Static On The Ku Band

COUNT the roadblocks on the circuitous route to direct-to-home (dth) television: political disjunction, conflicting signals, crossed wires, bureaucratic dilly-dallying, corporate sabre-rattling, behind-the-scenes manipulation, warped thinking. Doesn't make for a pretty picture. Nearly three years after the advanced wireless delivery system was first heard of in this country, impediments have only multiplied. So, despite information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan's recent indications that the ban on transmission in the 10,700 to 12,750 MHz Ku-band frequency spectrum could soon be lifted, confusion continues to reign.

'dth TV, says Mahajan, 'already exists in C-band and there's no real control on what's beamed into our homes. Once Ku-band transmission is allowed, it'll be far easier to monitor content. What, then, is all the fuss about? Why can't the Vajpayee government, which has constituted a five-man ministerial committee to deliberate on the issue, just go ahead and overturn the December '97 dth ban notification? Is the perceived threat to India's national security for real? It is, asserts the lobby opposed to dth sans regulation. According to an unsigned note believed to have been circulated by a senior Zee Telefilms official, 'classified and sensitive and/or culturally damaging video/data can be transmitted through the skies from a foreign country receivable in India by only a select few owning a specially programmed access card .

While Zee has stepped up its campaign to stop Mahajan in his tracks, throwing its weight behind anti-dth seminars in Delhi and Mumbai, Star TV, which witnessed a major top-level upheaval this week (see box), is at pains to prove that unlike cellular telephony, the Internet or V-Sat communication, dth is not a two-way, interactive medium. Says Urmila Gupta, Star's executive director in charge of its dth project: 'All channels on the platform can be monitored at a centralised subscriber management service facility. It is completely transparent and computerised both at the uplink centre and the subscriber's end. Precisely what Star ceo Gary Davey tried to impress upon Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee when he met him last week in the company of Rathikant Basu. Says Gupta: 'In terms of content, there's no essential difference between a cable bouquet and a dth service. Only the technology is different. But do the politicians know?

'Technology can't be stopped, says N. Bhaskara Rao, chairman of the Centre for Media Studies. 'But under no circumstances should a dth service be allowed in an unregulated scenario. We need to design the technology to suit India's peculiar needs. Private broadcasters can't be trusted for they will only be interested in maximising profits. Zee's Subhash Chandra has seized upon such misgivings to whip up an anti-Murdoch mood in government circles and play on the fears of the swadeshi lobby, as he had so successfully done in 1997 when the launch of ISkyB was formally announced.

The gates to 'the future of television remain firmly shut as Zee clamours for a level-playing field. Mahajan has agreed to a six-month lock-in period after the dth ban lift to enable key broadcasters to firm up their plans in the new sector. 'We have no problem as long as the government sticks to one date, says Gupta. Star TV, which is contemplating a dth joint venture with Hughes Ispat, is the only company ready with details of its operation. Zee Telefilms, despite concerted moves to reorganise its corporate structure under the stewardship of ceo V.G. Jindal, is at a bit of a loose end following the collapse of its merger talks with Murdoch. The Modi Entertainment Group has tied up with Loral Corporation for a possible dth platform. The Hindujas are also known to be keen to jump into the fray. 'You can't, and shouldn't, prevent dth from coming in, so the government must quickly create a regulatory framework, says Bhaskara Rao. 'Or else it would amount to an abdication of the government's responsibility to the people.

But with the government caught in continuing political uncertainty, the final decision on dth has taken a backseat. The five ministerial committee members-Jagmohan, L.K. Advani, George Fernandes, Yashwant Sinha, and Mahajan-are preoccupied with the damage-control exercise over the Bihar imbroglio. Indications are that Murdoch is running out of patience. He's invested nearly $500 million in the ISkyB project and is coughing up $20 million annually for the seven Ku-band transponders he has leased on pas-4. Star TV is still some way off from breaking even. So it's crunch time for him: if the dth project isn't cleared in the next couple of months, he could bail out for good. Says a media observer: 'That would suit Zee Telefilms. If Murdoch's out of the way, it'll be easy for Subhash Chandra to wrest control of the dth segment.

Clearly, the bogey of cultural invasion is just that. The real gameplan is to prevent Murdoch from entering dth ahead of the others. In its unsigned note, Zee Telefilms says: 'This (dth) is a service for the moneyed class. The general public can hardly take advantage as it's expensive. Then why the hurry? But why the fears? If dth will reach only an affluent audience, already exposed to foreign influences in the form of films, books, magazines, TV shows and personal contact, why be afraid of it? At the end of its fifth year of operation, ISkyB will reach one million Indian homes.

By then, the number of cable and satellite TV homes is expected to climb to 25 million. By Gupta's reckoning, India already has 6 lakh households receiving C-band channels directly through their own dishes and tuners. Like the foreign channels they receive, they're beyond government control. Being a less cumbersome delivery system, dth will be far more amenable to control than the 60,000 cable operators in India.

Mahajan is under fire from the Left. Says cpi's D. Raja: 'The unseemly haste with which the government is seeking to delink dth from the Broadcast Bill can only invite disaster. Why must we hand over our broadcasting system to foreign monopolies? So the argument rages on and India's TV audience continues to be deprived of exposure to the cutting edge of broadcast technology.