MUMBAI, June 23: The multi-million dollar Direct to Home (DTH) television project of the Star TV network is in jeopardy, with the infrastructure raised by the company at Hong Kong worth millions of dollars lying idle for many months.

While the Union Government is dilly-dallying over the issue, a writ petition challenging the very concept of DTH has been admitted by the Bombay High Court.

The petition was filed by Nicholas Almeida, former corporator of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Monday alleging that if DTH was allowed, it would pose a threat to the cultural fabric of the society by giving a free hand to foreign companies to beam offensive programmes without any control of the government.

The DTH is the latest development in telecom technology, and Star TV had taken the initiative to bring the concept to millions of homes throughout India. At present, satellite channels are aired by local cable operators under strict government regulations, but DTH will freely allow multi-channel news, entertainment and educational programmes to flood television round-the-clock without any constraint.

Star TV had, in fact, planned to launch DTH in April, but the project had to be delayed indefinitely pending necessary government clearance.

Director of corporate affairs and publicity at Star TV, Arrow Sinha Roy, told Express Newsline the network had already invested an ``enormous amount of money'' into the project. ``We have already hired the satellite, and raised complete infrastructure at Hong Kong. We have also trained a highly-skilled staff for the purpose, but our intentions have been misunderstood,'' he said.

``In fact, making DTH successful will require an investment of 200 to 800 million dollars and we hope to get enough investors from across the world. The transmission will include channels dedicated to subjects like world history, education and news, and will have contributions from the best in the business,'' Roy pointed out.

He added, ``Star TV will only work as an agency to distribute the smart cards for the decoders to receive the transmission. The government can frame the Broadcast Bill, and we will follow the rules and regulations imposed on us. In fact, we will not allow any company to invest in our project if it does not meet the government's requirements and ensure a high level of moral standards.''

Terming DTH as the ``future of television which will personalise the TV set for the programmes offered,'' Roy explained, ``Once a subscriber gets the connection, DTH will allow him to select the programme of his choice from a menu-driven screen.''

A variety of channels will be displayed in small boxes on the TV screen, and the viewer can use his remote control as a computer mouse and select any channel. Anybody who does not want any particular channel or programme to be telecast on his TV set can call STAR TV's offices and say so, he added.

The subscriber will have to initially pay about Rs 12,500 to purchase the dish antenna, convertor and the cable. Thereafter. he will have to pay a nominal subscriber fee of around Rs 500 per month.

According to the arguments forwarded by Dhananjay Chandrachud, the counsel for the petitioner, in the absence of a broadcast bill, the parliamentary committee had concluded that the activities of foreign-owned TV channels should be strictly monitored, as the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 which controlled the visual media had already been antiquated.

However, Roy was hopeful of getting the nod from the government soon. ``How can you prevent technological advancement from benefiting Indians? We are discussing the matter with the government and are hopeful of starting the DTH soon,'' he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.