The Hindu Business Line : Tata Sky objects to Turner's plea

New Delhi May 7 Tata Sky has objected to Turner International India's plea to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to be excused as a party to the Zee-Turner vs Tata Sky dispute.

In its order over sharing of signals between the broadcaster and DTH operator, dated March 31, the tribunal has directed broadcaster Zee-Turner to share signals of 19 of its channels with DTH operator Tata Sky at 50 per cent of its declared cable rates. The broadcaster wanted all 32 of its channels carried. However, the tribunal had argued that if forced the DTH operator would pass on the cost of carrying all channels from a broadcaster to the consumer.

"Competition has to be encouraged because it is in consumer interest," said the Tribunal, finding all respondents Turner International (India), Zee Telefilms, ASC Enterprises and Zee-Turner, defaulting in providing signals to Tata Sky on non-discriminatory basis.

Turner had sought its name deleted from the unfavourable order. The broadcaster is reported to have told the Tribunal's Bench that Tata Sky had approached them very late and filed the case before completing mandatory 30 days notice period, and that it had unnecessarily been dragged into the litigation.

However, Tata Sky's counsel, Mr Ramji Srinivasan, argued that a principal, Turner India in this case, is just as liable as the agent it has chosen to appoint, Zee-Turner here. According to Tata Sky, Turner's officials had been actively involved in the negotiations during the signal sharing dispute, but had not offered to share their feed of such channels as CNN and HBO.

TDSAT will hear the matter again on July 26.

Meanwhile, in its submission to TRAI's consultation paper on DTH, Tata Sky stressed on the urgency for regulating DTH content pricing. It has argued that that due to no DTH tariff and commercial framework in place, DTH is unable to provide effective choice or flexibility to consumers who are being subjected to unreasonable price variations between delivery platforms. The DTH provider, a 80:20 joint venture between Tata and Star, has suggested that a supplementary consultation on DTH content pricing be initiated immediately.

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