SC dismisses appeal of Star India Ltd

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Apr 3 (UNI) The Supreme Court today dismissed the appeal of the Star India Ltd, broadcaster of satellite TV channels - Star Plus, Star News, Star Movies, Star World and Star Gold etc. against the order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement&Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) directing the appellant to supply signals of its Bouquet of channels to M/s Sea T.V. Network Ltd for Agra.

The Tribunal had also directed vide its order dated August 24,2005 that terms of agreement should be reasonable.

A bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and S H Kapadia in the judgment running into 28 pages noted,'' We are living in a competitive world today. If under the Interconnection Regulations an MSO entitled to receive signals directly from the broadcaster, is directed to approach his competitor MSO, then discrimination comes in. The reason is obvious. The exclusive agent of a broadcaster has his own subscriber base. His base is different from another MSO in the same territory. If that another MSO has to depend on the feed to be provided by the exclusive agent of the broadcaster then the very object of the Interconnection Regulations stands defeated." Star India entered into an agreement with M/s Moon Network Pvt Ltd and on February 8,2005 appointed Moon Network, A multi system operator (MSO) as sole distributor for Agra. The agreement is valid up to June 30,2007.

The agreement excluded the distribution of subscribed channels through DTH,CAS, Broadband or any medium other than through a ground cable network.

Another MSO M/s Sea TV was told by the appellant to approach his rival Moon Network for feed of the star channels which Sea TV refused to do.

Upholding the judgment of the TDSAT the apex court concluded," Before concluding we may once again reiterate that the Appellate Tribunal in present case has correctly interpreted the scheme of interconnection Regulations. However, in cases of functional overlap we are of view that in every matter the tribunal will examine the written contracts betyween the parties and ascertain actual prejudice/discrimination and not decide the matter on conceptual basis. In the present case we insisted on the appellants for producing the written agreement with which clarity has emerged. But for examination of such contract it would not be proper to decide matters on per-se basis.

For the aforesaid reasons we find no merit in this civil appeal and the same is accordingly dismissed." Justice Kapadia wrote the judgment for the bench.

UNI

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