Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003 |
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Marketing
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Courts/Legal Issues SC says MRTPC will decide on SitiCable plea for signals Our Bureau
New Delhi , Sept. 9 THE Supreme Court has asked the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) to decide on the petition filed by SitiCable — a Zee Telefilms subsidiary — wherein the cable company had expressed apprehension that popular channels were denying signals for use on its head-end in the sky (HITS) platform. The apex court today set aside an interim order of the MRTPC that directed broadcasters such as Star, Sony and ESPN to provide the signals of their satellite channels to SitiCable. However, the Court directed the three broadcasters to provide SitiCable the signals of the channels on the terrestrial mode till the MRTPC decided the main dispute. After hearing appeals filed by the major channels, a Bench comprising Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice B.P. Singh said that whether SitiCable would be entitled to use the HITS-based transmission or not would be decided by MRTPC. The petitioners had said that the MRTPC order infringed their right to control their signals as SitiCable has changed over from terrestrial to HITS-based transmission. The MRTPC passed an order on August 27 on an application by SitiCable, which expressed apprehension that these major channels, after forming a cartel, were planning to ease it out from cable operation business by denying it the contents of most popular channels. The MRTPC had directed the three major satellite channel broadcasters to give uninterrupted supply of signals to SitiCable till September 10 when it would hear the cable network operators' plea. According to the Executive Vice-President of SitiCable, Mr Jagdish Khattar, the network had moved MRTP Commission on the premise that non-granting of signal on HITS was a restrictive trade practice as Star, Sony & ESPN had formed a cartel. Subsequently Star had served notices on Siti Cable threatening disconnection of the terrestrial signals.
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