ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority [Pemra] has approved the grant of licences to new satellite TV channels through open bidding. The approval was given at a meeting on Monday.

The authority approved two non-commercial FM radio licences for Punjab Food Authority (PFA), Lahore, and Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore. The regulator reviewed the status of DTH licensing, which was under the process of security clearance by the agencies concerned.

The meeting approved amendments to Pemra Television Broadcast Station Operations, 2012, and regulations regarding security clearance of directors/licencees of satellite TV channels. A request by Virtual University for renewal of its non-commercial satellite TV licence was approved subject to payment of revised fee.

Pemra approved grant of one mobile TV licence to Ideation Ltd. Islamabad and two internet protocol TV distribution service licences for TES Media Ltd.

Dawn 

Related Story 

The News: Pemra approves two non-commercial licences

ONE 24/7 news television channel has shut down. Many other news channels, big and small, are teetering on the brink: their advertising revenues have been falling for several months.

The keyword in the (electronic) media these days is ‘rightsizing’. From camerapersons to producers to programme hosts — everyone’s job is on the line. Bureau offices have been particularly vulnerable to the campaign to cut expenses with many shutting down, rendering hundreds without work.

The devastation caused by plunging government and commercial advertising is real and substantial, and not limited to news TV networks alone. After all those doomsday predictions made ever since the birth of free electronic media some two decades ago, the bubble, it appears, has finally burst.

TV channels were always destined for some correction, meaning that some of them were supposed to fizzle out post-boom, only the fittest among them surviving. But the crisis is not limited to the channels, of which the experts say Pakistan has too many.

The newspaper industry has its own demons to overcome. Watching resignedly as companies took a substantial portion of their media spend from their print to their digital platforms to reach out to their target markets, the good old trusted newspaper is faced with a mortal threat as incomes fall drastically.

Thus starved of resources, newspapers and magazines have shed pages and created redundancies of their own. Some are finding it hard to pay salaries to their retained employees, contributing to the unrest and the increasingly vocal protest among journalists and other workers in the industry.

Here, too, media accounts do not match. Job loss estimates in television and newspapers vary from one industry source to another. Afzal Butt, president of his faction of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), puts the number of employees who have lost their jobs in this latest wave somewhere between 300 and 500. He fears more bad news over the next several months if the “bleeding doesn’t stop”.

‘The government has cut its media spend by more than 70 per cent and companies by almost 50pc’, says a leading advertising agency owner

Much has been said about how the current crisis is linked with the ascent to the throne of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who emerged on top in the midst of a badly polarised media. However, some sombre, less emotional versions say the difficulties predate Prime Minister Khan.

What has happened is that the government decision to sharply slash media spend and its refusal to clear outstanding payments to TV channels and newspapers, on account of advertisements released by the previous PML-N administration, intensified the trouble.

Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain promised last week to clear the unpaid bills of the media houses to protect jobs, but it is not yet clear if the provincial governments also plan to make the outstanding payments to help ease financial pressures facing television networks, newspapers and magazines.

A leading advertising agency owner told this correspondent in Lahore that the government has cut its media spend by more than 70 per cent and companies by almost 50pc, agreeing with the minister that the previous government had been ‘very generous’ in financially supporting media organisations through its publicity campaigns.

“The government’s media spend started falling soon after the installation of the caretaker governments in Islamabad and the provinces in the run-up to the July elections. Commercial advertisers began cutting their expense on media campaigns soon after the new government came into power because of tax and economic policy uncertainty,” he says, requesting anonymity because of his business relations with the federal and Punjab governments.

Indeed, the federal and provincial governments, especially of Punjab and Sindh, have in recent years heavily spent their way into the list of top 10 print media advertisers along with commercial banks, telcos, real estate developers, FMCG firms, food companies, etc.

Industry sources claim that advertising spend of both federal and provincial governments contributed the lion’s share to the incomes of TV channels in the last few years, but its exact size is difficult to calculate.

“The government has actually subsidised news channels for several years by buying air time at a much higher rate — around three times higher than the rate charged by the channels from a private company for the same duration and slot. The majority of the channels are facing the present financial crunch because their revenues from government advertisements have suddenly vanished,” says a senior executive of another major advertising agency from Karachi, refusing to reveal his identity.

The total advertising spend is ‘assumed’ to have grown at a reasonable rate over the last few years but the market remains significantly small given the number of media sources claiming their share from the pie.

Aurora, a Dawn Media Group publication on marketing, which annually compiles advertising spend collected from multiple sources, estimates that the market size has grown by a little less than a third from Rs66.9 billion in FY2015 to Rs87.7bn in FY2017, with almost half of the total revenues flowing in the way of TV channels and less than a quarter in the way of newspapers. The rest is divided among radio, Out of Home (OOH), digital formats, etc.

The keyword in the (electronic) media these days is ‘rightsizing’. From camerapersons to producers to programme hosts — everyone’s job is on the line

Some Karachi-based advertising firm executives, however, believe that the combined media spend of government and the private sector has grown to Rs90.5bn during CY2017, not very far from the Aurora estimates. But they insist television’s share in the market stands at 66.4pc compared with the print media share of 10.7pc.

On the basis of their popularity among viewers, the top six channels grabbed 45pc of the total television advertising spend of Rs42bn in FY2017. ARY Digitaland Hum TV topped the industry with a 10pc share each followed by Geo News with eight per cent, Geo Entertainment with seven per cent, and Urdu1 and PTV Home with five per cent each. The rest left for scores of other channels to share between them.

Similarly, the top three newspapers captured 47pc of the total print advertising revenue of Rs20bn with Jang topping the list with 26pc share followed by Dawn with 12pc and The Express Tribune with nine per cent.

The information minister accused the previous government of using advertising as a ‘political tool’, saying the PTI administration will “bring a balance” in the (news) industry through a transparent, merit-based policy for future distribution of the government’s media campaigns. He has repeatedly said the government wasn’t interested in bailing out media outlets with taxpayers’ money.

Many news industry analysts argue that if the PML-N used government advertising to ‘bribe’ channels and newspapers, the PTI is employing the same tool to muzzle them.

“In recent months, we’ve seen the state and its different organs bring pressure on media owners… to put them on the mat. Public sector advertisement that contributes 22-23pc to the total media revenue is being used to impose the government’s own agenda on the media,” asserts Adnan Rehmat, an Islamabad-based media analyst.

“The proposal to replace the existing separate electronic and print regulators with a new body, Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PMRA), to regulate print, electronic and social media without consulting the owners and journalists is an attempt to control the content (produced by the news media). The pitch is being laid against the content producers,” he argues.

Seemi Naghmana, a professor of mass communication at the University of Karachi, agrees with him. But she says the present crisis was long overdue because of mushroom growth in the television industry.

“We’re still watching new TV channels being launched in spite of the financial crunch gripping the industry. Our economy isn’t strong enough to support such mushroom growth of TV channels. So when the crunch came in the wake of cuts in government advertisement, many started retrenching their employees to hedge against potential losses,” she elaborates.

A Karachi-based senior journalist blames media consumers for their unwillingness to pay for the content produced by the television they watch, and newspapers and magazines they read.

“Because media consumers aren’t ready to pay for the content, the owners have built organisations that mainly depend on government and commercial advertisement revenue for sustenance. Reliance on the government increases when the economy is not performing. This is a fragile business model. Little wonder if governments take advantage of this fragility to control the content produced and gag free expression,” he explains.

Whatever little fee consumers pay to watch more than 100 channels at home goes to the distributors instead of content producers. Similarly, up to 40pc of the cost of a newspaper is pocketed by hawkers-distributors and another 10-20pc is lost in bad debts and unrecovered costs. While the television industry gets nothing from distributors, newspapers recover only a small fraction of their cost from sales.

Further, there is a general agreement among media professionals that the rise of internet and emergence of new means for advertisers to reach their target audience has diverted advertisement from the conventional TV and print media. The size of the advertising spend has increased over the years, but so has the number of claimants. The competition for advertising income has increased sharply.

“Many competing channels and newspapers are ready to become an extension of government propaganda,” says the Karachi-based journalist. “And these media houses are ready to do the bidding of businesses prepared to pay for the content of [these businesses’] liking to protect and increase their market share.”

Some principles it seems remain unchanged, even when the ‘turmoil’ has taken away many jobs and left everyone else in the media insecure.Representatives of the Pakistan Broadcasters Association and the All Pakistan Newspapers Society were not available for comment.

Dawn 

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (Afzal Butt group) on Saturday described Nov 3, 2007 as the darkest day in the country’s history and said on that day former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf had imposed a state of emergency in violation of the Constitution.

In a statement, PFUJ president Afzal Butt and secretary general Ayub Jan Sirhindi recalled that restrictions were imposed on the electronic media and the judges who refused to take the unconstitutional oath had been detained. The PFUJ launched a movement against those measures. Protest camps set up by the journalists remained in place for several months and due to this struggle TV channels were restored.

“This exemplary struggle is the beacon of light in our history,” Mr Butt said, adding PFUJ was still confronting unannounced censorship and black laws imposed on the press.

The leaders expressed their commitment that the journalists would continue their struggle until the press became completely independent.

The PFUJ said that even today efforts were being made to introduce Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority to impose restriction on the press.

“We will not accept any such law that is intended to gain government control on the press,” Mr Butt said.

“Like the past, PFUJ will not hesitate to offer any sacrifice for freedom of the press,” he said.

Dawn

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Sunday appointed DIG Traffic Dr Ameer Shaikh to investigate the incident in which journalists had been manhandled by police outside the Sindh High Court building on Saturday and submit a report to him in a week.

The decision was taken during a meeting the chief minister held with reporters and cameramen of private TV channels who had been thrashed by police outside the SHC building where they had gathered to cover the appearance of PPP’s estranged leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza before a court.

The media personnel told the chief minister that they had been manhandled by masked commandos of the Special Security Unit of Sindh Police who were not in uniform.

They requested the chief minister to order an inquiry into the incident and bring those involved to book.

Mr Shah assured the journalists that no such incident would take place in future. “I have already directed the IG to provide protection to journalists when they cover high-profile events,” he said.

Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said he had already apologised to journalists.

“Journalists are my brothers and they have always supported our elected government(s). We will not allow police to harass them,” he said.

Meanwhile, demonstrations were held in some cities of Sindh on Sunday to condemn police action against journalists.

DAWN

The post CM orders inquiry into manhandling of journalists appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

“You have the right to criticise, but not manipulate or spread lies against the sons of those who created Pakistan,” hesaid referring to mediapersons, in a telephonic speech to his party workers at a sit-in outside the Election Commission offices on Tuesday night.

Altaf subsequently retracted parts of his statements and apologised to mediapersons if he had hurt their feelings.In his earlier speech he warned the media that if they did not mend their ways, somebody from his organisation of millions of people might lose his cool. “If that person does something bad to one of you, don’t blame the MQM or Altaf Hussain,” he said.

Hussain claimed that the media was clearly biased against his party, portraying them in a bad light. Using an old Urdu proverb, the MQM chief said, “The dogs bark when caravans move. I want to tell the mediapersons that they can criticise the MQM as much as they want but honestly.”

”We all know about favouritism and manipulation. We have been running the party for the past 35 years. You are like our kids, our children, you can’t teach us politics,” he said.“Are you going to teach us the ethics of journalism? You boys!”

He warned the media to quit playing games with the MQM and said if the MQM ran out of patience, then neither the anchors nor the owners of the media houses would find a place to hide.

Later, addressing the MQM Rabita Committee meeting Altaf Hussain felicitated Nawaz Sharif saying that he accepts the mandate given to his party by the people. He urged all parties to respect each others’ mandates.

He said he was sorry if his remarks had hurt anyone including media persons. He also called off the sit-in outside the ECP offices until after a meeting of the Election Commission officials that will decide on the fate of NA-250 scheduled for Sunday.

Source: The News

“In the past channels have been shut down using force and coercion because media had not followed ‘advice’ of political parties and pressure groups,” said a PBA statement issued after the meeting that agreed to adopt the policy ‘with immediate effect’.

“Now no channel can be shut without repercussion of collective exposure, collective boycott and collective legal action. The PBA is united for people’s right to know.”

It said that during the past decade, purely due to initiative of private sector, Pakistan’s electronic media industry had developed into an industry employing, directly and indirectly, hundreds of thousands of people all over the country. The strength, independence and courage of Pakistan’s electronic media had gained recognition across the world, it said.

“Since the 2007 electronic media has been facing either complete or partial closure/shutdowns either throughout the country or in particular areas. The channels closure/shutdown is used to curb the independence of media when certain ‘advice’ by pressure groups is not entertained due to independent editorial policy,” said the statement.

Without free media people’s right to be informed vanished, it said, adding that when faced with illegal shutdowns, the broadcasters were left with absolutely no avenue of addressing the problem ‘immediately’.

“The government as well as Pemra and federal and provincial law-enforcing agencies are seldom forthcoming in offering any help to the broadcasters,” said the PBA. “It is against the above background, as well as forthcoming elections, that Pakistan’s broadcasters have united to safeguard viewers’ right to know.”

Pakistan Press Foundation