DTH: GROUP OF MINISTERS TO MEET THIS WEEK

The group of ministers is scheduled to receive the draft policy note on direct- to-home (DTH) television that has been prepared by the information & broadcasting (I&B) ministry. Each member of the group -- consisting of defence minister George Fernandes, I&B minister Pramod Mahajan, home minister L.K. Advani, communications minister Jagmohan and finance minister Yashwant Sinha - will study the recommendations and give their views. Following this, the note will be modified and then presented to the Union cabinet. Finally, the government will use it to draw up an executive order or notification, which will replace the earlier government order banning DTH reception. The contents of the I&B ministry's note are not known in toto but the expectation is that it will propose a minority stake for foreign companies in DTH ventures and that the first one off the ground should be in partnership with state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan.

DD officers have told I&B officials that DTH licences should be given for 15 years with the state-owned broadcaster retaining its monopoly for the first five years. It has pointed out that it should also be given control over the subscription management system of the first DTH venture, with program and advertising content being governed by the new code that the government is hoping to announce soon. The government believes that television channels and DTH players should impose self-censorship and follow the code.

However a Broadcasting Council is slated to be set up to receive and study complaints of violation of the code. Mahajan told a press conference last week that the government was under no pressure from any channel to stop or give the go-ahead to DTH. "The question of opening DTH to foreign companies is also open," he said. He indicated that it could take a couple of months for the government to take any decision on DTH. He added that the government is going to take a decision on doing away with international telecom carrier VSNL's uplinking monopoly in the next two weeks. The facility to set up uplinking earth stations will, however, be restricted to Indian-owned programmers alone, he said, as the government has to yet take a decision on this for foreign channels.