TV channel war starts in Agra

The business rivalry between two major cable television companies in Agra, which is going on for more than five years, has now taken a serious turn, with Pay TV broadcasters beginning to take sides and the cable companies launching their own private "channels", causing consternation in state government circles.

Lately, two large broadcasting companies -- Moon Network Pvt Ltd and Sea Television Pvt Ltd -- dominate the cable television scene in Agra, each controlling over 60,000 cable households in Agra and Firozabad, through more than 200 small franchisees.

At a time when both these companies are vying to establish a monopoly in these two cities, Zee-Turner Ltd, the brand owner of the Zee Television channel bouquet, and SET India Ltd, the company managing the Sony channel bouquet, have banned Moon Network from re-broadcasting their channels.

In retaliation, the third-most prominent broadcaster, Star TV, has now restricted Sea Television from re-distributing its channels among its viewers.

Neither Moon Network nor Sea Television can claim to have all the major channels, and following this extreme step taken by the broadcasters, both broadcasters have now adopted a unique business strategy of launching a host of locally produced entertainment and news channels, on which the Uttar Pradesh government has taken a serious stance, issuing an order restricting Cable TV companies from operating local channels.

Talking to Business Standard last week, Mohan Swaroop, commissioner, entertainment tax, UP, said an order banning the broadcast of locally produced television programmes had indeed been issued by the state government earlier, though it was hardly being followed in the state.

Now, the government is planning to introduce another order restricting the cable TV companies from producing and broadcasting local channels unless they agreed to pay the stipulated taxes and to follow the strict guidelines.

These guidelines included include allowing the preview of locally produced programmes and obtaining the broadcasting approval from the district magistrate of the district concerned.