Sunday, March 24, 2013

MY Experience: The Ownership and Management of Television in Nepal



Raju Subedi
Raju Subedi
Evolution of Television in Nepal
If we reverse to history, John Logie Baird gave the world’s first public television demonstration of a mechanical television apparatus to approximately 40 members of the Royal Institution at his laboratory on Frith Street of Scotland on January 23, 1926. (www.wikipedia.com).These was images of living human faces, not outlines or silhouettes, with complete tonal gradations of light and shade. World War-II is considered the last and final birth of television. In the case of Nepal, Television was a subject of debating in Parliament in 1980.Nepal government finally allowed television in Nepal and it was taken as a study, feasibility under the information and broadcasting. Nepal television was former test broadcast successfully in December 31, 1983. Nepal Television made a position only one channel in across the Nepal for 15 to 16 year. Nepal government brought some changed in information act on the 2001which help to introduce a private television channel. Channel Nepal start television station as a first private television focused on the entertainment. After some year Image channel and Kantipur television come which carry mix package (News & entertainment program). Nowadays Nepal has more than 16 television channels running as a national television, some are regional television and many more are on the way.
Television broadcasting is the new phenomenon in Nepal. Beginning in December 1985, the state-owned Nepal Television Corporation began airing programs. Viewers often used satellite dishes to receive international broadcasts from CNN and the BBC in addition to Indian and foreign programs. Access to the media is increasing as the number increased. Television media are limited basically in urban areas as the electricity facility is only for 20% of total population.  Events are thoroughly covered in the latest news bulletins with fresh visuals by nepali commercial media. It is likely observed that the use of the fresh visual is high these days in the nepali media. After this study, finally i can say that kantipur television ownership pattern is the private, partnership among the Non Resdient Nepali, prominent media businessman and the real state businessperson guided by the profit. The investor main interest is gain the profit and exapand the other business through the mass media. The investment of kantipur television is full investment of the Non Resdient Nepali and Nepali citizen. Till today they are not seem particularly related with any specific political party. I cannot found any hidden interest of investor. There was not clear data available who owned how much share but i can assume that Non Resident Nepali investing more.

State of broadcasting in Nepal  

  
The Interim Constitution 2007 has a provision to prevent the scrapping of the registration of media  all.  Earlier,  such  provision  applied  only  to  the print  media.  A high-level  media commission  formed  to  identify  the  problems  of  media  in  the  new  political  context  and recommend policy had  made several recommendations for media in  Nepal,
some of which were followed up by the government.
 One achievement is the amendment of the Working Journalists Act (WJA) and the enactment of  the Right  To  Information  (RTI)  Act.  Efforts  for  policy  reforms  for  the  development  of media in the new context are still underway.  One is a policy on Proportional Advertisement Policy, which  has  recommended  forming  some  bodies  like  Advertisement  Authority, Monitoring  Committee  on  Code of  Advertising  Ethics  (as  a  quasi-judicial  body)  and Advertisement Council. Another is a report prepared by the government on cable television. 
that  recommended  some  ideas  to be  achieved  through  two  ways: (1)  existing  laws,  (2) amending the National Broadcasting Act and Regulation. The draft of the amendment is also prescribed in the report. There is also a draft of an information policy (2011).
The  larger  number  of  media  houses  that have  been  established in  recent  times  show  that media  has  become  an  attractive  business  in  the  new  environment.  According  to  data  of  the Ministry of  Information and Communications  (2069-06-01) 394 radios and 39 televisions were registered.  While focusing the on the ownership and management of Television media in Nepal, it seems poor while comparing to the developed country. We can take a look on running television stations and their ownership on the following chart.
Chart 1.1

List of Television Stations Operating in Nepal

S.N.
Name
Est Date
Ownership
Region

1
1985
Government
Nationwide

2
2003
Government
Nationwide

3
2003
Private
Nationwide

4
2003
Private
Nationwide

5
2007
Private
Nationwide

6
2007
Private
Nationwide

7
2008
Private
Nationwide

8

Private
Nationwide

9
2009
Private
Nationwide

10
2010
Private
Nationwide

11
2010
Private
Nationwide

12

Private
Nationwide

13
2010
Private
Nationwide

14
2010
Private
Biratnagar

15
Gandaki TV
?
Private
Pokhara

16
GoldenEye Television
?
Private
Pokhara

17
Lumbini Television
?
Private
Butwal

18
Himshikhar Television
2010
Private
Nationwide

19
Araniko Television (previously known as Mission Star)
2012
Private
Nationwide

20
Arena TV
?
Private
Itahari

21
E-24 Television
2012
Private
Nationwide

22
Btv Entertainment Network (Nepal's 1st 30 channels under 1 Roof)
 ?
Private


23
Vision Television
 ?
Private


24

Private


                                                                                                (Source: Wikipedia)
Among these television channels, Nepal television was the only one and the first
Nepali television for about a decade. But after the reestablishment of 
democracy Nepal became the country with freedom of communication
nd all of the doors of obstacles for the communication development was open.
 
Brief Overview on Ownership and Management of some major TV Channel

 


Nepal Television
Nepal Television (NTV) started as a project in January 1985, under the sixth development plan 1980-1985. NTV was established with the Slogan “Communication for Development” with a broad mission statement “Produce and telecast programs on educational, religious and cultural conservation to promote national unity, conserve heritage and promote national interest. Provision was made "to undertake feasibility study of the establishment of television in the country, to begin TV transmission service at selected places if found feasible from economic and technical standpoint". It began its experimental transmission when it launches its first programmed on Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev's visit to Australia in 1985. The cost of television was very expensive and the director neither gets any help from the government sector. Also Television was expensive medium and required costly technical equipments. And for the first time the wave was sent the material through a satellite.  NTV has operated its second channel (NTV Plus), under Chinese grant. Now NTV is a full member of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union whose headquarter is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It obtained this membership in 1987. It is also an associate member of the Geneva based European Broadcasting Union. At last on 22 Jestha 2064 Minister of Communication and Information, Krishna Bahadur Mahara has done political appointments: Corporation and Rishi Raj Baral as chairman of the Nepal Television Corporation.
This shows that although the government does not provide any help to the media for its establishment government always tries to use the media for their ease and on their favor.
Kantipur Television
KTV was launched in 13th July 2003. It was at first only transmitted in Kathmandu but now it broadcast all over the nation. It transmit to the US, New Zealand and North Korea also. The toughest part in this sector is translating the visions and ideas into pictures according to the public's demand and desires. Each day is a struggle for it is a challenge in order to determine to win. Kantipur Television is the latest Corporate Diversification of Kantipur Media Group. It is planned as a largest private sector station in terms of investment among all the new stations being promoted in the country. Popularly known as KTV it is licensed to operate as a national level TV broadcaster in the terrestrial format. KTV is a non-exclusive channel with 40% news and current affairs and 60% general entertainment program mix. It is also an affiliate channel of CNN in Nepal. Currently KTV employs more than 300 TV professionals and is equipped with latest technology and updated production gadgetries.  Kantipur TV is a television network of Kantipur Publication of Nepal. This Publication House has a number of other notable publications such as The Katmandu Post, and City Post.
Image Television
Born in 1995, as a program package on NTV, Image Metro grew to become the first private channel in Nepal. Since it is a private channel, people expected something different, and that was challenge. There was a lot of music, but it was restricted to news and current affairs at first. Later on it starts as Image Channel also gave way to Nepali music videos. It first started with its slogan Image informs, Image entertains, Image gives you television the way you want it, Image brings you the latest and the greatest - a comprehensive line-up of programs guaranteed to keep you watching and watching. RK Manandhar, the president and MD of Image Channel (P) Ltd. which owns the Image Television.
Channel Nepal
Channel Nepal is the first Nepali Satellite TV channel broadcasting from the Bangkok, which caters for viewers across Asia and the Pacific from 3rd July, 2001. Widely viewed all over Nepal, Channel Nepal is the most popular TV Channel in Nepali Diasporas across Asia, the Middle-East and Gulf countries, and the pacific region. Channel Nepal goes an air 18 hours a day with variety of programs. Channel Nepal is a Window on Nepal and Nepali Diasporas. In-depth reporting, incisive views, situational depiction and hard hitting analysis based on accuracy and fairness are the district features of news and current affairs on Channel Nepal, With 14 news bulletins (9 in Nepali and 5 in English).
It is the latest offer of Space Time Network, which is committed to provide entertainment, information and knowledge programming (including current affairs and views from Nepal and the rest of the world) to the Nepalese living abroad. But now the Space Time Network has been closed.
Avenues Television
ATV is a satellite television channel which has introduced itself as the first news channel of Nepal. It is an upcoming 24 hour Nepali news channel. It produces news program and current affairs programs. The Ad Avenues Nepal, a Nepali advertising agency holds the rights of this channel. It started test transmissions beginning the 3rd week of Ashad 2064 although it has been to satellite on 2060. Moreover, its state-of-the-art audio-visual production facilities combined with competent professionals help in delivering cutting edge television advertisements for the clients.
Sagarmatha Television
Sagarmatha Television, the first 'news channel' of the country was formally launched by 30th July 2007. Initially, Sagarmatha TV will run programmes for 18 hours a day and can be viewed from over 40 countries across the world. Sagarmatha television started its transmission with the slogan as "Sagarmatha television a television of the Nepalese in the true sense."
 ABC Television
ABC News is one of the reputed satellite television was launched 8th Sep 2008. It also covers entertainment and musical programs as well. ABC Television is also known as "Janatako Television".


Ownership Status
In law, broadcast (radio and TV) media companies are required to publicly disclose their ownership.  Only one government owned television media Nepal Television is running two channels at different frequency (Nepal Television and NTV Plus). The chief manager (GM) of corporation also comes from government appointment.  Ownership of Nepal Television Corporation goes to government. But all other private Television institutions have private management and ownership, single and multiple. Most of the private television carries multiple ownership and same kind of management. The function of management is hold by different people as different section or department.

Finance of TV Media
  There should be a clear legal provisions and policy on issues like foreign investment in media, transparency in investment and monopoly.
  National media should be promoted by recognizing them as industry and by providing
them facilities enjoyed by other industries. Clean feed of ads of foreign broadcasters in Nepal could be an example in this regard. 
  A clear and stable national advertisement policy should be developed with a provision
of  proportional  distribution  of  government  ads on  the  basis  of  fixed  standard  and
access of audiences.
  The  provision  of  double  and triple taxes should  be  ended. The  dispute between  the government and the broadcasters on royalty is a result of such tax system. Tax should
be exempted and facilities should be provided for Internet, power and telephone bills
of media and media workers, and on the purchase of the vehicles and equipment. 

Management
The management of Nepal
Professional development 
  Broadcasters should  be  made  pluralistic,  transparent and  inclusive  to  the possible
extent not only in appointing the human resources but also in the materials and issues
that they produce.  
  Code  of  conduct  for  broadcasters  should  be  prepared  in  the  participation  of  the
organizations and be implemented effectively.
  Focus should be given for the development of skilled and trained human resources for
quality content.   

Ownership of radio and television receivers

Number of households owning radio and TV sets in accordance with the Census of 2001 is given in the following Figure. About 51% of rural households owned radio and 16% TV receivers. Radio and TV ownership in mountain area is 53.91 and 4.52 whereas in Tarai the figures are 42.65 and 25.14 percent of households  respectively. This shows that even radio ownership is low.

Policy and regulatory framework

Media is seen as the most powerful organ of the government. It is thousand times powerful than the bullets. Information is the bullet that media carry out. To control the media and to complete its duties and responsibilities in way under the national interest media are guided by culture, religion, and ethics or also by the state policies. To control or regulate the media the government and the authority have to formulate some code of conduct, act, policies and law in different forms. These code of conduct, acts, policies and laws are regulatory policies for media. These policies are to guide and to regulate the media and make them more responsible and accountable.

Regulatory policies and mechanism of broadcast media in Nepal

Broadcasting means to tell many people or transmit through television and radio and written form in newspaper, books, magazines, journals etc to inform the public. Regulation is rule made by the authority to control or manage the group. It is like law guided by the religion, culture, moral instinct or by the state policy. It is an order , ordinance requirement or a rule by authority that should be obeyed . The term broadcast means transmit or spread the information and the term regulation means an administrative notion by law or order or by nation.

Broadcasting policy

The Communication Policy of 1992 was the first policy document of the kind covering all the components of communications. It paved the way for introducing laws and regulations for private sector participation in broadcasting in  democratic environment. With the objective of providing information and expanding broadcasting services through out the country, the long- term broadcasting policy as enunciated in the Long-term Communication Policy 2000 includes basically the following:
  to maintain a competitive environment for broadcasting,
  to establish a national broadcasting authority in order to regulate broadcasters, 
  to enhance rural access to broadcasting through satellite,
   to promote distance education through government owned broadcasting institutions as well as that of private sector, 
  to establish some public service obligation to private sector broadcasters, 
  to provide integrated information service through radio, television, internet and
telephone in districts,
  to provide an autonomous broadcasting academy to build human resources for
broadcasting and programmed development, 
  to encourage development of programs to enhance cultural heritage. 

However, apart from issuing some licenses to new broadcasters as provided by the existing regulations no significant strides have been observed to implement this policy.

Broadcasting Act

Broadcasting Act (1993), which followed the 1992 Communications Policy, had set the stage for breaking the hold of state owned monopoly of Radio Nepal and Nepal Television in broadcasting: 
  It provides for licensing private sector in broadcasting television programs by satellite, cable and by any other means and programs by establishing FM broadcasting system (i.e. Radio or Television system).
  It also provides for establishing Earth Station for the purpose of broadcasting programs through means of satellite or cable to reach consumers.
  The Act authorizes the government to frame necessary Rules in order to implement the objectives of this Act and to delegate any or all the powers conferred on it.
• The Act describes duties and functions of  the broadcasters, in particular their responsibility in maintaining political neutrality and verifiability of news. It forbids advertisement pertaining to health (smoking and drinking) and pornography and also
detrimental to political parties, country’s security and sovereignty.
  It also disallows advertisements with intent to overthrow elected government, detract from the non-aligned foreign policy of Nepal, or that in any way create division, hatred, insult and degradation of any community, language, religion or culture.  Act to any authority or body.
  It also stipulates the extent of penalty for broadcasting or causing to broadcast without license or any programs in contravention of this Act.
  It also guides that programs should be directed to development of the country,
preservation of culture and folklore, and maintenance of good relation with neighbours.

National Broadcasting Regulation

The regulation came two years after the Act. The regulation includes licensing procedures, annual licensing and royalty charges. The rules stipulate that the period of the license will be specified in the permission letter. A number of points seems to arise while going through the licensing Rules of the Regulation.
  The regulation seeks information from the applicant in the prescribed format but reserves the right to issue license or not to without specifying any criteria as to how an
applicant is qualified or otherwise to obtain license.
  Rules do not provide for any limits to number of licenses to be issued and applicants
are able to apply any time but Rules are not specific in terms of any period within which a license will be issued or application will be rejected showing reasons of rejection. 
  Rules further specify that license period will be as mentioned in the license and the
permission letter indicating that the period is subject to discretion of licensing authority. 

Problems and Issues 
Policy: In context of radio and television, there are problems with licensing, taxes, renewal, crisis of recognition (for example, radio journalists do not receive Press Accreditation Card or  only  a  few  of  them  get  it),  discrimination  in  information  collection,  difficulty  in implementing  the  WJA,  mission-oriented  approaches  as  against  professional  and  non-transparent investment. Foreign investment, monopoly in investment and distribution of all-time licenses are also the policy wise problems. The issue of foreign investment is not clearly address  by  the  law. Growing  media  monopolies  and  cross-ownership  of  media  are  other issues. Another issue is the issuance of licenses for perpetuity – unlike term licenses in many other countries. There is a line of thinking that frequency being a public resource should not be  given  forever  for  the  particular  company/institution.  Though  we  have a renewal  system the government cannot revoke licenses according to the constitutional provision. 
Professional development: Although  there  has  been  a  quantitative  growth  in broadcasting, qualitative,  professional  and  institutional  development  has  not  been  satisfactory. Broadcasters have  become  the  victim  of  limited  market  and  their  maximum  growth  in numbers. The  frequency  spectrum  in  Kathmandu  is  almost  used  up  and  cities  like  Pokhara, and  Janakpur  have  as  many  as  18  and  9  radios,  respectively.  Biratnagar/Itahari, Butawal/Bhairahawa,  Nepalgunj,  Dang  are  some  other  examples  of  maximum  radio presence. In general, district headquarters and small market places are also tuning their local FMs. The  operational  costs  are high  while  the revenue  generation has  fallen,  particularly
after the power cuts of up to 14 hours in the winter months.   The broadcasters  do  not  have  adequate  trained  human  resources,  also  in management and financial  resources  are  difficult  for  some  to  meet  basic operational  costs, including  that  for infrastructures, and for essential equipment and repair and maintenance. 

Identity  and  standards:  The  government treats  the  press  and  broadcast  media  in  a discriminatory manner.  Issues of differentiating radios  as commercial,  non-governmental organizations,  cooperatives,  educational  institutions,  local  government  etc.  remains unresolved. Representative  organizations  of  radio  have  held  discussions  to  this  effect  with the  government.  The  ministry  has  agreed  on  the  proposal  of  the  BAN and ACORAB to recognize them as they want to through policy and regulations differentiating public service broadcasting,  community  broadcasting  and commercial  broadcasting  on  the  basis  of  their content and scope – national, federal and local. This remains to be done.
There  is  a  feeling of  discrimination  between  the  media in the  capital  and  those  outside especially  in  terms  of  access  to resources;  there  is  also  a  similar  feeling  among  the organizations with 'big budget' and 'small budgets'.  Effective  monitoring and  regulation: Implementation  of  journalists'  code  of  conduct  and
media laws has been weak in the absence of effective media monitoring and regulation. The MoIC has been monitoring the radios and TVs whereas Press Council of Nepal monitors the print media and the code of conduct.  Likewise, the Audit Committee of Circulation monitors and  evaluates  the  printed  materials  and  circulation  of  the  print  media  and  there  is  the Minimum Remuneration Fixation Committee to monitor the implementation of the minimum remuneration  of  the  working  journalists  and  media  workers.  Besides,  the  Federation  of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has been monitoring the issues relating to press freedom and rights of the journalists. However, no work has been done to integrate and coordinate monitoring to make it effective. 

There is concern that the government has ignored the initiatives taken by the stakeholders for drafting policies since 2007. Instead, the MoIC has initiated a draft that stakeholders oppose saying  that  they  were  not  consulted. Further,  like  the print  media  many  broadcasters  also have  links  with political  parties, and  are  often less  concerned  about the  people's  issues  and serve the interests of the powerful.  

Writer was sub-editor at News 24 Television Nepal.


 

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