Secretary of the VOD Association: Satra’s supervision prevents anyone from investing in home theater

Mohammad Mahdi Asgharpour said about the concern of the home theater companies about changing the scope of audits and more strictness despite the supervision of Radio and Television and Satra: “We are reaching a point where no one invests in this field anymore.”

In an interview with Radio Show’s Studio 8 program, the secretary of the trade association of online video display companies, in response to why home television companies are resistant to the acceptance of Satra, pointed out that Sada and Sima is actually a beneficiary in this field with serialization and said: “Sadasima does serialization and are they really happy when the series of the home television network is better than their products? Maybe behind the podium they say yes, but in practice no. There is another discussion, the Sedavosima organization has a nature that has nothing to do with the current managers, the Sedavosima does not inherently have a relationship with the private sector in the sense of giving permission to this sector, and the current situation is a new thing.”

Asgarpour pointed out that the honorable president of Sedavsima has pointed out at least once that the audits in the home broadcast network should not be different from that of Sedavsima: “Although this has not been implemented, there is potential and the home broadcast network can be worried that there is such a view in Sedavsima.”

He recalled his experience during management in radio and television and said that since television does not resemble platforms, the same conclusion arises that platforms should resemble television: “When I was a manager in television, the Jam Jam network was launched with the aim of attracting Iranian audiences abroad. I remember radio directors, those who had satellites in their rooms, received the Jam Jam channel and saw that things were more open there, musical instruments were shown, and women’s hijab was slightly different from domestic network presenters, and issues like that. The TV managers told the head of the radio station that if they have this possibility to broadcast on the Jam Jam channel, why don’t we have it, and the result was that domestic channels did not resemble Jam Jam, but they made Jam Jam similar to domestic channels, and as a result, this channel gradually lost its audience.

He emphasized that if the whole system believes that the products of the home television network should face the audits that we are witnessing on television now and we see how strict it has become, we will reach a point where no one will invest in this field anymore: “If what was approved in the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution is fully implemented, Satra will deal with the platforms as they do with the television networks. And they say, why can’t they have this relative freedom, and as a result, satra makes strictness stronger. “If we see that now there is not much strictness and permits are issued, it is because that approval discussion has not happened yet.”

Recently, after several years of conflicts between radio and television and the home television network, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution approved the supervision of radio and television on the ubiquitous audio and video platforms. In the single article “Determining the requirements for the organization of the ubiquitous audio and video field” it is stated: “The responsibility of regulating, issuing licenses and monitoring active media in the field of ubiquitous audio and video, including user-oriented and publisher-oriented media (VOD) as well as home television networks, especially the production of TV series and programs and the like, is the responsibility of the Broadcasting Organization.”

Also, the responsibility of issuing licenses, monitoring and regulating advertisements and advertisements in the field of surround sound and video will also be the responsibility of Sedavsima. In addition, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution has assigned the production and live broadcasting of programs and the issuing of licenses to monitor “live broadcasting” in cyber space exclusively to Sedavsima.

The VOD trade association, which long ago objected to the illegality of Satra (the supervisory body that Radio and Television has set up for these networks), raised serious concerns about the status of a beneficiary’s supervision over the field of home theater after this resolution. These concerns were also raised in the meeting of managers and representatives of home viewing platforms with the Deputy Minister of Guidance.

In an interview with Studio 8, Asgarpour emphasized that until now activity licenses were in the hands of the government, that is, the ministries, and what was approved by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution regarding the regulation of platforms negates the previous laws: “Now, if the whole system has reached a newer conclusion that other institutions outside the scope of the government can license the activities of the private sector, there is no problem, but first they must solve the legal issue of this. After this, you will see that the Foundation of the Underprivileged and the Revolutionary Guards and other institutions can also issue licenses for private sector activities based on their opinion; The ratio of radio and television in the field of licensing is the same as the institutions I mentioned. Therefore, we must either legalize the issuance of these institutions or return to the way it was before, that is, relying on the government and, in principle, the current laws of the country.”