What If, We Impose Self Regulation On Our Content- By Bilal Hasan

We are running after TRP’s, busy in acquisitions of foreign content irrespective of what is there in it for an audience, trying harder and harder to leave behind our competitors by developing sensational dramas, stories and news just to lift up audience share and rating but in search of all these we have left far behind the media ethics, social values and national interest
What If, a consortium is made where all the top media companies, content managers, production houses, independent producers/directors, scholars, cable operators and other stake holders develop a new metrics by considering our social values, national interest, norms and values, media ethics and at the same time realizing that Pakistan is an Islamic state and we should not broadcast such content which may deviate us from our culture and values or may harm the thought process of citizens or national interest
The aim of this coalition would be to control such content which is not suitable for the society and to promote such content which brings the entertainment and information along with our ethical values in consideration, broadcast only such information & knowledge which may bring hope in the society and in case of criticism, the boundary must be defined. Any information which may damage the sovereignty of a country should not be allowed. In the race of first and Breaking, if some sort of incorrect news/visuals are on aired, corrective measures must be taken by the consortium. This consortium would not take any legal action against anyone but they must convey the horse mouth feedback to their members. This way altogether constructive change can be brought
CBCCC aims to bring the true and honest feedback from the viewer. This feedback will help the broadcasters review their content, content policies, audience interest and may help them to provide the secondary method of audience measurement so that a healthy & open competition takes place and more and more innovative and creative ideas will be welcomed.
Parental guidance would also be promoted and discussed from this platform and consortium advice a framework for all genres to its members so that all together we can decide what content is suitable for which age, this may help in building positive society.
Also, when all the giants sit together they may be able to control piracy and promote copyright concept, this positive regulation ultimately brings constructive growth in the broadcast industry. Nowadays many of the producers in the name of inspiration copying the foreign content and feel proud on themselves. This consortium may control such activities ultimately support industry in bringing positive growth
For the producers, script writers, directors, investors and content managers, this consortium can provide the information about viewer’s interest, viewer’s feedback and the viewer’s choice. Such useful information may help them in highlighting the issues which audience would like to watch. Awful content must be reported at once so that no one will try to corrupt the competition and the society. There must be a boundary which decides by the platform that what comes under the violence & obscene material.
Finally, the formation of CBCCC may control the content going through cable operators. Options like parental guidance on cable movie channels or content in which the language or the story is not appropriate may be control using this platform, This independent self regulation imposed by the broadcast professional upon themselves help the industry to concentrate on effective journalism and present entertainment in true meaning rather to run after the temporary numbers which does not only corrupt the competition but also ruin the society.
I, Bilal Hasan as a writer will just focus on the points of content regulation and control independent of government. From toddlers to teenage and from teenage till adults, we all are exposed to this virtual instructor who’s constantly impact our lives either intentionally or unintentionally. The more we are exposed to depression, de-motivating, cheap, unethical and dark side of the content the more we welcome the darkness in our lives. So get rid of the darkness by imposing self regulation on our content.
How this consortium works, this discussion would lengthen the article but to give a brief overview of the framework, there will be a panel who outline the boundary and they ensure that ticker is being on aired over the content that " If anyone has any complain regarding the content, please email at CBCCC@xyz.org", this email will be forwarded to the members of the consortium and then upon the complaints, consortium will take steps.
I would be pleased to answer any queries related to the above content. In addition to this your comments will be welcomed at bilal.hasan55@gmail.com.
Together we have to work to bring the change and it’s the responsibility of every stake holder not just the TV channels.

An Overview of the Media(TV) Industry- Global and local Perspective- By Sheeraz Adil

Global Media Giants

Time Warner

Time Warner is the largest media group of the world. This media giant has great names under its belt including CNN, Cartoon Network and HBO. It also has the world largest cinema screens. It also owns largest cable network in the US. It also possesses one of the best studio and production facilities. It also has ownership in comedy central. It is no doubt a global company having more than 200 subsidiaries worldwide. This media giant also runs major theme parks and it also has 150 retail outlets. The world’s famous Sports Illustrated and Time Magazines are also a part of Time Warner.

Disney
Disney is the closest competitor of Time Warner. They shifted their strategy and business model from only theme parks to film production, broadcasting and merchandising. They have now more income from broadcasting as compared to theme parks. Disney Channel has created waves in the home entertainment industry. With their acquisition of ESPN, Disney owns two great channels. Disney is very much active in the toy manufacturing and has an exclusive global marketing deal with McDonalds. Disney also owns world’s most famous theme parks; in addition to this they have several music labels. It also has more than 500 retail outlets worldwide.

Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is the top media company of Europe. It owns few top channels of Germany. Their major income is through the printing and publishing as they own more than 100 magazines. The company also owns more than 15 radio stations in Europe.

Viacom
Viacom is also one of the leading media companies of the world. Its television channel MTV and Nickelodeon has made this company extremely powerful. It also acquired paramount and own theme parks and leading video rental store. It now has more than 15 channels influencing the global viewers.

News Corporation
Fox, Sky, Channel V and Twentieth Century Fox are the names that are a part of News Corporation. All these names have created deep impressions in their genres. It started off with in Australia but expanded in US and later globally. More than 100 newspapers and about 20 magazines are also a part of News Corporation.

Sony
Sony is also one of the leading media companies and has produced many successful music records movies. It acquired Columbia pictures making them the leading entertainment producer of the world. They are also focused in producing video games which differentiates them from other media companies.

History of Electronic Media in Pakistan
National Television-PTV
Usually in every country history of Television starts with the state owned TV channel. In the similar fashion Pakistan Television was launched in 1964. There are 6 channels that are a part of PTVs family. Even after the launch of satellite transmission and the private channels, the reach of PTV is still the most amongst Pakistani viewers due to its territorial coverage.

STN
The electronic media remained under the influence of the government until 1990, and then the first even private television network Network Television Marketing (NTM) was launched by Shalimar Television Network (STN). NTM quickly increased its viewership and became the integral part of the lives of the viewers. Late due to some corruption and financial issues it was closed down and after sometime was re-launched as ATV.

Local Media Giants

ARY
ARY network includes news, entertainment, Islamic, music and cooking channels. The group is not directly related to print but it in the media industry since a long time. It is considered as the first private television network in the new era of private channels regime. The ARY network also manages HBO and Nick in Pakistan.

Jang Group
Jang group needs no introduction, it is owned by Mir Shakil ur Rehman. The major publication of the group is Jung newspaper and The News. Jang newspaper is the highest circulated newspaper of the country. The website of Jang group has most of the times, the highest hits amongst any Pakistani website. It has other print publications including various magazines as well. In 2002 Geo TV was launched which had the content of news, infotainment and entertainment. Later the news channel was separately launched and now the network consists of sports, music and also other international beams.

Dawn- herald
Herald is one of the largest publication companies of the country. The English News Paper Dawn was launched by the founder of the nation and it is the most circulated English newspaper of the country. It also launched an English news channel which was later converted to Urdu channel.

Eye Entertainment

Hum TV is one of the leading entertainment channels is a part of Eye Entertainment. Famous of its dramas Hum TV is the favorite channels of many women of the county. The group also owns a lifestyle channel “style 360” and a music channel “oye”.

Express-Television Media Network
Lakson group has also become a media giant whose major publication is the Express newspaper which has made an impact in a short span of time. Lakson has now two news channels one in Urdu and the other one is English. They also plan to launch an entertainment and music channel.

Interflow Group
Mr. Tahir Ali Khan is the owner of interflow group. Mr. Tahir has been in the advertising industry since a long time. He also played an important role in the first ever private channel of Pakistan, later he with draw his partnership from NTM. Now the group owns two channels one is news channel News 1 and the other one is entertainment known as TV 1.

Rise of Private Channels
In 2002 during the Musharraf regime private channels were given licenses to broadcast the transmission from Pakistan. Therefore it was during that period when the monopoly of the state owned TV channel was challenged. In the initial period the uplink licenses were not issued therefore transmission of private channels were uplinked from outside Pakistan, most of the private channels in this period were operating from UAE, UK and Thailand. Later the permission of uplink was granted and the channels started their transmission in Pakistan.
Private investors most of them who were already associated with the print or any other form of media found this business of TV channels very lucrative and obtained licenses. Since then the media industry in Pakistan is on a high. They are many news, entertainment, music and sports channels which are operated and controlled from Pakistan. The rise of private channels has also created waves in the advertising industry of Pakistan and it has grown immensely.

Licensing Authority

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority is responsible for facilitating and regulating the establishment and operation of all broadcast media and distribution services in Pakistan established for the purpose of international, national, provincial, district, and local or special target audiences.

All broadcast mediums come under the PEMRA therefore all TV channels and radio stations have to get the license from this authority and abide by the rules and regulations. Pemra has different set of restrictions for different types of channels. There is a general code of conduct which is valid of all the TV channels of Pakistan. Besides that Pemra can take actions against any TV channel. Pemra also wants to promote Pakistan and Pakistanis therefore there is a certain restriction for Pakistani channels to show the foreign content.
There are 87 licenses granted to Pakistani TV channels however 5 have been cancelled by the authority. There still remain more than 80 channels and it shows that the market is competitive.

Landing Rights

If a channel is uplinked from abroad and wants to distribute its content in Pakistan then it has to acquire landing rights permission from Pemra. Foreign channels like Ten sports, star sports and others are few which fall under this category.

Satellite TV License

All channels that want to uplink and run their transmission from Pakistan have to obtain the license from Pemra. The channel can broadcast anywhere in the world depending on the respective satellite coverage.

Revenue Model/ Funding

The revenue model of the TV channels consists of the following:

Government funded:
Owned and sponsored by government of a country. All the matters in this form of model are the responsibility of the government of the country. It is also called state television.

Advertising:
Most private channels run TV commercials as their source of revenue. They sell the air time to different companies who want to broadcast their product information to the viewers. The more the viewership of the channel, the higher are the rates of air time. Channels work hard to increase their viewership; this includes hiring the skilled HR who can use their experience and skills to produce the content that is liked by the audience. Once the viewership/TRP increases every company wants to promote its products on the channels that is most watched and once this happens the rate of the air time increases thus creating more revenue for a TV channel.

Licensing/Taxation:
There is a fixed fee from the viewers that is a part of the utility bills. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has the same model. A fix amount is charged as a utility from all the citizens and it is used to run the channel. This is workable for the state television. In this model the channel doesn’t rely on the revenue from advertisements.

Subscription/Pay TV:
The viewer’s subscription commonly known as pay TV is also a model in which TV channels charge a fee from the viewers it is subscribed to. It is applicable in DTH (direct to home) where the viewers can pay and select the channels that want to watch.

Combination of the above:
There can be a combination of the above models. For example, the state television might run commercials as well or a pay TV also sells airtime for commercials thus creating different sources of revenue.

How Television influence our lives
Television has become an integral part of the life. All forms of media create influence on the audience but TV is one of the most successful forms of media. Whatever is seen on the screen resides in the mind of the viewers, whether it is news, entertainment or even commercials, all have a great influence on our lives. It will be difficult to find someone who doesn’t watch TV. People tune in to different channels to watch their favorite program. Based on the target segmentation, TV channels broadcast different types of programs fulfilling the needs of different type of viewers. Children would want to watch stories and cartoons where as women would want to watch cooking program so based on that the content is created.
TV is also one of the biggest medium for marketing. Companies advertise heavily on TV channels to promote their products and strive harder to build their brand image. These promotional campaigns influence the decision makers in buying the products.

Categories of TV Channels
Generally following broad categories exist in TV channels

News
The channel that gives the information about local, regional, national or international events can be termed as a News Channel. This can also be termed as an infotainment channel. In the early days of TV channel there was a specific time when news bulletin was broadcasted having the coverage of important events that happened on that particular date. Today it has changed we have various local and international channels running 24 x 7 giving each and every small or big event that is happening around us.
In Pakistan, the bulletin from the state television was broadcasted at 9 pm and viewers used to wait anxiously now the scenario has changed, there are private news channel that devote all their energies to cover different events and keep the viewers updated all the time.

Sports
Every viewer wants to watch their country’s sports team competing against other teams. Earlier the normal transmission of a TV channel was interrupted when there was an important sports event happening in the world. Today there are specific sports channel that cover international and local sports events. The launch of sports channels has created great opportunities for the audience as well as the marketers.

Entertainment and Life Style
These lifestyle and entertainment channels broadcast the programs which are related to different lifestyle circumstances. Heavy investment is done in production including good looking presenters, sets and locations. Dramas, reality shows, celebrity lifestyles all fall under this category.

Cartoon
Now a days cartoon channels have been very influential. Kids of all age are fond of watching cartoon. This category has seen a significant growth. Many advertisers want to promote their products as kids play an important role in decision making to buy any product.

Science and Discovery
Everyone who watches TV knows about National Geographic and Discovery channels. These channels present documentaries, programs on latest innovations and other useful information.

This article is written and compiled by Sheeraz Adil who is working as Manager Broadcast Operations at Geo TV Network and can be contacted at sheerazadil@gmail.com

Broadcast and the young engineers

There are about 30 registered engineering universities in Pakistan, most of them offer degrees/ courses in Electrical, Electronics, Computers, Telecom etc. There are many engineering graduates passing out each year with the intention of doing job in the local market. The broadcast industry as of now has not been in the focus of those engineers, despite the growing number of TV channels in Pakistan. The following information will give a brief idea about the broadcast engineering and the role of engineers in this field.

Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential parts of broadcast engineering, being their own subsets of electrical engineering.
Duties of a broadcast engineer include:
• Maintaining broadcast automation systems for the studio and automatic transmission systems.
• Dealing with complaints of RF interference.
• Regulating the clarity, signal strength, and the range of sounds and colors for radio and television broadcasts.
• Installation and modification of technical broadcasting equipment
• Qualification

Broadcast engineers may need to possess degree in one of the following field:
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronic Engineering
• Telecommunications Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Management Information System
• Broadcast Technology



Requirement
Broadcast engineers are generally required to have knowledge in the following areas :

• Conventional broadcast
– Audio/Video instrumentation measurement
– Baseband video – standard / high-definition
– Broadcast studio acoustics
– Television studios - broadcast video cameras and camera lenses
– Production switcher (Video mixer)
– Audio mixer

• Broadcast IT
– Video compression - DV25, MPEG, DVB or ATSC (or ISDB)
– Digital server payout technologies. - VDCP, Louth, Harris, control protocols
– Broadcast automation
– Disk storage – RAID / NAS / SAN technologies.
– Archives – Tape archives or grid storage technologies.
– Computer networking
– Operating systems – Microsoft Windows / Mac OS / Linux / RTOS
– Post production – video capture and non-linear editing systems (NLEs).

• RF
– RF satellite uplinking – High-powered amplifiers (HPA)
– RF communications satellite downlinking – Band detection, carrier detection and IRD tuning, etc.
– RF transmitter maintenance - IOT UHF transmitters, solid state VHF transmitters, antennas, transmission line, high power filters, digital modulators

• Conventional Broadcasting
The conversion to digital broadcasting means broadcast engineers must now be well-versed in digital television and digital radio, in addition to analogue principles. New equipment from the transmitter to the radio antenna to the receiver may be encountered by engineers new to the field. Furthermore, modern techniques place a greater demand on an engineer's expertise, such as sharing broadcast towers or radio antennas among different stations
• Company’s Expectations
For the Position of Broadcast Engineer Companies expect you to have:
• Basic concepts of broadcasting
• Knowledge of broadcast systems.
• Basic IT
• Basic Networking
• Knowledge in maintenance, usage, and design of technical broadcast equipment.
• Skill in responding to operational/technical equipment problems.
• Hands-on experience of installation, integration and configuration of broadcast equipment.

• Ways to achieve
• Internships
• Certifications
• Short courses
• Member ships of societies
The information in this article is compiled and contributed by Bilal Hasan and Sheeraz Adil

An Ideal Automation Workflow In TV Channels

This article will give a brief explanation as how automation works and what exactly is the role of automation in the TV channels’ industry. Play out automation, media asset management, program scheduling, digital archiving, news room systems and news automation are themselves very wide terms and detailed articles can be written on each of them. Once completing this article I will definitely try to write something on the mentioned topics. However this article will talk about the basic workflow and the role of integration that automation plays in enhancing the workflow which can eventually save costly time and dollars.

Rapid advances have resulted in more frequent introduction of automated systems in all segments of the broadcast; from Ingest to Production and Play-out and from management to operations processes. The broadcast industry is now revolving around the automated systems where the automation companies emphasize to provide more and more features to stream line all the activities of a TV channel.

The channels are investing in acquiring the latest technology, even in Pakistan the competition amongst the channels is forcing stakeholders think that technology can play a major role in smooth operations, increasing the viewership and even in generating the revenues.

A full featured Automation system deployment is the one which manages all processes and controls all equipment for Ingest, Media management, Play out and Archiving; managing frame by frame, every piece of video material from Intake to Broadcasting to Archiving and Billing . With the passage of time and as the technology progresses it is not impossible to say that the media buying agency can book the commercials by sitting in their office which will reflect to the play list of the TV channels.

Coming back to the existing workflows, all the content including programs, commercials, shows etc. should first be centrally ingested after arriving to the TV station. Media asset management is responsible for creating a unique asset ID to which the related media will be attached. The ideal scenario is to ingest the content within the archive department where the related Meta data could be entered in the digital asset management system. The content after digitizing and logging in to the asset management should then be processed further. As soon as the digitization takes place the low-resolution of the assets are being created.

After the digitization the content should then be processed. If the content is in the form of program or commercial, the first process that it should pass through is the Quality Control. An automation system can intimate the concerned QC staff that a fresh content is ingested and needs to be checked. Once the QC is done, the automation system can then forward the same request to the censor or for other management approvals and that will be available for previewing the low res version of the content thus saving the network bandwidth. Once that step is done it will be ready to be scheduled. The program scheduling department will be informed that the relevant checks have been approved and now the content is ready for the transmission. It can now be placed in the cue sheet using the traffic system which will obviously be integrated with the automation and hence the media management.

The program scheduling department is usually responsible for making the cue sheet. All the content having the initial unique IDs which has passed through different checks is accessible to the Program Schedule Department and the entire asset IDs with their current status are visible in the traffic system.

They can place them in the daily schedule and the relevant content is then transferred automatically to the isolated on air server. Once after the content is played on air the as run logs are developed which are compared with the cue sheet and deviation report is generated. Again all these processes take place automatically. The reports can then be generated and send to the media buying agency.

So far we have talked about the non-live primary events. The live events can also be scheduled in the cue sheet and as the automation system can control the router and master control switcher therefore live events are as normal as the non-live for all those TV channels which have reliable automation systems. The as-run logs of the non-live events can also be generated easily through the automation.

Now let’s talk something about the secondary events which have now a very significant role in the channel presentation and are a great source of revenue. The secondary events can also be scheduled and as the automation can control the Character Generator so the secondary events can be accurately controlled. This is once again relevant to mention that good automation should keep a track and as run logs of all the secondary events.

So by this point of time I think I have given a very brief explanation on automation and its integration. In the next articles I will try to elaborate some more specific topics which are directly or indirectly related to this topic.

In the end I would like to take this opportunity to thank BESPAK which has provided the platform to all the broadcast engineers to unite and get together to promote not only the broadcast engineering in Pakistan but also help the young engineers to decide their career path by taking guidance from the experienced professionals in the industry. Initiative taken by the founders of BESPAK will certainly create history. I wish BESPAK all the best and hope that this society will prove to be the best in the country.

This article is written by Syed Sheeraz Adil who is working as Manager Automation in Geo TV and can be contacted on sheerazadil@gmail.com

Internet TV

With the launch of world wide web it has been observed that most of the people spent time surfing on the internet than doing any other activity. Therefore we can say that the internet TV has a great potential in the media industry. Heavy revenues can be generated through digital matketing and at the same time the internet TV is much more easier and cheaper to operate than the satelllite TV where you have to invest heavily in the equipment, satellite space, human resources etc.

Role of Broadcast Engineers in Pakistan

Broadcast Engineering is one of the emerging fileds in the world. It is a combination of Information Technology blended with the traditional electronic/electrical engineering. With the growing media industry of Pakistan there are a lot of job oppurtunities of broadcast engineering. There are about 70 or more channels currently uplinked from Pakistan, that itself is explanatory about the jobs and this emerging industry. The various role that engineers play in the media industry can be of Support Engineers, Control Room Engineers, Broadcast IT Engineers, Audio Engineerings and so on.

We need to have a platform to promote the broadcast engineering on local and international levels. In this regard a society can be formed which will focus on promoting the broadcast engineering in Pakistan. The society can be affiliated with any foreign society and can offer different certifications to the students as well as the working professionals. This will eventually help Pakistani engineers to excel in the local and international markets.