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FIPB nod for Astro’s 20% in Sun DTH

FIPB has approved a $150 million investment by Malaysia’s Astro in Chennai-based Sun TV for its direct-to-home (DTH) venture-Sun Direct TV.

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NEW DELHI: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved a $150 million (Rs 675 crore) investment by Malaysia’s Astro in Chennai-based Sun TV for its direct-to-home (DTH) venture-Sun Direct TV, it is learnt.

Astro, which is a prominent broadcasting company in Malaysia, is making the investment through its wholly owned subsidiary, South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd.

The Malaysian firm also has radio interests in India. It is already in a venture with NDTV and Value Labs for setting up FM radio stations in the country.

With the FIPB nod, Astro will hold 20% in Sun Direct TV.

In any DTH project in India, the FDI cap is at 20%, while the total permissible foreign investment is 49%.

Till now, Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran held 18% and his wife Kavery Maran 82% in Sun Direct TV.

The current authorised capital of the company is Rs 200 crore.

Although FIPB approval has been granted to the Sun-Astro proposal, there has been no comment on the matter from the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry.

Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran is the brother of union minister for communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran.

While there are already three DTH platforms (Dish TV, TataSky and Prasar Bharati’s DD Plus) in the country, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications is planning to launch its DTH by the end of this year.

The Bharti group has also applied for DTH, and its clearance “is in the pipeline”, according to I&B minister P R Dasmunsi. The minister did not comment on Sun TV’s DTH project. But he said some of the clearances were being delayed due to scarcity of transponders.

The crash of ISRO’s Agni-III rocket carrying the Insat-4C satellite last year had affected many DTH projects.

Sun, for instance, was understood to have booked many of the Ku band transponders on the Insat satellite for its DTH service.

Recently, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings had bought a 10% stake in TataSky (the Tata-Star DTH platform) for $55 million. So, now the Tata group holds 70%, Star 20% and Temasek 10% in TataSky.  Dish TV, of the Essel Group, too is learnt to have sold a stake to Warburg Pincus.

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