ITV

Tag: extension

  • In-Space extends authorisation deadline for foreign satellites

    In-Space extends authorisation deadline for foreign satellites

    MUMBAI:  India’s space regulator, The Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre (In-Space),  has granted a six-month extension for foreign satellites to continue providing communication and broadcasting services in India without formal authorisation.

    In-Space announced on Monday that foreign satellite operators now have until 30 September to obtain regulatory approval, extending the previous 31 March deadline.

    The decision follows concerns that popular television channels including Star, Zee and Sony could face service disruptions from 1 April if the authorisation process remained unchanged.

    “The cut-off date for continuation of the provisioning of existing non-Indian satellites capacity and the associated lease contracts has been extended to 30 September 2025,” In-Space stated in its announcement.

    Existing lease agreements set to expire during this period may be extended until the new deadline using current processes. However, the regulator emphasised that any new foreign satellites or additional capacity from existing satellites will require immediate In-Space authorisation.

    From 1 October, only foreign satellites with proper authorisation will be permitted to provide capacity in India across all frequency bands.

    The extension primarily benefits existing satellite arrangements, including those operating through lease agreements with New Space India Ltd (NSIL)/Antrix or through direct C-Band capacity leases from non-Indian operators.

  • TRAI extends time for draft tariff order comments for DTH interoperability methods

    TRAI extends time for draft tariff order comments for DTH interoperability methods

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadline for comments by stakeholders on the draft Tariff Order prescribing framework for commercial interoperability of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) in DTH services. The draft was issued on 27 February, 2015 and invited comments/views from the stakeholders, latest by 13 March, 2015.

     

    Now, at the request of stakeholders, the last date for receipt of written comments has been extended up to 19 March, 2015. The Authority has also decided that no request for further extension of time for submission of comments will be entertained.

    It can be noted that TRAI had issued the draft Tariff Order for consultation, since in the DTH sector, as on date, CPEs deployed by one operator is not compatible with the network of another operator and a subscriber cannot migrate to another operator or platform without re-investing in another CPE.

     

    According to the Authority, the interests of subscribers in this regard can be largely protected through the provision for commercial interoperability of CPEs. Commercial interoperability provides for a viable exit option to the subscribers in case they want to switch operator /platform.

     

    The draft is aimed at striking a balance between the interests of the consumers and that of the service providers, as well as to curb piling up of e-waste on account of CPEs.

     

    The draft also provides for declaration of the price of all types of CPEs, installation and activation charges and applicable taxes on CPEs by DTH operators; mandatory offering of standard scheme for all type of CPEs on a standalone basis by DTH operators, specifying separately the price of CPE, taxes, other charges etc; flexibility to DTH operators to offer other schemes; and flexibility to DTH operators to offer brand new as well as refurbished CPEs.

     

    This paper also refers to provision of buy-back/refund option in all the offered schemes, including bundled schemes for CPEs; mechanism for buy-back/refund in the standard and other schemes for CPEs; provision of lock-in period for the purpose of refund in the offered schemes for CPEs if the subscriber wants to switch from one operator to the other; applicability of buy-back/refund option for all types of offered CPEs; option for the DTH operators to redeploy the surrendered CPEs; mechanism for registration of request for surrender of connection; and time-limit to settle refund/buy-back claims of the subscribers.

  • Sony Corp’s quarterly report submission deadline extended

    Sony Corp’s quarterly report submission deadline extended

    MUMBAI: Sony Corporation’s application for an extension of the deadline to file its quarterly securities report for the third quarter ending 31 March, 2015 has been approved by the director-general of the Kanto Finance Bureau of Japan.

     

    The deadline has been extended from 16 February to 31 March.

     

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the company had filed for the extension of deadline on 23 January, 2015 owing to the cyber attack at its Hollywood film unit, which compromised “a large amount of data” in its systems. 

     

  • AP HC adjourns hearing in DAS extension case till 29 April

    AP HC adjourns hearing in DAS extension case till 29 April

    NEW DELHI: The Andhra Pradesh high court today adjourned the hearing of petitions seeking extension of digitisation deadline in Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam to 29 April. The interim order restraining MSOs from disconnecting analog signals continues in both the cities.

    The court also asked the authorities not to take any coercive steps against Multi System Operators (MSOs) for not implementing digital addressability system (DAS) in Greater Hyderabad city limits.

    The division bench headed by interim Chief Justice N.V. Ramana was hearing public interest litigation and five petitions including one filed by an MSO ICE TV through its CEO S V Krishna Mohan and another by the Greater Hyderabad Cable TV Operators Association.

    The petitioner Chalasani Narendra filed the PIL saying the Union of India was ‘scuttling the constitutional rights of the citizens by blocking out the TV Channels in the guise of implementation of Digital Addressability System (DAS) without making any efforts for easy availability of Set Top Boxes (STBs) in the market‘.

    He also alleged that the government is also trying to favour the big corporate establishments in the cable and DTH industry in the guise of DAS implementation.

    Hathway Cable and Datacom also got itself impleaded in the petition saying that there is no need to extend the time for the implementation of DAS in Hyderabad.

    The court was informed that the nodal officer who is Joint Collector in Hyderabad had written a note to the Information and Broadcasting ministry that only 30 to 40 per cent STBs had been seeded in the state and had sought an extension of three months.

    The note said: ‘As per the information submitted by the MSOs and cable operators approximately 3.4 million consumers are existing, out of which only 30 per cent to 40 per cent STBs are supplied leaving majority of them still waiting for supply of STBs.‘

    According to figures published by the Ministry on 3 April, Hyderabad has 881,512 TV households of which 546,892 STBs had to be installed. Vishakhapatnam has 542,692 TV households, and 466,466 STBs had still to be installed.

  • DAS extension pleas quashed in Karnataka and Gujarat

    DAS extension pleas quashed in Karnataka and Gujarat

    NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: The information & broadcasting ministry can heave a sigh of relief as the the high courts in Karnataka and Gujarat today dismissed petitions filed by cable operators seeking extension of digitisation.

    The court orders mean that the government can go about systematically switching-off analogue signals in the cities that are covered in the Phase II of the rollout of cable TV digitisation in the two states.

    The Karnataka high court today dismissed a petition filed by Karnataka State Cable TV Operators Association (KSCOA) seeking extension of deadline for implementing digital addressable system (DAS). The KSCOA petition was trashed as the HC found no merits in the case.

    Similarly, the Gujarat high court also dismissed two petitions seeking postponement of digitisation in the four cities in the state. The court also vacated the stay ordered on 28 March in the cities of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara.

    The decision by the high courts paves the way for switch-off analogue signals in the cities that are covered in Phase II of DAS.

    Expressing satisfaction, Information & Broadcasting ministry secretary Uday Kumar Varma told Indiantelevision.com that the judgements vindicated the government‘s stand that the advent of new technology could not be stopped. He also said that there was no truth in reports about the shortage of set top boxes (STBs).

    KSCOA president Patrick Raju said that he and his legal team would look at a copy of the court order before commenting about further action that his association would take in the matter.

    Among the contentions of the cable operators association in Karnataka was that a large number of cable homes in Bengaluru and Mysore would go dark if DAS is implemented since there isn’t enough supply of STBs.

    The KSCOA and MCOA (Mysore Cable TV Operators Association) had filed separate petitions, which were later clubbed together, seeking relief in the digitisation deadline due to shortage of STBs and lack of clarity on box ownership and many other issues.

    The Cable Operators Association of Gujarat (COAG) in its petition had contended that there was a shortage of STBs and no clarity on acquisition of these boxes. COAG president Pramod Pandya said STBs ordered from China had failed to arrive because of internal problems in that country and therefore the local cable operators could not be penalised for this.

    Also read:

    Gujarat HC dismisses petitions seeking DAS extension

    Karnataka HC dismisses KSCOA petition, paves way for analogue cable switch-off

  • Gujarat HC dismisses petitions seeking DAS extension

    Gujarat HC dismisses petitions seeking DAS extension

    NEW DELHI: The Gujarat High Court today dismissed two petitions seeking postponement of Digital Addressable System (DAS) in the four cities in the state that were covered under Phase II of digitisation.

    Justice Rajesh Shukla quashed the petitions filed by Cable Operators Association of Gujarat (COAG) through its President Pramod Pandya and another body of local cable operators from Surat.

    This follows a similar order by the Karnataka High Court earlier in the day striking down Karnataka State Cable TV Operators Association‘s (KSCOA) petition.

    The court also vacated the stay ordered on 28 March in the cities of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara, thereby allowing the Information & Broadcasting ministry to implement analogue signal switch-off in the state.

    Earlier, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) had impleaded itself as a party in the case in Gujarat, primarily to argue that there should be no delay in DAS.

    In its petition, the COAG had said that there was shortage of set top boxes and no clarity on acquisition of these boxes.

  • IBF joins MSOs to oppose DAS extension in Bengaluru and Mysore

    IBF joins MSOs to oppose DAS extension in Bengaluru and Mysore

    NEW DELHI: The   Foundation (IBF) has got itself involved in the on-going legal battle between MSOs and LCOs over extension of digitisation deadline in Bengaluru and Mysore.

    The apex body of television broadcasters has impleaded itself in the case contending that there are no grounds for extending the government mandated cable TV digitisation in these two cities.

    IBF president Man Jit Singh confirmed that the IBF has impleaded itself in the case without getting into the specifics of the case.

    MSOs including Hathway Cable & Datacom, InCable, Den Networks, Siti Cable and Atria Convergence Technologies, who have been made party to the case, are opposed to extension of deadline in both the cities.

    The Karnataka High Court (HC) has posted the matter again for hearing on Tuesday which means that the interim order granted earlier restraining MSOs from disconnecting analog signals continues for another day in both the cities.

    The Karnataka Cable TV Operators Association (KCTVOA) and Mysore Cable TV Operators Association (MCTVOA) had filed separate petitions seeking extension of digitisation in Bengaluru and Mysore respectively due to unavailability of set-top boxes (STBs).

    However, the Karnataka HC is hearing both the petitions together.

    The sunset date for phase II of digitisation covering 38 cities including Bengaluru and Mysore was 31 March However the Information & Broadcasting ministry on 2 April allowed a 15 day grace period to the industry to allow smooth transition from analogue to digital cable.