The Hindu Business Line : Tata Sky drops 13 channels from Zee

New Delhi April 21 Tata Sky has dropped 13 channels offered by Zee Telefilms on its Direct-to-Home platform. The move comes after the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) gave a judgment on March 31 allowing Tata Sky to retain only 19 of the 32 channels being offered by Zee.

While Zee had said that Tata Sky would have to take the entire bouquet of 32 channels, Tata Sky wanted only 19.

The channels which have been discontinued by Tata Sky as a result of the TDSAT order are 24Ghante, Play TV, Zee Jagran, Zee Smile, Zee Music, Zee Kannada, Zee Telegu, Zee Sports, ETC Punjabi, ETC, Zee Premier, Zee Action and Zee Classic.

TDSAT has said in a crucial ruling that the DTH Company, Tata Sky, is in no way obligated to carry all the 32 channels from Zee on their service. Zee Turner had put this condition that Tata Sky would have to carry all their channels if they wanted to get any of their channels.

The tribunal in its judgment, in favour of Tata Sky, argued that if the DTH operator was forced to take all of the broadcasters channels, and pay for them, it would but naturally pass on the cost to the consumer.

"Competition has to be encouraged because it is in consumer interest," said the tribunal.

While the DTH operator was ready to take 19 of the broadcaster's channels offered in two bouquets at Rs 83.85 per subscriber per month, Zee had argued that Tata Sky could not `pick and choose' and that it had to carry all 32 of them, comprising five bouquets at Rs 149.85, excluding taxes.

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