| At the moment, India has only one DTH service, Dish
TV, promoted by the Subhash Chandra-controlled ASC Enterprise and
Zee Telefilms. Though Doordarshan may start its DTH service before
the Tata-Star combine, Dish TV's main competitor is the latter.
Contacted by indiantelevision.com to verify whether DTH-related
matters were brought up at the recent Trai meeting, a senior executive
of Zee Telefilms confirmed the development, saying that Trai's stand
on both the issues were "unwarranted for the occasion"
and put Dish TV at a disadvantage vis-à-vis any new entrant
in the sector.
However, the Zee executive also attempted to soft peddle the matter
adding that since DTH is a new technology in India even the regulator
would need some more time to complete studying all the issues.
Attempts made by indiantelevision.com to elicit a response from
Trai proved futile till the time of writing this report.
Taking into account that Trai may be just attempting to sound out
interested players on various DTH issues, it would be interesting
to see the final stand taken by the regulator on the issues mentioned
above. The niggling
thought of the present government stripping Trai of powers to hold
sway over the broadcast and cable industry, notwithstanding. (I&B
minister Jaipal Reddy is more interested in a separate broadcast
regulator.)
It is also understood that Zee has conveyed to Trai that it would
like to make a separate submission on open vs. closed architecture
(during initial days Star lobbied against open architecture) and
must-provide clause.
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