DTH BATTLE RAGES ON

A battle is being waged in the corridors of power in Delhi. On one side is global media baron, Rupert Murdoch; on the other is Zee TV's Subhash Chandra. Murdoch reportedly has the support of crucial members of the ruling BJP party in information & broadcasting (I&B) Minister Pramod Mahajan and the Prime Minister.

Subhash Chandra, meanwhile, is believed to have the backing of hard-line BJP politicians such as L.K. Advani. While Murdoch wants the two-and-a-half year old ban on DTH to be lifted at the earliest, Chandra has been trying his best to get it delayed as much as possible through seminars and letters to parliamentarians. Star TV has been responding by making representations to key people in government and through some puzzling statements from senior executives associated with its DTH project, ISkyB. This apart, Mahajan has been fronting as its spokesperson with his pronouncements about DTH, upsetting other politicians.

Only recently, Star TV took a step in the right direction by getting editorial coverage about DTH basics in a consumer guidance column in a leading business paper. It is likely that Chandra played a key role in getting the authorities to consider a clause that calls for a six month lock-in on the launch of the first DTH service, even after the government lifts its ban. This was obviously targeted at making life difficult for Murdoch. Now Chandra is reworking Zee India TV into a focused news and current affairs channel in order to make it profitable and possibly offer the government a platform to air its views. Star TV India's News channel is already playing to the government gallery with its news coverage taking a positive slant towards the BJP, as it nears the completion of its first year of being in power.

Zee India TV is to be re-christened as Zee News and will probably take the same tack in the process nullifying this Star TV advantage. Will Mahajan be able to push through the lifting of the ban by end-March as most people in industry expect? Star TV chairman R. Basu has been given the single responsibility to do whatever is needed to ensure that DTH is cleared as planned. His job is on the line, is the belief of several industry professionals. The optimists believe that the ban will be lifted on schedule. The pessimists are not so confident.