Babus redo DTH note for Mahajan

NEW DELHI, FEB 26: Having already twice returned the draft note on the Direct-To-Home DTH television ban to the Information and Broadca...

NEW DELHI, FEB 26: Having already twice returned the draft note on the Direct-To-Home DTH television ban to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, officials are now working to make the 40-page presentation more acceptable to the Minister, Pramod Mahajan.

In its current form, the note raises the crucial question of whether an executive order taken by the Group of Ministers GoM can be open to litigation. In the absence of adequate time to establish a regulatory set-up for DTH, it poses the possibility of allowing as many players as possible and of allegations of discrimination from any company not given a licence.

While the copious note is an improvement from Mahajan8217;s point of view on the first note on DTH submitted to the Minister on December 23 which had only two points in favour of revoking the ban and several against, the 40-page draft also discusses the anomaly of having 49 per cent foreign equity in a DTH joint venture when the BJP8217;s National Agenda of Governance favours a 20 per centforeign equity cap in TV networks.

The note also makes the point of proprietary technology. This might place the GoM in a spot because it would find it hard to justify the monopoly of one company in the supply of decoders. The note poses the question of whether it is not better for the consumer to have one decoder which will be able to access more than one DTH platform with separate smart cards.

As far as the arguments in favour of DTH are concerned, the note says with the Broadcasting Bill not likely to be tabled any time soon, a decision on the 1997 ban which was linked to it cannot be indefinitely postponed. The note also mentions that as the Ku band of satellites is already being used by the National Informatics Centre and the Department of Telecom for data transmission, it is unfair to block broadcasting on it in anticipation of a law. The note also makes a reference to the atmosphere of liberalisation and the right to information and how lifting the ban would be a logical move.

The note alsodiscusses the role of DD. Will it be a player-cum-gatekeeper or only a gatekeeper, asks the note. It says it would prefer DD to be the first player in the DTH market. Once the GoM takes a decision next month on lifting the ban on DTH, the Ministry will lay down conditions for all players 8212; among these will be uplinking out of India, an entry fee-cum-revenue-sharing agreement, as well as a six-month lock-in period.

If the ban is lifted, Star TV would be able to kickstart its stalled DTH operations, which it will now manage as a joint venture with the Ispat group. Though a CEO is yet to be appointed for this company, former Star India CEO Rathikant Basu has been made its Executive Vice-Chairman. Basu has also been made Executive Vice-Chairman of News Television India, which is the Indian subsidiary of Star TV. Peter Mukherjea, long-time Director, Advertising and Sales, will be the new CEO.

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Four former bureaucrats who were hired by Basu 8212; Bimla Bhalla, Naazish Hussaini, V. Basavaraj and S. Guha 8212; werealso served termination notices on Thursday after an audit of their performance. This puts a question mark on the continuance of Team Basu which was hired in October 1996 to turn around Star TV.