like to remind readers that it took close to 8 years for the Prasar Bharati Bill to be implemented.

Broadcasting is a bit like life: people just don8217;t want to let it go.

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As a result, everything and anything goes. Take the instance of the encryption of TV channels. Last week, STAR Plus was encrypted; then there8217;s the new pay channel, AXN. Consequently, cable TV subscriptions have increased by as much as Rs.100 per month. And we receive channels whether we like it or not. If you don8217;t want an encrypted pay TV channel, try ringing up your cable operator and saying, 8220;Excuse me, I don8217;t want it.8221; He will reply, 8220;Too bad, memsahib you gotta take it.8221; And pay for it.

You can of course refuse to pay and still receive the channel. The cable operator has no option either: he has to feed it to you because a he isn8217;t equipped with the technology to cut off individual connections and b if he doesn8217;t, some other cable operator will offer it to you for free and you8217;ll switch allegiance. We8217;re both caught in the same noose. Neither of us can insist on our rights.

Nor do we have any say in the amount being charged. We8217;re governed by the whimsicality of the big guys who control the channels, who own or hold stakes in the delivery/distribution systems and who also provide the little black boxes for the decoding of the pay channels. They charge what pleases them. If this was a market place where the same product with many brands was on offer at varying prices, there would be consumer choice and they8217; could charge what they like. But, as we all know, that is not the case. This is an expensive industry with a limited number of channels and a few channel owners who essentially own them and us. As they say in Hindi films, 8220;yeh kahan ka insaaf hai8221;?

That8217;s one of the major reasons for a broadcast policy. Not to regulate the industry so much as to provide it with the impetus for growth; to insist on technical upgradation, to see that the convergence of technology leads to lowering prices; to protect our rights as viewers.

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But who cares about the viewers: let them watch AXN-pxn8230;. more on that next week.