ITV

Tag: Star News Broadcasting

  • Lok Sabha apprised of uplinking issue

    NEW DELHI: The uplinking issue keeps cropping up in the Indian parliament and government assurances keep coming, as it happened again in Lok Sabha (Lower House) today. Various news channels, slated to be launched towards the end of this month, are chewing their nails off in anticipation.
    The government is giving a re-look at the existing uplinking policy in news and current affairs channels, following an application from a wholly-owned foreign company (the Virgin Island-registered Star News Broadcasting), for uplinking a 24-hour news channel from India, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
    Consultations have been undertaken with various ministries and it is proposed to take the matter to the Cabinet for consideration, minister of state for information and broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply today.
    Government has received applications from eleven television companies to uplink 24-hour news channels, of which seven have been permitted while the rest are under examination, the minister said.
    Under the existing policy, all TV channels irrespective of their ownership or management control aimed at Indian viewership are permitted to uplink from India subject to fulfillment of eligibility criteria.
    The companies that are waiting for a government stand to be taken on the uplinking issue – that will also cover those news channels that have been given permission earlier like Zee News, Aaj Tak (Hindi) and NDTV for a channel — include Star, TV Today Network (proposing to launch an English news channel), NDTV World for the Hindi news channel and Independent News Service (INS).
    Interestingly, INS is operated by Rajat Sharma who had told indiantelevision.com a few days ago that he doesn’t propose to start any channel and that the uplinking permission is for beefing up news gathering purposes. But INS and its sister company, Independent Media Pvt. Ltd, at the moment, have just two programmes on air, on Star Plus Aaj Ki Baat in the evening and then one at around 11 pm.
    Still, industry sources also indicated that IMPL-INS combine may be in talks with various channels to give them more news and current affairs programming, including a new one being talked about, which is likely to be funded by a Gujarat-based company.

    See related story:
    80 channels permitted to uplink from India, says Rajya Sabha

  • NDTV World, Aaj Tak’s English sister channel also await uplinking okay

    NDTV World, Aaj Tak’s English sister channel also await uplinking okay

    MUMBAI: It is not just Star News that is awaiting uplinkng clearance, information and broadcasting minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, informed the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament) in a written reply today.
     

    India Today group’s English News Channel, and Prannoy Roy’s NDTV World are also among the 24-hour news channels awaiting the government’s clearance for uplinking from India, a Press Trust of India report quoted Prasad as saying today.

    While India Today’s Hindi channel Aaj Tak is already being uplinked from the country, the Government has permitted one news channel from New Delhi Television Ltd to uplink from India but is still examining the proposal for another channel NDTV World, Prasad said.

    Further, proposals of BBC, Star News Broadcasting and Independent News Service (for channel called India TV) were still being examined, he added.

    Responding to a query fro Manoj Bhattacharya on what steps have been taken to safeguard the country’s security, cultural heritage and sensitivity in case permission is granted to foreign channels to uplink, the minister said the policy of uplinking of foreign- owned news and current affairs TV channels from India is being examined for purposes of providing safeguards, PTI reported.

    Among the 24-hour news channels already granted uplinking permission include Sun TV’s four channels, Jain TV, Zee News and seven separate channels from Sahara Sanchar Ltd. 

  • NDTV says on track for end-March launch

    NDTV says on track for end-March launch

    NEW DELHI: NDTV’s proposed news channels in Hindi and English are slated to be launched between end-March and early April 2003, according to a senior executive of the Delhi-based production house which is soon to turn into a broadcaster too.

    The senior executive of NDTV also clarified that the foreign equity component in the proposal for a news channel, cleared by the Indian government, is FII investment which was made about five years ago.

    “The work on the channels (in Hindi and English) is going on fine,” the senior executive of NDTV told indiantelevision.com this morning, adding, “The two channels are expected to be on-air between end-March and early-April.”

    According to the executive, the foreign equity of “about 16 per cent”, which Swaraj was referring to, is the FII investment from the “likes of Goldman Sachs made about five years back in NDTV.”

    Swaraj had informed the Rajya Sabha yesterday that the government had approved the proposal of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) to start a 24-hour news channel with a foreign equity component of 16.47 per cent, while the application of Star News Broadcasting is still under process.

    Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha that while NDTV’s proposal was cleared in June 2002, Star’s proposal for starting a 24-hour news channel, also to be uplinked from the country, was still under process.

    This is the second project by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star that is awaiting government approval, the first being the KU-band direct-to-home (DTH) operation in the country.

    The government is yet to clear the proposal to start the direct-to-home operation that was submitted in April this year.

    “Star News Broadcasting has informed that its head office is in Hong Kong and registered office in British Virgin Islands. The company has three directors – two Americans and one British,” Swaraj told fellow parliamentarians, adding the proposed channel would be indirectly owned by News Corporation Ltd.

    She also pointed out that Jain Studios’ news channel is 20 per cent foreign owned, while in Zee News foreign holding is 57.54 per cent. The latter uplinks from India from its studio on the outskirts of New Delhi.

    The minister said the proposal of NDTV to start a 24-hour news channel, which will be uplinked from India, was cleared in June this year while those of Jain Studios and Zee Telefilms were cleared last year.

    According to the present norms all satellite channels irrespective of their ownership, equity structure or management control are at present permitted to uplink from India.

    Swaraj had earlier said that she plans to take the proposal by the Rupert Murdoch – promoted Star to start a 24-hour news channel in India for the consideration of the Union Cabinet.

    The decision was taken as the ministry feels that there is a need for a greater consensus before a decision is taken on the issue.

    Star had sought the government’s clearance in October this year to start a new channel in the country, as its five-year contract with NDTV to generate news and current affairs content in India comes to an end on 31 March, 2003.