The Hindu : Star scouting for Indian partners for DTH

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 31, 2003

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Star scouting for Indian partners for DTH

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 30. Even as Zee today hoped to launch its DTH services along with the Conditional Access System rollout on September 1, Star TV was busy scouting for Indian partners for its DTH platform, Space.

A day after the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry cleared the Zee-promoted company's Letter of Intent (LoI), the company's vice-president, Jawahar Goel, said efforts were being made to launch the DTH services on September 1.

Also, he maintained that Zee's DTH platform would not compete with CAS, but complement it. And, to ensure that one does not eat into the other's market, the target areas for Zee's DTH platform will be non-cable areas and stand alone houses.

Though the DTH guidelines mandate more formalities — securing a wireless operational license from the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing of the Communications Ministry and a 10-year bank guarantee of Rs. 40 crores — after which the credentials of the applicant company will be put under the scanner, Zee managers were hopeful of meeting all the requirements by September 1.

Meanwhile, Star — which has been an equally keen participant in the DTH arena — is scouting for Indian partners to apply for the LoI for its platform as the guidelines mandate that a broadcasting company can only hold 20 per cent of the total equity in the applicant company. This apart, there is the foreign equity cap of 49 per cent with the rules mandating that FDI cannot be more than 20 per cent.

Star will pay the entry fee of Rs. 10 crores and apply for LoI only after the structuring of Space TV as per the DTH guidelines is complete.

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