Indian movies have always been a big draw in the former Soviet Union as well as the central Asian republics. it might not be too long before one of those republics - Kazakstan - starts beaming soaps into television rooms through DTH telecast.
Intelsat announced today that it has signed a 10-year contract with Katelco, the authorized provider of direct-to-home (DTH) services in Kazakhstan, to deliver television and high-speed Internet services to households and businesses throughout the country.

In addition to the six channels of local video programming customers have been able to view previously, the Intelsat capacity gives them new access to between 10 and 20 pay-TV channels, Internet, distance education, pay-per-view, corporate TV and satellite cable stations, an official release states.

"Intelsat has always been very proud of its ability to reach people wherever they are in the world, and provide them with the broad range of services they require," said John Stanton, president, Intelsat Global Sales & Marketing Ltd. "We are pleased that Katelco will use Intelsat capacity to bring the full benefits of multi-channel TV entertainment to Kazakhstan‘s residents."

These new DTH services are being provided on the Intelsat 904 satellite at 60?E, which became operational on 27 March.

"In addition to being able to provide us with extremely high reliability," added Vladamir Kushnir, President of Katelco, "Intelsat was flexible enough to focus strong Ku-band capacity over Kazakhstan to quickly and easily respond to our exact requirements for the DTH service." .

The winds of DTH they are a blowin? Last week indiantelevision.com had reported that news emanating from Delhi indicated that that Star India had applied for a DTH licence through a company called Space TV.
The fact that Star India was indeed thinking of such an initiative was an indicator that the government may be backtracking on its tough stance on controls to DTH broadcast in India, was the surmise. Now, according to a report in a leading business daily, the government is considering just that. The government is reportedly weighing a proposal to remove the entry fee and bank guarantee totalling Rs 500 million as well as scaling down the 10 per cent revenue share agreement in its Ku band direct-to-home (DTH) television policy.

As per the present guidelines, companies applying for a DTH licence are required to pay an entry fee of Rs 100 million and a bank guarantee of Rs 400 million for 10-year licence period.

The report however, indicates that the government still has to ease up on what is seen as the key stumbling block to DTH take-off in India - the 20 per cent foreign direct investment equity cap in Indian DTH ventures. DTH wannabes are hoping that the FDI bar will be raised at least to 49 per cent and there is an easing up on "other anomalies" in the DTH policy announced last year like cross media restrictions.