The government is likely to give yet another week's reprieve from July 10 to the Star Group allowing its 24-hour news channel to continue operations in the present format.
The information and broadcasting ministry and the Foreign Investment Promotion Board have asked for certain information from Star, which has furnished the details sought by the home ministry, sources said.
The government has already received Star's fresh application for another extension and is likely to grant it, the sources said.
The 3-month deadline for foreign broadcasters to uplink from India had expired on June 26 and Star's application for permission to uplink from India was made a week before this deadline. Star News is a foreign broadcaster as of now.
The ministry is understood to have sought a clarification from the Star Group on its shareholding pattern in its application seeking permission to uplink its news channel from India. The group floated Media Content and Communication Services Ltd with an equity base of only Rs 1 lakh and offloaded 74 per cent stake in its news operations to resident Indians to abide by the March 26-guidelines.
The government stipulated that permission for usage of facilities for live news and footage collection and transmission be given to only channels uplinked from India but for a smooth roll over gave the channels a maximum of three months to come within the framework of the guidelines.
More from rediff