ITV

Tag: Sun TV group

  • TDSAT asks Tata-Sky, Sun TV Group to settle differences

    TDSAT asks Tata-Sky, Sun TV Group to settle differences

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has proposed to direct-to-home (DTH) player Tata-Sky and Chennai-based broadcaster Sun TV Group that they resolve their dispute between themselves.

    According to a tribunal official, the two parties are set to negotiate a potential settlement at a meeting in Chennai that is likely to take place by the end of week.

    Nonetheless, the tribunal dispute forum has also drawn up the date for next hearing before adjourning the case to 29 November if the attempts to achieve a “lucid response” through the discussion fails.

    Tata-Sky had moved the tribunal accusing the broadcaster of refusing supply of its bouquet of channels. The DTH player approached the disputes forum after repeated requests to provide the signals of the channels of Sun’s bouquet of channels on “non-discriminatory terms” proved futile.

    According to the norms laid down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), all content should be made available to all delivery platforms on a nondiscriminatory basis.

    Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran has set forth plans to enter the DTH space through the still to launch commercially Sun Direct TV. He runs a string of successful channels, which include SunTV, GeminiTV, SuryaTV, UdayaTV, KTV, TejaTV, UsheTV, KiranTV, AdithyaTV, Sun News, KiranTV, GeminiTV, TejaTV, Teja News, Udaya2 and Udaya News.

  • Madras HC admits PIL against minister Dayanidhi Maran

    Madras HC admits PIL against minister Dayanidhi Maran

    MUMBAI: The Madras HC has admitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which accuses the Union minister of communications and information technology Dayanidhi Maran for releasing advertisements worth Rs 100 million to the family-owned Sun TV Network.

    According to a Times of India report, justices M Karpagavinayagam and A R Ramalingam on 9 March admitted a writ petition on the case that would come up for hearing before the chief justice on 13 March. The PIL, filed by J Veparasu, accuses Maran of abusing the office of the Union minister.

    Veparasu, in the PIL, has sought an HC direction for a CBI investigation into all transactions since May 2004, when Maran assumed the office as Union minister. He has also sought an interim injunction restraining Maran’s ministry from releasing any advertisement to Sun TV Group channels and publications till his PIL is disposed.

    The Chennai-headquartered Sun TV group, which has 15 television channels, four print publications and two radio channels, is owned by Maran’s elder brother Kalanithi Maran.

    The crux of the petition is that, though there are many private producers who telecast their programmes on the Sun group channels, Maran has not released even a single advertisement to their programmes. The petitioner alleges that the advertisements went exclusively to programmes telecast and produced by Kalanithi Maran.

    Maran, now under fire for committing breach of oath under Schedule III of the Constitution, has also been accused of neglecting government-owned channels when it came to advertisement support.