All Entries in the "General News" Category
Government knew of Devas deal at every stage, says Madhavan Nair
Indicted over the controversial 2005 Antrix-Devas agreement signed during his tenure as ISRO chairman, G. Madhavan Nair told The Hindu in an interview at his residence on Sunday that several people within the government — not least from the Prime Minister’s Office — were well aware of the details of the deal at every stage. Mid-2005, the Space Commission “cleared” the construction of two satellites for a private company, said Mr. Nair. A note prepared by the Department of Space for the Cabinet Committee on Security in February 2011 said the Space Commission and the Cabinet had not »»»
Interoperability of STBs for DTH still a distant dream
NEW DELHI: None of the six private direct-to-home operators are providing interoperable set top boxes, despite license conditions at Articles 7.1 and 7.2 of the Guidelines are clear that these should be based on open architecture (non-proprietory). Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said that the Guidelines wanted inter-operability to ensure technical compatibility and effective interoperability among different DTH service providers and conformity to the specifications as laid down by the Government from time to time. The STBs were not interoperable because all the DTH operators were »»»
Digitization: Need for a regulator
The stage has been set for the dawn of the digital era in Indian broadcasting. Earlier this month, Parliament cleared a Bill to amend the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act for ushering in digitization. Cable digitization will be implemented in phases and will be completed by December 2014. This is certainly a moment of triumph for broadcasters who had been lobbying with the government to allow the cable industry to convert from analog to digital. In the digital addressable systems (DAS), service providers can offer more options to consumers, who will be able to select the channels of their »»»
Digitisation bill signals growth opportunity for DTH companies
With the Parliament approving the Digitisation Bill recently, cable, especially, multi-specialty operators and Direct to Home, or DTH, companies are expected to grab a higher market share from local cable operators, who are reported to declare lower subscriber numbers and in turn revenues. Companies such as Den Networks, Hathway Cable and Datacom, Wire & Wireless India, and Dish TV India are among the companies that may see potential revenue improvement over the next year or two. The new law envisages digitisation in four phases. In phase-I, by June next year, it is expected to roll out in »»»
DTH industry showing signs of churn
India’s competitive DTH industry is moving towards more customised offerings such as video-on-demand, Catch UP TV and cheaper channel packs in regional languages. DTH players are realising that in future the “customer will be king” and “what you want to see and when you want to see” is the new mantra. “We feel that DTH needs to adjust according to preferences of viewer and not the other way round,” said Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky. While Tata Sky has introduced video-on-demand and “Catch Up TV” that allows a subscriber to »»»
Two-tier FDI cap in media finalised
New Delhi: With the ministry of finance giving its nod, the decks have been cleared for the implementation of a simplified, two-tier policy on foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in media. Now, a 74% uniform cap for non-news media (carriage services) and a 26% cap for news media (content) shall apply. Also, up to 49% FDI in the carriage service providers (like multi-system operators or MSOs, DTH broadcasters, headend-in-the sky or HITS operators, and providers of mobile TV, satellite teleport and IPTV services) will be automatically allowed. But any FDI above 49% will need Foreign Investment Promotion »»»
Overdue tax from DTH cos in legal tangle
Indore: Commercial tax department is awaiting Supreme Court verdict on the petitions moved by Direct to Home (DTH) service providers and cable operators and expecting a favourable verdict so that it could recover a big amount owed by the companies to it as tax. The service providers including Reliance, Tata Sky and others started paying tax from last year following a Supreme Court order. But the department argues that since the companies had started operation since 2003, they should also pay tax for the seven years till 2010. On this issue, the service providers moved the Supreme Court. “These »»»
