(19 July 2006 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The country's only private direct-to-home operator Dish TV has moved the Supreme Court seeking relief in regards to TDSAT's (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) recent ruling that Star India will have to distribute the signals of all its channels at half the price at which they are available to cable operators.

Dish TV, in its petition filed yesterday before the apex court, has sought further modifications in the price rate for accessing Star channels.

The petition spells out that Dish TV is open to the offer that Star India had come up with in the year 2002 for all the Star channels. According to the Dish plea, the offer then was that all the Star channels will be made available to Dish TV subscribers at one-fourth the rate at which they are available to cable operators.

While issuing its order last Friday, TDSAT had said, "We have no basis to lay down the actual rates per channel, which we feel is the prerogative of Trai. However, to begin with, we feel that 50 per cent of the rates being charged for cable platform be made applicable to the DTH platform."

The ball is now in Star India's court on how to respond to this latest move by Subhash Chandra's network.

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