The Hindu : Business : Centre to discuss eradication of piracy with States

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Tuesday, Apr 05, 2005

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Business

Centre to discuss eradication of piracy with States — I&B Minister

By Our Staff Correspondent

The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, S. Jaipal Reddy (left), with the President of FICCI, Onkar S. Kanwar, and Amitabh Bachchan at the Frames 2005 organised by FICCI in Mumbai on Monday. — Photo: Paul Noronha

MUMBAI, APRIL 4. The Union Government has convened a two-day meeting of State information and broadcasting ministers from April 16 to eradicate piracy, Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, said today.

Inaugurating the three-day `Frames 2005' event for the entertainment industry organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr. Reddy said the meeting would discuss issues like entertainment tax, which, in some States, was as high as 80 or even 100 per cent. Agreeing with other speakers at the meeting, Mr. Reddy said, "Although it is a stumbling block for the film industry which is already facing threat from TV, it could be brought down to a minimum but it is not possible to abolish it.''

The minister also assured the industry that he would take up the issue of fringe benefits tax with the Union Finance Minister as the industry was worried about its impact. The minister said that an autonomous regulatory authority would be in place to control the content on TV channels as is the case in the U.K. and the U.S. and a bill to this effect would be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament. "I hope we can create the institution this time around,'' he said.

Mr. Reddy announced that the Government would add a further 17 free-to-air channels to its Direct-to-Home (DTH) offerings taking the total to 50.

The Minister announced that more than 300 private radio stations could be permitted under a more liberal policy package that the government was considering. "I would like to strengthen the scope for radio in the private sector,'' he said, "The emphasis of the new package is exclusively on growth and not revenue.'' He added that the policy would be liberalised to enable more private operators to compete with public broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) in the FM space.

"This is not good news for AIR but competition promotes excellence and sheltered development leads to stunted development,'' he said.

The minister said he was keen to encourage community radio stations in the country. "There is scope for 4,000 community radio centres and we have devised guidelines to simplify procedures and will have 4,000 channels in the next three years.''

Zee's global channel

Speaking at the opening session, Subhash Chandra, Chairman of the Zee group, announced that Zee Television would launch a global English news channel later this year. He said the channel would be beamed from India and will have content in line with international news channels like CNN and BBC.

"While CNN presents global news from an American perspective and BBC with a British perspective, the news channel will target a wider audience than only the Indian diaspora. It will be an initiative with other Asian companies and will see global news from an Asian point of view,'' said Mr. Chandra adding that Zee was looking to having a partnership with other global players.

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