Cable TV operators in the metro city of Mumbai are on a two day strike to protest against a hike of 100 per cent in the Entertainment Tax levied by the government.
This move by the cable operators was after they failed to constitutionally bar the Government of Maharashtra from increasing the entertainment tax levied on them. The cable operators had earlier petitioned in the Bombay High Court that the Maharashtra government which had promulgated the tax through an ordinance and later legislated it trough the state legislature was unfair to them as the tax on entertainment should be charged on TV set owners and that they were only being made the government collection agents.

The government is charging the cable operators per TV set at the rate of Rs 30 in municipal limits and cantonments, Rs20 in all ‘A‘ and ‘B‘ class municipal councils and Rs 10 in other areas, an increase of 100 per cent from the earlier rates of Rs 15, Rs 10 and Rs 5. However the High Court citing past Supreme Court judgements said that the state legislature had legislative competence to enact the duty as entertainment was a taxable event. The court also dismissed the cable operator‘s petition saying that all businesses are subject to taxation and Cable TV operators are no exception.

James Packer, son of the Australian media baron Kerry Packer was in India this week. He spoke to The Economic Times about Channel Nine‘s (which is a JV between Packer‘s Consolidated Press Holdings and Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd) plans for India.
Channel Nine‘s immediate activity in India is a joint venture with Doordarshan wherein it has bagged the contract for upgradation of production and technical standards for DD-Metro‘s morning and prime-time slots. It also has the production rights for DD for all international cricket matches played in India. In addition to the two hours of the prime time slot, Nine Broadcasting has bid for another two hours of prime time on the Metro channel. This is in keeping with Nine Broadcasting‘s strategy to create a platform for itself within Doordarshan.

Kerry Packer‘s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) is helping DD to increase Metro channels network from 75 transmitters to 125 transmitters by the year end. This move is expected to take DD-Metro‘s reach from 180m to around 350m when the project is completed.

BBC World, the international news and information channel form the BBC stable, is the most watched channel amongst the cream of Indian business decision makers. This was the finding of a recent survey conducted by premier research agency ORG-Marg.
The research was carried on with a sample size of 1030 respondents. The respondents were senior executives designated as general managers and above across the top 500 private sector companies registered in India, the largest 100 public sector companies and the leading 100 financial sector companies.

73 per cent of those surveyed said that they had watched BBC World during the previous week - more than any other channel. The survey also revealed that 84 per cent of the respondents watched BBC World in the previous month. Popular entertainment channels like Zee, Sony, Star and DD all failed to attract viewership of more than 50 per cent of the respondents.