According to sources in the Bureau of Indian Standards, the onus of providing the transcoders will be on new DTH players. The BIS has also been asked to submit a detailed report on interoperability of DTH set-top boxes to the I &B ministry. The set-top boxes being used to receive services from the existing players, Dish TV and Tata Sky, are not compatible with the new-technology services that will be provided by DTH firms.
Sony's Set Max - the host broadcaster of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has its eyes on the ad revenues that the Twenty20 format cricket tournament is likely to produce. The 7 pm-10 pm TV slot attracts ad revenue worth over Rs 2,000 cr between various entertainment channels. On Set Max, the advertisers will have about 35 hours of advertising spots for the first IPL tournament with fixed on-air sponsors. Set Max has three associate sponsors in Nokia, Hero Honda and Coca Cola.
As the CAS technology gives the consumers a choice in watching television channels with assured quality of service and affordable pricing, a nationwide CAS roll-out will bring down the average monthly cable bills of the consumers by almost half to about Rs 150-Rs 200.
Sam Pitroda-backed Vavasi Telegence's request for unused radio frequency to be allotted to launch mobile services across the country is unlikely to be met by the department of telecommunication because it said international technology specifications for this wireless technology do not exist. Instead, DoT is considering the option of allotting the company spectrum in the 400 to 430 MHz band, radio frequencies that are currently not used for mobile services in India.
Tasked with gathering over Rs 6,87,715 crore (or nearly $168 billion) as revenue receipts in 2008-09, the two agencies the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) will be headed by a succession of bureaucrats with unusually short tenures.
To rationalise the entertainment tax levied on the direct-to-home (DTH) companies and the cable operators by the state governments and also to encourage the cable industry to switch to the use of advanced optical fibre cable instead of the copper wire cables, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has set up two sub-committees.
With the addition of 2 lakh subscribers every month, private direct-to-home (DTH) service operators Dish TV and Tata Sky may cross Rs 650 crore (Rs 6.5 billion) in revenues for financial year 2007-08, a three-fold increase from 2006-07. The revenues of private DTH operators may cross the Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 10 billion) mark in 2008-09 with a total subscriber-base of 8 million. Private DTH operators have to pay 10% of their revenues as the licence fees to operate the services.
Mauritius has rejected compensation of Rs 500 crore to plug loopholes in double taxation avoidance treaty. Mauritius accounts for nearly half of all foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to India. With the tightening of tax laws, India attempted to amend the treaty. Due to the treaty, India was suffering over Rs 4,000 crore loss annually for some years in terms of revenue foregone on account of the capital gains exemption for investors routing their funds through Mauritius.
WorldSpace was first launched in Bangalore and therefore, is headquartered in New Delhi. Hence, the awareness levels and adoption is highest in this market and other southern markets. Metro markets like Delhi and Mumbai have also shown a high level of traction. Going forward, eastern and central India presents an opportunity for WorldSpace. WorldSpace does not manufacture its own radio sets. They are manufactured by contract manufacturers.
Some large companies said the measure would broaden and deepen the equity cult in the country, but feel that a blanket 25 per cent minimum public shareholding norm should not be applied indiscriminately to all companies. The ministry had floated the paper on February 1 and asked for public comments by the month-end. The minimum public shareholding limit now is 10 per cent.
The central government is likely to announce a restructuring-cum-revival package for Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), the largest public sector shipyard, at a cost of around Rs 830 crore (Rs 8.3 billion) in the coming Budget.
Even as the debate over off-Budget liabilities continues, former finance ministry bureaucrats and leading economists say it's time the government went beyond the targets in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.
For the first four days of its running, Jodhaa Akbar -- a UTV Motion Picture release -- has collected Rs 38.53 crore from the box office (domestic and international), a close second to last year's Shah Rukh Khan starrer Om Shanti Om -- that grossed about Rs 42 crore for the entire week. And there is three days of collections to be added.
The $100-million fund, which has the option to raise a further $200 million, will benefit small and medium enterprises engaged in defence production.
Mumbai rail service may get a facelift as the Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announces the Phase II of developmental plans this Budget.
A DVR is a device that allows consumers to pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward their favourite television shows. DTH companies are expected to slash DVRs box prices by nearly half to Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 per unit. DVRs for cable channels would soon be available for between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000, industry sources said.
News channels may now be able to telecast footage of international cricket matches for longer durations, following the Delhi High Court's dismissal of a petition by sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports in this matter.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is expected to announce a slew of initiatives for select Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains in the coming rail budget, including access to on-board free Internet and Direct-to-Home (DTH) services.
Dish TV and Tata Sky, the two major DTH companies, have sought compensation from the government for the upgrade of the existing DTH set-top boxes due to the mandatory upgrade proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The European Union has drawn up an initial negative list of 416 tradeable items on which it does not intend to provide duty cuts as part of the proposed free trade agreement with India
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