NEW DELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) on Friday withdrew the permission given to Zee Media Corporation Ltd (ZMCL) for uplinking of 10 television channels in the Ku-Band, a frequency used on GSAT-15 Satellite used for satellite television broadcasting. Because of the uplinking facility in the Ku-Bank, all 10 channels were accessible on Doordarshan (DD) Free Dish, which was a competitive advantage to ZMCL over other private broadcasters.
The channels are Zee Hindustan, Zee Rajasthan, Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal, Zee Bihar Jharkhand, Zee Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh, Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, Zee Salam, Zee 24 Kalak, Zee 24 Taas and Zee Odisha (now Zee Delhi NCR Haryana). They were originally permitted to operate on C-Band, also a frequency, by the ministry. According to the officials, revocation aims to level the playing field.
“Zee media had taken dual transmission approval for uplinking both in Ku-band and C-band and due to co-location of transponders of Dish TV (of Zee) and DD Free Dish on the same satellite, ZMCL got the advantage to be on DD Free Dish without paying for the huge auction fee while other broadcasters were paying to be on DD Free Dish,” said ministry officials.
In its order, issued on Friday, pertaining to the withdrawal of permission, the ministry said that it had received references from Prasar Bharati, public broadcaster, and many private broadcasters regarding this unfair advantage to ZMCL due to permission of simultaneous uplinking of 10 TV channels on Ku-Band in addition to uplinking in C-Band. Some channels have been complaining to the ministry in this regard for a long time.
Seeking permission for uplinking on Ku-Bank, ZMCL had given justification that many operators don’t own or operate a C-Band receiving dish of four meters (16 feet) due to their location crowded locales, where such installations are not possible. It further mentioned that Ku-Band allows smaller dish antennas hence installation is cheaper and easy, and it incurs lesser terrestrial interference. Hence, permission was granted. However, subsequently, it came to the notice of the ministry that the 10 channels in question were getting available on DD Free Dish.