With Star and conditional access system stirring up a hornet's nest, a three-member Group of Ministers will now give a broader look at all broadcasting issues, including uplinking, and even possibly the need to revisit the Convergence Bill.
The GoM comprising Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Law and Company Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley will take up the complex and controversial Star News uplinking issue as a test case to review the policy, highly placed sources said on Saturday.
Having learnt lessons from CAS and with Direct-to-Home services in the pipeline, the GoM's deliberations are likely to focus on any possible developments in the electronic media.
The GoM is likely to take on from where the inter-ministerial group completes its report on the uplinking issue.
With pressure mounting on the government to put in place a regulatory body for broadcasters, the group is also likely to discuss the issue at length and examine if there is need for a separate regulatory authority for radio and television.
In the light of its discussions, the GoM may even look at the need to revisit the Convergence Bill, under which the Convergence Commission of India is to regulate content.
Though the Convergence Bill was introduced in Parliament and sent to the Standing Committee, it may undergo a review before being taken up in Parliament.
Faced with 600 pages of clarifications from Star on its application for uplinking, the government now wants no leaf unturned and every loophole plugged in its uplinking policy before taking any final decision.
Government went into a tizzy finding itself in the eye of a storm over CAS and later grappling with Star's request to uplinking its 24-hour news channel Star News from India.
While CAS is scheduled for a phased roll out from September 1 in the four metros, the government is still hoping that broadcasters come out with a revised list of rates for pay channels to enable a consumer-friendly implementation.
After some noise about amending the Cable Act to regulate broadcasters, sources in the information and broadcasting ministry now say it may not come up during this session.
Though the government has granted Star four weekly extensions and another for a fortnight for temporary uplinking, an IMG is examining its application and the clarifications submitted to the government on it. The deadline for meeting the uplinking guidelines ended on June 26.
The channel has been asked to clarify issues like its ownership, the incorporation details of its associated companies like Touch Telecontent and Rent Works, the shareholding pattern and the flow of funds.
Star representatives have been meeting ministry officials to explain that steps taken to meet the guidelines, setting a 26 per cent foreign equity cap for uplinking news channels from India, are in conformity with international practices.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had deferred the issue for its next hearing but could adopt a wait-and-watch approach with the Inter-Ministerial Group deliberating on the issue.
The Indian Media Group, comprising Indian print and broadcasting media personalities, as well as 83 MPs have demanded that uplinking guidelines be made stringent and regulatory body for broadcasters be set up.
