Star TV Asia chairman Gareth Chang is scheduled to make his first-ever visit India on 7 or 8 March. His visit gains significance considering the fact that the current government has been showing signs of opening up direct-to-home television services two years after they had been banned in India. Chang is expected to have a look-see at Star TV‘s India operations and will also have meetings with senior government officials.
Star TV owner and global media baron Rupert Murdoch has made it clear that China and India are the two major growth areas that News Corp is focusing on. A couple of months ago, Murdoch went on a fence-mending visit to China. He probably would have liked to do the same for India too but for the fact that he is liable to be arrested should he land in the country. An arrest warrant is pending against him for quite some time. Chang, an Asian-American, however, faces no problems of that sort and will hence put forth his company‘s position to government on uplinking, program controls, modes of distribution, and direct-to-home television. Star TV chief Gary Davey had visited India a couple of weeks ago and he met up with information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan to clarify any doubts the government may have had about DTH television services. Davey is believed to have assured Mahajan that all the channels carried on Star TV‘s DTH platform ISkyB will comply with Indian programming and advertising codes and that the service can be switched off if any channel doesn‘t comply with regulations.

The BJP-led government has turned over the issue of opening up direct-to-home television broadcasts to a group of ministers consisting of information & broadcasting (I&B) minister Pramod Mahajan, defence minister George Fernandes, home minister L.K. Advani, communications minister Jagmohan and finance minister Yashwant Sinha. The Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself constituted the panel. The group on telecom (GoT) has been examining the issue of DTH for a couple of weeks now.

The ministerial group is expected to recommend the steps that the government should take while deciding on DTH (in favour or against) to ensure that the process is seen to be transparent and fair to all.

Some observers expect a decision on DTH to be taken in the shape of an executive order by end March around the same time that the new telecom policy is to be announced. The budget session of Parliament will commence on 22 February and conclude on 14 May. It will break for a recess between 18 March and 12 April.

The composition of the panel indicates that the government is serious about putting the DTH issue behind it once and for all. Both Mahajan and Jagmohan are known supporters and are likely to present the convergence (between telecom and broadcasting) view. The finance minister will provide inputs on the revenues the government could generate through licensing or auctioning and taxing of DTH services. Home minister Advani and defence minister Fernandes have been inducted into the group to tackle the national security angle.

The following table draws up a who?s who of the DTH wannabes