TataSky and Sun TV reach outside court settlement

NI Wire

New Delhi

Tue, 21 Aug 2007: 

Aug 21: TataSky, the second largest Direct-to-Home operator and Sun TV network, the largest and most popular Channels Network of south India has solved theirne year long dispute on Monday outside the court.

TataSky had filed litigation last year in Supreme Court and broadcast tribunal TDSAT to provide all the 20 channels of Sun TV in a single packagewhileSun TV was presenting its channels into 6 different packages of different prices.

After spending Rs. 2.0 crore on 12 hearings in both Delhi and Chennai court, finally both parties became ready to go for outside court settlement for welfare of both the companies. The deal has been finalised on the basis of channel sharing and pricing.

The advocates of both sides today informed the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, TDSAT about the outside court settlement held yesterday and requested to dispose of the petition. TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar accepted it and directed to dispose of the petition along with various applications filed by the two parties against each other.

Though both the parties has not exposed the price detail due to 'reasons of confidentiality' that was accepted by TDSAT. Both Tata Sky and Sun Network have refused to reveal price and terms details to media but promise to provide details later.

"While I cannot give out the details of our settlement, we are happy with the outcome", said, Anil Kumar, General Counsel for the Sun group to media.

It is estimated that this settlement would provide relief to Tata Sky, which was struggling to find complete subscribers in all the southern state, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh due to the absence of popular Sun channels. Now TataSky can get 2,600 subscriptions per day after getting settlement that was earlier 200 subscriptions per day in the absence of Sun Channels.

According to settlement, Tata Sky will now provide all 20 channels of Sun TV network to all its subscribers in the states of India at the price rate of Rs 50-55 a month, a 20 per cent lower against the direction of TDSAT. The major channels of Sun networks include Sun TV, K TV Sun Music, Sun News, Gemini, Teja, Gemini Music, Gemini News, Udaya TV, Udaya News and Chutti TV.

According to unconfirmed sources, Star TV India, the 20 per cent joint in Tata Sky, is going to launch its popular Hindi channels ‘Sun Direct’ with the collaboration of Sun network to open a new war in the DTH battle.