In a move that should provide a boost for serious players in the direct-to-home (DTH) telecast arena like Star, the government yesterday indicated that it might not press for making it mandatory for foreign television channels to uplink from India.

Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj, in a written statement in Parliament on Friday, said since the convergence bill was still at the drafting stage, it was not possible to say whether it would have any provision for compulsory uplinking of foreign channels.

As per the DTH notification issued in March on the ground rules for companies wanting to enter DTH in India, any licensee will have to establish an uplink earth station in India within 12 months from the date of issue of license. All content provided by the DTH platform to the subscribers, irrespective of its source, will have to pass through the common encryption and conditional access system, located within the Earth Station, situated on Indian soil, the notification states.

Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj, responding to recent criticism directed at Prasar Bharati, promised yesterday in parliament that the public broadcaster had taken steps to increase revenues, adding it had set itself a revenue goal of Rs7,500 million.

Henceforth, Prasar Bharati would adopt a "proactive and market friendly approach towards producers, advertisers, ad agencies and sponsoring bodies," Swaraj said.

Swaraj also stated that regional centres would get "functional autonomy‘‘ regarding commercial matters. Swaraj added that an in-house marketing wing would be set up in Mumbai which would have the responsibility of ensuring programmes were marketed effectively. Swaraj said Prasar Bharati had set a target of RS 7,500 million in revenue collections for 2001-02.

The standing committee on information technology, a body constituted by parliament, had in a report recently slammed Prasar Bharati for the decline in the number of in-house programmes, lack of marketing machinery and poor reception quality of Doordarshan.

The report said: ‘‘Private channels have set up an effective marketing machinery in terms of infrastructure and manpower and they are able to attract business, which otherwise should have come to Prasar Bharati.‘‘

The report advised Prasar Bharati that it should modify and strengthen its marketing system in an organised and systematic way without further loss of time.