Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra today dismissed industry speculation that the government was about to ease the restrictions on DTH broadcast in India.
Speaking on the sidelines of a media briefing announcing the go-ahead of his Agrani satellite project, Chandra said he did not see DTH happening anytime soon.

There has been some speculation that the information & broadcasting ministry, in conjunction with the communications and IT ministry and the Prime Minister‘s Office, is likely to soon raise the FDI bar to 49 per cent from the current 20 per cent in DTH ventures. Other anomalies in the DTH policy announced last year like cross media restrictions were also supposed to go.

Though the sheen around film award shows seems to be waning a bit, it still is a safe shot as far as getting in the viewers is concerned. For Malayalam regional language channel Asianet the tale was no different.

The Lux Asianet Film Awards telecast on Sunday 3 March was the most watched show among Malayalam audiences, except for Asianet‘s superhit soap Sthree that is.

According to the data available, the highest ratings were for Friday‘s episode of Sthree (18.09 TVRs), followed by Thursday‘s episode of Sthree (17.22 TVRs). The Lux Asianet Film Awards came in at number 3 with 14.37 TVRs.

The Asianet release quotes market research agency ORG Marg‘s Intam data for the period 25 February - 3 March. The target group is for all C&S audiences and sampled a 529,000 strong audience.

The chickens may be finally coming home to roost for sundry officials in pubcaster Prasar Bharati. I&B minister Sushma Swaraj has informed Parliament that her ministry has prepared a list of tainted officials in conjunction with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The last few months have seen a number of questions being raised as to how deals are sanctioned by the Prasar Bharati. It was in January that the CBI raided the offices and residences of three senior officials of Prasar Bharati who allegedly accepted bribes to clear programmes for the Doordarshan.

Swaraj reportedly told the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parlaiament) last week that four of the five cases the CBI had registered had been received by the ministry.

She has been quoted by The Times of India newspaper as saying: "The government has accepted the recommendations of the CBI in these cases and the same shall be forwarded to the central vigilanmce commission."

Reports also state that the CBI had looked into 23 cases of corruption involving Group ‘A‘ officers. The system of purchasing and procuring programmes had been reviewed and streamlined to make the system more transparent she said.