India?s space segment will be a satellite poorer with the instability of Insat 2B, a seven year old satellite which has possibly is going through the last throes of death.
The satellite lost its earth lock late Friday evening, which meant that the bird?s direction -- which is fixed to constantly face a specific side of the earth -- had changed. The change in direction resulted in the satellite?s solar panels losing their orientation towards the sun, thus preventing them from adequately charging Insat 2B?s solar batteries. When Isro engineers discovered this, they shut down the satellite on Friday.

The engineers disclosed that "the recovery attempts have become difficult due to depleted condition of the oxidizer on board the satellite, which is required for orbit and attitude control."

However, they got it back under control and it started humming once more on Saturday, restoring services to some telecommunications and broadcast users. Insat 2B has 10-12 transponders that were being used to support telecommunications, VSats (Very Small Aperture Terminals) and radio networking functions. But then they lost control again, and this has been recurring repeatedly when they manage to rescue to it.

Isro is supposed to reach a decision on 6 November on whether it will continue with its recovery efforts or let the satellite die.

Broadcasters such as Star News - through New Delhi Television - use the V-Sats for electronic news gathering from its correspondents nationwide.

Isro has moved the users of the satellite to transponders on Insat 3C.

Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) announced yesterday that it was setting up a DTH television joint venture with Sterling group?s C.Sivasankaran. According to sources, the actual vehicle is likely to be ZTL?s cable networking company Siticable.
The thinking within the ZTL is that since is Siticable already has its distribution infrastructure (team of people) in place, it would be better if it participates in the project.

The extent of equity is not known because the DTH notification passed last week does not permit existing broadcasters and cable TV companies from investing more than 20 per cent in DTH service provider. ZTL chairman Subhash Chandra has protested against this clause and is lobbying hard to have it changed.

I&B minister Sushma Swaraj has said that the restriction is essential to prevent the emergence of vertical monopolies in broadcasting.

One tends to believe that one has not heard the last of the joint venture; other equity partners may also be lured in. Both Chandra and Siva will have their work cut out for them giving shape to the jv as both are involved in the broadcasting business, should the government not revoke the equity restriction clause.

Yesterday, Sivasankaran, told local financial daily Business Standard: "We are happy to join forces with country?s leading content provider Zee Network. We have already signed agreements for channels such as the Sun Network, Udaya and Asianet. We also have an in principle undertstanding with established foreign and Indian channels to be on the DTH platform...served with a DTV card which will have a one-time cost as low as Rs 995."

The simple version of the DTH set-top box will be available to the household at less than Rs 5,000 per box, Sivasankaran told Business Standard.