The Essel Group-owned direct-to-home service Dish TV?s plans to augment its channel capacity to 420 with the launch of its own satellite Agrani could be indefinitely delayed. Dish TV, which tied up with satellite services operator ProtoStar to launch the satellite, is caught in a feud with the Geneva-based The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), say industry sources. This estimated Rs 800 crore project has issues including frequency coordination with other satellites and is yet to receive the ITU approval. ProtoStar helps its customers manage their investments required to launch their own satellites and instead focus their efforts on the business of DTH. Dish TV currently holds nine c-band transponders on a European satellite NSS-6 and can show 220 television channels.
Jawahar Goel, MD, Dish TV could not be reached for comments. Sources say it is because of this dispute with ITU that Dish TV has now shifted its strategy and has put digital video recording (DVR) on the offer. Analysts question that if Dish TV can increase the number of channels in the coming months, then why is it silent about it and instead aggressively marketing the DVR service. Dish TV was supposed to increase the number of channels from August.
The satellite was launched on July 7, following which ITU said that it is ?extremely concerned and alarmed to be the witness of a situation in which a satellite, in this case ProtoStar-1, could be operated in contravention of the ITU Constitution…without a responsible administration and by an unknown operating agency not duly authorised by an ITU member state.? ITU also issued a call for assistance from its 191 member governments to determine whether any of them has assumed responsibilities for a recently launched telecommunications satellite that one ITU member – the United Arab Emirates – fears may pose ?a risk of physical collision? with its Thuraya-3 mobile communications spacecraft.?
International reports also disclose that ProtoStar has lost the backing of the Singapore government for its orbital-slot and broadcast-frequency license following a decision by an ITU body not to grant an extension to the June 28 deadline for bringing the ProtoStar-1 system into operation. That leaves ProtoStar without regulatory support and in an unclear legal situation. Later, ProtoStar issued a statement that it had secured regulatory support from an unnamed government and would disclose the government?s identity to the ITU in due course.