New Taxes Will Kill Digital TV in Pakistan Before It Becomes Mainstream

[Azadkashmir]

**** tv full of gannd blaa anyway. stupid repeating love stories and evil sis inlaws.

 

[Sine Nomine]

Because no one pays their taxes. You get nothing, because no one gives anything.

Well how Govt is running then?

 

[Yankee-stani]

Because no one pays their taxes. You get nothing, because no one gives anything.

Add in faux religiousty and fundamentalism as well

 

[That Guy]

You see it with in all industries in North America especially Tech and media I mean just recently AT&T bought Direct TV,and Time Warner which owns CNN,HBO,Vice,Cartoon Network, TBS,etc and the FCC approve the merger eventhough Trump opposed it during the 2016 elections also Parts of Fox was sold to Disney around the same time as for Tech companies we know Google,and Facebook are buying everything sigh in terms of telecom where I lived Time Warner Cable got gobbled up by Charter Communications which became Spectrum and service is still crap

Funny thing about at&t, they tried coming into Canada, Rogers screwed them by having at&t build their infrastructure,and then convincing the Canadian government to kick them out.

 

[Azadkashmir]

only zardaristan and nawzistan pay taxes.

 

[Sine Nomine]

I guess elites are working in streets after sorting out state affairs and then using that money to run state.While elites work these poor bastards are enjoying their hardwork and living as play boys.

 

[war&peace]

what is the difference between television and internet ? at the core both are mediums for communication

Can you download & upload files on a TV alone (no PC attached), edit spreadsheets, write documents, write programs, develop applications?

 

[That Guy]

Well how Govt is running then?

Other forms of revenue exist. From taxes on mega corporations, who're the only ones who pay taxes, to exports, to government owned enterprises.

Taxes aren't the only form of income the government has.

 

[Yankee-stani]

Funny thing about at&t, they tried coming into Canada, Rogers screwed them by having at&t build their infrastructure,and then convincing the Canadian government to kick them out.

How long ago was that much of the telecom structure between Canada and the States are pretty integrated yeah AT&T in the last few years has been in massive buying spree .In Canada know Rogers and Bell are like the two big media and telecom companies there

 

[war&peace]

Luxury is when you buy a Samsung 4K 85 inch.
Not a screen to access media.

What about 50" FHD... I still use this one

 

[nahtanbob]

The government of Pakistan has increased the taxes on “set top boxes”, IPTV boxes and DTH boxes in its latest revision. The move is primarily aimed at encouraging local production, however, the market has responded negatively to the development.

Digitization of TV in Pakistan is one of the lowest in the region. For a perspective, less than 5% of Pakistani TV devices are digital, compared to 95% of TV digitization in neighboring country India. These numbers show that Pakistan is yet to start its journey towards TV digitization.

While DTH services have seen regulatory and judicial hurdles for years now, Pakistan is yet to see its first DTH operator, especially at a time when most of India’s TV consumer base has gone digital.

Considering that Pakistan has barely just started, taxing these digital TV boxes is beyond comprehension as the rule of thumb is to tax established and flourished industries instead of pressing the nascent sector that is to compete with giants from the Indian territory.

Interestingly, its not only digital TV boxes that are taxed heavily, fiber optic — that’s used for the broadband services and essentially for the IPTV services — are also taxed higher than other sectors.

For reference, the total amount of duties and taxes on the import of fiber optic cable (which is required not just for FTTH but also for 3G/4G/5G tower site backhaul) is now 62.5% at the time of import (20% CD, 7% Additional CD, 10% RD, 20% Sales Tax and 5.5% Advance Income Tax – non adjustable).

This actually means that a product that costs $1 at the source is priced at $1.62 when it reaches Pakistan.

On top of this, there’s currency devaluation, which in itself is altogether a challenge that’s beyond anyone’s understanding.

We do understand that a lot of items (such as mentioned above) are taxed by the government not only to make extra money but to also encourage local production, however, taxing a sector that is yet to even begin its flight is never going to work.

India, for instance, taxed its digital TV products after they had attained a sufficient uptake. And this is also probably why they were able to achieve such a high digital TV penetration in the country, i.e. by lowering the entry cost.

It would be more wise to let a sector flourish and then tax it as per usual standards to reap maximum benefits.

Another point worth noticing is that there are items, such as set top boxes and fiber cables, that aren’t produced locally at the required scale to meet the market demands. Therefore, it is necessary for these items to be imported from abroad to keep up with the demand.

The government should also consider the fact that it can’t blindly increase tax rates for a range of products without considering that there are items which are already highly taxed.

The ideal scenario is to look for each item, the associated taxes on it and the impact (positive or negative) the taxes could bring on the sector, economy and the country, before actually revising each and every item.

Source: https://propakistani.pk/2019/07/03/...-tv-in-pakistan-before-it-becomes-mainstream/

I am not sure why digital television is a priority. It is a dying industry in the developed world.

analog television is ancient. It would be like flying a 1940s and 1950s era aircraft into combat

Let us explain digital television for the uninformed. It is replacing analog TV signals with digital TV signal. It allows you to put meta data into the television signal. You can search for television programs, record it more easily, put sophisticated closed captioning (called subtitles in other parts of the world), put multiple audio streams for the same video. It allows for sophisticated ad insertion schemes (playing a local ad versus national ad)

It makes the television experience more fun. It might improve the profitability of the local cable operator

 

[That Guy]

How long ago was that much of the telecom structure between Canada and the States are pretty integrated yeah AT&T in the last few years has been in massive buying spree in Canada I lnow Rogers and Bell are like the two big media and telecom companies there

A long time ago, I don't quite remember when, but it was a pretty big issue when it happened.

 

[Yankee-stani]

I am not sure why digital television is a priority. It is a dying industry in the developed world.

analog television is ancient. It would be like flying a 1940s and 1950s era aircraft into combat

Let us explain digital television for the uninformed. It is replacing analog TV signals with digital TV signal. It allows you to put meta data into the television signal. You can search for television programs, record it more easily, put sophisticated closed captioning (called subtitles in other parts of the world), put multiple audio streams for the same video. It allows for sophisticated ad insertion schemes (playing a local ad versus national ad)

It makes the television experience more fun. It might improve the profitability of the local cable operator

You correct On that The Telecoms and Cable Companies are smarten up now they saw how Roku boxes and Netflix streaming were killing them so why nor swim with the fish so Dish Network came up with Sling TV Spectrum aka I still call it Time Warner Cable now is phasing out slowly haven't announced it to complete streaming so no more cable guy coming to your house no more except for wiring and modem plus media companies are starting their own streaming services

 

[Maxpane]

Other forms of revenue exist. From taxes on mega corporations, who're the only ones who pay taxes, to exports, to government owned enterprises.

Taxes aren't the only form of income the government has.

sir how many indirect taxes are you paying in canada?

 

[nahtanbob]

How long ago was that much of the telecom structure between Canada and the States are pretty integrated yeah AT&T in the last few years has been in massive buying spree .In Canada know Rogers and Bell are like the two big media and telecom companies there

I never thought the USA and Canadian telecom and media industries were integrated. Bell Canada was the leading telco operator in Canada. The American Baby bells were always restricted to American soil. All the cable tv companies in USA were restricted to American soil. the only I am not sure are the satellite TV operators. Netflix is the elephant in the room that competes everywhere it can