Move To Provide Uplink To Local Networks

Conspicuous in its absence from the broadcasters' platform was Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee TV.

The whole issue of uplinking came into prominence after Rupert Murdoch's recent visit to India and his reported move to seek uplinking from India for STAR TV during a meeting with Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

STAR TV, on vehement opposition from political parties, later denied that Murdoch had discussed unlinking with Gowda. However, since then, private Indian broadcasters had been lobbying the government for permission to uplink from India. Information and broadcasting minister C M Ibrahim has also said on a number of occasions that the government was considering the demand.

 

On Tuesday, a delegation of Indian broadcasters met Ibrahim and submitted a note demanding uplinking rights for Indian broadcasters to counter the onslaught of foreign satellite channels.

Corporate sources said most signatories to the note were "disinclined to include Zee TV", which is seen as a non-Indian broadcaster as Murdoch's News Corp has a substantial stake in Hong Kong-based ATL, which has leased a transponder on Asiasat-1 for Zee TV.

The note submitted to Ibrahim on Tuesday focuses on the Indian broadcasters' fear that they may be slowly taken over by foreign companies as maintaining a satellite channel is expensive business. The cost of uplinking and downlinking from foreign countries -- which all Indian broadcasters do -- is exorbitant.

The signatories to the note included Sun TV, Asianet, Eenadu TV, Udaya TV and Business India TV.

The I&B minister, government sources said, reassured the Indian broadcasters that the government would consider their demand sympathetically although he did not set a deadline as "Parliament is in session and no policy decision can be taken now."

However, government sources revealed that the information and brodacasting ministry was putting together a database to study the feasibility of the uplinking proposal.

The sources said a note prepared by the ministry on allowing Indian broadcasters to uplink from India may form the basis of the proposed ordinance. The current session of Parliament ends on September 13.