DTH
Sushma Swaraj says addressability will be compulsory
Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj has said that cable operators will have to compulsorily build in conditional access systems (CAS) into their networks. In an interview to the The Times of India she has said that: “This issue (conditional access) is being placed before the parliamentary standing committee on November 19. It will be passed by notification since Clause 22E of the Cable Amendment Act allows the ministry to keep pace with technological changes without taking recourse to an amendment.”
She told the newspaper that cable TV operators will no find it difficult to build in conditional access in their networks. “The costs are not going to be so high – not at all. The operator can have the CAS financed by a financial institution,” she says. “A subscriber will not be expected to pay more than Rs 10-15 per month for its use. The average cost of a pay channel today is about Rs 5 per month so how will this prove expensive? I must emphasise that today cable operators are showing more than 70 channels every month and several subscribers do not wish to see so many channels. Having a CAS will help ensure proper content regulation. Those who do not wish to see Fashion TV or MTV or any other pay channel for that matter can simply get the operator not to screen it into their homes.”
Cable TV operators are not likely to take kindly to the initiatives the government is taking to organise the wild cable TV sector. Earlier this week, an Andhra Pradesh High Court (Addressability comes to the forefront) said that basic pay TV channels should stop collecting subscription revenues from cable TV operators until subscribers have the facility to chose which channel they want to watch. This is expected to hit pay TV programmers such as Star TV, Sony Entertainment, Zee TV, Discovery, Hallmark, DD Sports, pretty hard and they are expected to go in appeal against the interim ex parte high court judgement.
DTH Operator
JC Flowers withdraws NCLT plea against Dish TV over EGM demand
Move eases pressure on DTH firm as long-running shareholder dispute cools
MUMBAI: In a breather for Dish TV India, JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction has withdrawn its petition before the National Company Law Tribunal seeking directions to convene an extraordinary general meeting.
The development was disclosed by Dish TV in a regulatory filing, confirming that the petitioner chose to withdraw the case during a hearing at the Mumbai bench of the tribunal. A detailed order from the bench is still awaited.
The petition, originally filed under Sections 98 to 100 of the Companies Act, 2013, sought to push for an extraordinary general meeting to address governance issues at the company. The case had its roots in a prolonged shareholder tussle dating back to 2021, when Yes Bank, then the largest shareholder, was at odds with the promoter group led by Subhash Chandra over board reconstitution.
JC Flowers had stepped into the picture as an assignee of Yes Bank’s stressed assets, effectively continuing the legal push initiated earlier. The withdrawal now signals a pause, if not a closure, to that chapter of dispute.
While the reasons behind the withdrawal have not been formally detailed, the move reduces immediate legal pressure on Dish TV, which has been navigating both operational and regulatory challenges in recent years.
For now, the focus shifts back to the company’s business fundamentals, even as the legal dust settles, at least temporarily, on one of its more closely watched shareholder battles.
