ITV

Tag: Star Television

  • Star, Siti trade charges over channel blackout in Delhi

    Star, Siti trade charges over channel blackout in Delhi

    Officials in Star Television and the Zee group affiliated MSO Siti Cable made conflicting statements on Thursday a day after a row over Star’s channels being blacked out in New Delhi threatened to snowball.

     

    Siti accused Star of trying to cash in on the unprecedented success of its hit game show Kaun Banega Crorepati to increase subscription rates and force operators to pay for “unpopular” pay channels like Star Gold and Star World.

     

    “They (Siti) switched us off but we are back on again in most of New Delhi as of yesterday,” countered Yash Khanna, head of corporate communications in Star. “Obviously they are feeling some insecurity as Zee TV is expected to go pay soon,” he said.

     

    Siti claimed its actions were dictated by customer feedback which said no one was willing to pay for channels they do not view. They also asserted that Star’s actions were illegal. A Siti Cable group company providing cable services in Noida (a New Delhi suburb) has instituted legal proceedings with the MRTP (Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices) Commission, a press release said.

     

    “We are not forcing people to take all channels,” explained Khanna. “StarGold is priced at Rs 5.50 per home per month. But cable operators have a choice to take it or not to take it. Without StarGold, the Star bouquet is priced at Rs 19.25 per home per month, he said. “So where is the question of bringing the MRTPC commission into it.”

     

    The major bone of contention is however the issue of paid connectivity. A problem which is bound to keep resurfacing unless a satisfactory conditional access system is introduced.

     

    It was only on Monday that the Star affiliated Hathway Cables had reached a compromise with Sony over the declared paid connectivity of its pay channels SetMax, AXN and CNBC. Sony had switched off the channels in the Mumbai region from 2 January over a similar dispute as the one being witnessed between Siti and Star.

     

    Siti charges that Star has demanded subscription charges on an assumed increase in the subscriber base without any verification or justification.

     

    “We are being paid for just five million subs when the cable TV population in India is over 35 million. The figures speak for themselves,” says Khanna.

  • Jain TV awaits clear government guidelines before committing to DTH

    Jain TV awaits clear government guidelines before committing to DTH

    The government has failed to clearly set forth guidelines on direct-to-home (DTH) transmission and till that is in place we will not be committing ourselves, Dr JK Jain, president, Jain TV, said on the sidelines of a rather stormy press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday.

    Dr Jain was peppered with questions on his ongoing war of words with the Prime Minister’s Office over his being called an agent of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI in an intelligence report.

    Speaking on the current state of affairs of his operations following his falling out with the government, Dr Jain exuded confidence that he would pull through. The fundamentals of his operations were quite strong, he said.

    Queried on how the channel’s revenues would be affected keeping in mind that the government was not advertising on his channel, Dr jain said there were no ads in the first place so the question of loss of revenues on that score was irrelevant.

    Queried on what were his plans vis-a-vis his channel, he said Jain TV was just one of his interests. He wanted to get into the internet business and was very keen to develop e-commerce activities he said. Towards that end Jain was going ahead with its broadband plans and was already providing feeds to a number of clients, he said.

    Regarding plans for DTH broadcast, he said he was still awaiting clear governemnt guidelines. When his attention was drawn to the fact that Star Television had announced it was going ahead with DTH operations, he retorted that Star had announced the same thing three years ago but nothing came of it finally.

    The government had not even formatted application forms as yet so there was no point in going ahead with DTH plans at this stage, he said. He, however, added that Jain would be interested in DTH broadcast if and when the government was really ready to go ahead with it. It has accepted any applications as of now, he stated.

    On the earth station front his plans were on track, Dr Jain said. twelve acres of land had been acquired in Noida outside New Delhi and a teleport was already functioning there he said.

    On the political front, Dr Jain is up against the government of the day but he remains optimistic as far as the future of his media expansion plans go.