Star's uplinking issue still in limbo

The government, which continues to examine in details the voluminous responses filed by Star India seeking permission to uplink its news channel from India, is likely to come up with a decision within the next fortnight.

Information and broadcasting secretary Pawan Chopra told reporters on the sidelines of a function that the government was not yet ready with it decision as, "they (Star) have filed more than 700 pages of replies and we have to examine all the papers in detail. We should take a decision over the next 12-15 days....if we have further queries we will tell them otherwise clear the proposal".

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He said news was a sensitive area and the government wanted to study all aspects before taking a final decision.

Star, which has offloaded 74 per cent stake in the uplinking entity Media Content and Communication Services to the Kolkata-based ABP Group, had applied afresh in September this year and the proposal is believed to have been cleared by the ministries of information and broadcasting as well as finance.

The fresh application by MCCS followed government's decision to tighten uplinking guidelines, in which it stipulated that an Indian entity should hold at least 51 per cent equity.

The government had expressed apprehensions about proxy control in Star's earlier application where it had offloaded stake to a clutch of high networth individuals.