"The Zee people are showing DD channels without
authorization on the DTH service, which is not free to air and is
subscription-based. We are concerned about this," Prasar Bharati
CEO KS Sarma said today during an
interaction with journalists.,
Though ruling out initiating any legal action against Dish TV,
Sarma said the least that could have been done was to inform them
that DD channels were part of the DTH package. "I have written
to them on this," he added.
When asked whether any talks regarding money had taken place, Sarma
said that Prasar Bharati had been informed by the ASC-Zee combine
that after the DTH service crossed the 200,000-mark subscriber base,
DD would get Rs 1 per channel per subscriber. Globally, channels
get anywhere between $ 10-30 per channel per subscriber from the
DTH service operator, he opined.
However, when indiantelevision.com contacted Zee Telefilms vice-chairman
Jawahar Goel, he expressed ignorance about any letter from Prasar
Bharati on
the issue. "As and when we hear from DD, we'll take up the
matter at the right forum," he said, adding that if DD wanted,
they'd be happy to remove all DD channels.
Meanwhile, Sarma pointed out that DD's own DTH project --- scheduled
to go on air on 2 April --- is on track with the tenders for uplinking
being finalized at the moment.
The non-subscription based DTH service, Sarma said, is being started
by DD as a "substitute to terrestrial expansion", which
would have, otherwise, cost much more.
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