Ramanisblog

Tag: Sun Direct DTH

  • Times Of India ranks DTH Services, India.Choose your cable Connection.

    One can view only selective channels.

    Selection of the DTH, even after this information, is confusing.

    Best to see what is available at Home recommended by children.

    ‘There are six major DTH providers today, all competing for your attention and business: Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV, Sun Direct, Reliance Digital TV, Videocon d2h, and Tata Sky . Dish TV was the first major provider and has benefited from the early mover advantage. But while Airtel, Reliance, and Videocon matured late, they also offer better technology and more channels. They are more aggressive and flexible and offer the consumers value for money….

    …

    HD and 3D:

    Almost every provider offers some level of high-definition services. Reliance Digital TV HD leads the race, offering 250 HD-like channels, though Videocon offers the most ‘real HD’ channels (12 channels). Reliance’s box has the ability to upgrade content to 1080 p (a higher resolution ), higher than competitors’ 1080 i functionality. Reliance, Airtel, and Videocon are the only ones with 3D ready option.

    Portability in Automobiles:

    While all are oriented around the television, Dish TV and Airtel are the only ones who also give you the comfort of TV portability in automobiles.

    OVERALL TECH RANK:

    Overall, Airtel takes the cake as the most future ready, tech savvy DTH operator…..

    SO WHAT SHOULD I CHOOSE?

    In the end , your choice should be based on what you care about. If you want the most technically advanced service (along with speedy customer care ), go with Airtel. Dish TV is the most experienced player with a lot of content variety and has always been the steadiest contender. Sun TV is dominant in the south, but has yet to leave its mark in the rest of the country . Reliance and Videocon have come a long way and offer a huge number of channels and services.

    And for your bang-to-buck needs , Videocon has the best entry level packages. The game is far from over, with new channels and new technologies entering the market every day. Tata Sky needs to offer its viewers more variety by picking up new channels. Meanwhile, newer entrants are gaining share from the traditional players with compelling technology and more channel selection. There! DTH, decoded’

    http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-14/india/29886316_1_airtel-dth-channels-dvb-s-2/2

     

  • Risk in investing Politically Connected Companies.SUNTV.

    The scam involving Dayanidhi Maran and investment by Maxi in The SUN Network under dubious circumstances, has brought into the fore the volatility of stocks where investors, ipso facto,placed their money trusting more on the political connections than the soundness of the project.

    This is not to underestimate the competency of the SUN network;in fact it is still the best-managed  professional Communications company in India

    However, apart from the highly competitive nature of the Industry, the creative assets switching loyalties(remember major creative talent went over to Kalaignar TV when it was started),as policy decisions affect the industry very seriously,the present equation between the DMK and Congress at the Center is highly fluid and susceptible to snapping, the SUN scrips are in for a down ward spiral, unless of course it is propped by you know how by private investors.

    This again could trigger media glare and further loss of confidence by the investors.

    The Government might also indirectly pressurize the  indirectly controlled Govt/Public sector/Banks to offload shares.

    This might affect the stock value further.

    Sad for a professional, successful Company.

    Story:

    Shares in Sun TV and the budget carrier SpiceJet crashed by over 27% and 16% respectively on Thursday, following an expose in Tehelka magazine about the role of Dayanidhi Maran when he was the telecom minister between 23 May 2004 and 15 May 2007….

    This underlines the perils of investing in companies that seem to grow easily and fast-but with generous political patronage. The shares crashed on allegations that Mr Maran’s family-owned business, Sun TV, received substantial investment from the Maxis Group (which owns Aircel) which picked up 20% equity in Sun Direct. The government approved this investment on 2 March and 19 March 2007. Maxis Group invested a total of Rs599.01 crore in Sun Direct between December 2007 and December 2009. …

    With the DMK-linked companies in a soup and DMK out of power in Tamil Nadu, a cloud hangs over the immediate prospects of these companies. The stock prices are unlikely to recover soon. Among the mutual fundinvestors in Sun TV and SpiceJet that would have suffered losses are IDFC Premier Equity, Fidelity Equity, Morgan Stanley Growth, Sundaram Select Midcap, DSP BlackRock T.I.G.E.R and SBI Tax Advantage Series I ..

    The promoters of Sun TV hold 77%, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) hold 9.49%, domestic institutional investors (DII) hold 3.06% of the equity, and the remaining 10.45% is with retail investors. In SpiceJet, the promoters hold 38.61%, FIIs hold 11.84% and DIIs hold 15.10% equity respectively. The remaining 35.45% is the retail shareholding.

    Clearly, institutional investors have a significant holding in both companies and they will have a difficult task recovering their investments. The main problem is that both SunTV and SpiceJet have strong political patronage which will be undermined by new polticial equations. Analysts believe that with the DMK’s arch rival J Jayalalithaa of AIADMK, coming to power as chief minister in Tamil Nadu, and the scam-ridden UPA at the Centre, both Maran-family owned companies will find it difficult to grow.

    http://www.moneylife.in/article/perils-of-investing-in-companies-growing-through-political-links/16980.html

  • 2 G Scam,Intimidating Media and Bloggers -DMK Style.

    I have been blogging on Corruption issue , especially on the 2G scam and other swindles by the DMK, for quite some time.

    I Have been getting hate mails calling me names,like’ Brahmin Dog from Bangalore‘.

    For bigger people and companies, the DMK seems to reserve the intimidating tactics of threatening legal notices.

    DMK Chief  was seen indicating of the Sacred Thread of Brahmins(Yagyopaveedham), while defending 2G Scam on TV.

    He has been harping on Brahmin and North Indian Conspiracy for the present cases for quite some time now.

    He has not gone shrill as yet because the present generation has seen through his tactics.

    He is preparing to go all out on North- South divide to regain his popularity.

    Media must be aware of this and telecast his antics in front of the camera to show his true colors.

    A news Channel muted the sound bytes when he was making crude  gestures indicating Brahmins.

    ‘The DMK leaders — including Chief Minister M Karunanidhi — condemned the ”biased attitude” of the Brahmin-dominated journalistic community at Madras. Taking exception to a front-page report in The Hindu on Friday that the Salem conference would anoint his son Stalin as his successor, Karunanidhi said the party was not being run on hereditary lines like newspapers.

    The chief minister even resorted to Brahmin-bashing at his inaugural media conference. Did The Hindu ask how that ”Iyer” got all the money for his frequent Delhi-Madras air trips? ”They only raise questions when a Sandra cuts a tree?” he said, making light of the newspaper’s expose on a DMK legislator’s involvement in sandalwood smuggling.

    Karunanidhi said the ”paarpaans” (a derogatory term for Brahmins) found fault with everything his party and the government did. The reason: He and other DMK leaders did not wear the sacred thread.’

    http://www.rediff.com/news/jul/02dmk.htm

     

    In this connection it is advisable not to be carried away by trying to reply these allegations.We should remain focussed on Corruption without bothering about personal attacks as this would deflect the corruption.

    Whether Brahmin or North Indian,Corruption is Corruption.

    Let us fight in our own way.

    In this connection Tehelka’s reply to Dayanidhi Maran‘s  Legal Notice is worth of note.

    Unfortunately, Mr Maran’s arguments are not only weak but factually insupportable and a mere sleight of hand. Contrary to his assertions, M/S Astro, a Maxis Group company, announced a joint venture with Sun Direct TV in February 2007, barely three months after Aircel, owned by Maxis, had been awarded 14 lucrative licences. In fact, the Foreign Investment and Promotion Board and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting gave Astro the required approval to acquire 20 percent in Sun Direct (owned by Dayanidhi’s brother Kalanidhi and his wife) on 2 March and 19 March 2007 – while Mr Maran was very much the telecom minister.

    While it is true that Mr Maran then resigned on 13 May 2007, it is clear the apparent quid pro quo had already been set in motion while he was in office. What’s more, Mr Maran could not have forseen that he was going to have to resign as telecom minister in May because his resignation was triggered by a sudden family feud and his loss of favour with DMK supremo Karunaidhi, when the latter suspected the Maran brothers of creating a rift between his sons Azhagiri and Stalin.

    Astro’s 20 percent investment in Sun TV at a cost of Rs 315.71 crore – a process begun in February/March 2007 — was completed in December 2007. It then continued to invest further in Sun TV over January 2008 – December 2009. For Mr Maran to argue that he was no longer telecom minister is just sophistry.

    His assertion that he does not possess any shares in Sun TV is also sophistry as there is a clear conflict of interest when a businessman who had benefitted from him invests close to 700 crore in his brother’s company. (Former telecom minister A Raja was sent to jail for much less as Kaliagnar TV belonged to the DMK supremo’s family and Raja was not even directly related to any of its owners.)

    http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws310511maran.asp

  • 2G Scam Leads to SUN TV ,Maran and Aircel.

    Tehelka exposed the shenanigans of Maran and Maran has come out with a defense ‘ there was no loss to the government during his tenure as Union telecom minister, Maran said he was not even a minister when Astroinvested in Sun TV Network. “I own no shares or interest in Sun TV Network,” .

    He is said to have issued notice to Tehelka, which is nothing but legal non sense with no substance and facts.

    Watch.

    Same argument as that of Raja .

    Is Ananda Krishnan a front for Maran?

    Facts seem to speak differently.

    According to sources, the CBI has now trained its guns on a strikingly similar deal — though the quantum is almost four times that of the Balwa-Kalaignar transaction — between Sun TV Group, owned by the family of Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, and Malaysian business conglomerate Maxis Group and owner of 74 percent direct equity in Aircel Group, the country’s seventh biggest telecom operator….

    In November 2006, then Telecom Minister Maran granted 14 (UASL) for Aircel. The licence, along with the startup 2G spectrum, was awarded at the same price at which later Raja gave away 2G licenses to Swan, Unitech and a host of other players in 2008 — Aircel paid Rs 1,399 crore for 14 telecom circles, the price was arrived at through an auction process in 2001 when the telecom industry was in its nascent stage.

    The telecom licences to Aircel were awarded after about two years of ‘unwarranted’ delay on the part of the DoT headed by Maran at the time. Aircel’s applications for new circles were pending since Maran’s takeover as minister for communications and IT in May 2004. According to the report prepared by the one-man committee of Justice (retired) Shivraj Patil constituted to examine the appropriateness of procedures followed by DoT in issuing licences during the period 2001-2009, the DoT kept raising ‘irrelevant’, ‘vague’ and ‘unwarranted’ queries about different aspects related to Aircel and kept the applications pending (Patil submitted his report to present Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on 31 January)….

    It was only after March 2006, when Malaysian business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan, whose parents were Sri Lankan Tamils, bought 74 percent stake in Aircel, that its file gained momentum. Until then the company was owned by C Sivasankaran, the chairman of Siva Group (earlier known as Sterling Infotech Group). Krishnan paid Rs 3,390.82 crore for 74 percent equity in Aircel. Today, Aircel is the seven biggest telecom operator in the country with its net worth valued in the range of $7.5-$8 billion…

    Six months after Ananda Krishnan’s takeover of Aircel, the ministry granted Aircel the much-vaunted licences in 14 cash-rich circles. This took Aircel from a small regional player to a pan-India operator. If the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) valuation of 2G licences is taken as a yardstick, the value of Aircel licences cleared by Maran would amount to approximately Rs 22,000 crore. But Aircel paid just Rs 1,399 crore…

    And in a curious coincidence, in February 2007, four months after the licences were granted to Aircel, Ananda Krishnan through one of his group companies, South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd (SAEHL) invested $150 million (roughly Rs 600 crore) in a phased manner in Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd by acquiring 20 percent equity in the company owned and run by Dayanidhi’s brother Kalanidhi and his wife Kaveri Maran. The equity investment was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs…

    Almost simultaneously, the Maran family was allotted about 12.6 crore additional equity shares in Sun Direct TV to maintain their total equity at 80 percent. But unlike the staggering rate at which the Maxis Group picked up the Sun Direct shares, the allotment to the Marans was made at par value of Rs 10 per share without charging any premium…

    Maran’s Note( confidential)

    Between February 2008 and July 2009, the Maxis Group invested Rs 100 crore more in another Maran family-owned company named South Asia FM Ltd which owns Sun FM radio network. Maxis Group subsidiary South Asia Multimedia Technologies Limited (SAMT) invested Rs 50 crore in equity of South Asia FM Ltd and Rs 43.9 crore in preference shares of SAFL.

    The million-dollar question is, do Maxis- Sun TV and Maxis-Sun FM deals qualify as quid pro quo on similar lines as the Rs 200 crore Balwa-Kalaignar deal? Both the deals materialised soon after the respective telecom companies were granted the UAS licences and with it the precious 2G spectrum. And in both the cases it’s the companies owned by the extended Karunanidhi family that benefited…

    Total Investment Of Maxis In Aircel
    Amount (In Crores) Remarks
    Equity Shares Of Aircel 3,379 For 65% Equity In Aircel
    Equity Shares Of Deccan Digital 11.82 For 9% Stake In Aircel (Through 26% Stake In Deccan)
    Preference Shares Of Aircel 2,846 For 100% Preference Shares Holding In Aircel
    Preference Shares Of Deccan 1,644 For 100% Preference Shares Holding In Deccan
    Total 7,880.82

     

    Sivasankaran Arm-twisted into selling Aircel to malaysia-based Maxis group?
    So was C Sivasankaran, the chairman of Siva Group (erstwhile known as Sterling Infotech Group), a $3 billion conglomerate with interests in realty, telecom, shipping, energy and software, harassed by Maran? Was he pressurised into selling his telecom company, Aircel Ltd, to Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan? Sivasankaran got $800 million for selling his company to Maxis. At the time of the sale, Aircel was operating in only nine circles while its applications for seven circles were lying in limbo. Also, it is reliably known that Aircel wanted to apply for more circles but didn’t do so simply because their old applications were still lying in abeyance. If Aircel was sold after these licences were granted, the company’s net worth would have increased and thus Sivasankaran could have got more money from the sale. Today, Aircel is a pan- India operator, thanks to the 14 licences given by Maran, and is valued in the range of $7.5-$8 billion…

    http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne040611Coverstory.asp

    Source: Tehelka.