WorldSpace to pull out of India
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Worldspace is broadcasting even upto today. Many specialist channels are being played only by this method. We will miss it if this goes bust. Worldspace India is excluded from the present bankrupcy proceedings of the parent company in USA. It is not clear how they will survive alone. It is a long shot. Last week, TRAI has come out with DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) license and spectrum policy in India. This is good news for worldspace, but I am not sure how long this will take to really materialize on the ground. This policy means that worldspace can have ground repeaters and therefore can be used from moving vehicles, rather than fixed line of sight. Car audio is a big big potential. Worldspace is all about pure music. There is classical (hindustani, carnatic separate channels), all regional languages, devotional, news (BBC, CNN etc). There is even one exclusive channel for comedy. The charge is high, but they do not have alternate business model. The transponder cost of satellite is so high and they have hardly 60K customers (not sure how many are really active).
MUMBAI: WorldSpace, in the process of being bailed out, will not include India in its rescue operators. Faced with financial woes, WorldSpace has decided to cease the broadcast of its satellite radio service in India from 31 December.
"The potential buyer of much of WorldSpace's global assets has decided not to buy the assets relating to and supporting the subscription business in India," the company said.
Worldspace, which had filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in October last year, has more than 90 per cent customers located in India. Its broadcast footprint covers over 130 countries including India and China, all of Africa and the Middle East and most of Western Europe.
As the Indian subscriber's contract is with WorldSpace Inc, the US company, it wont be able to offer a refund for any unused portion that a subscriber may have paid for services to be rendered beyond the termination date.
However, as per the potential remedy under the US bankruptcy law, subscribers may file a claim under the claims procedure that is intended to protect creditors of the bankrupt company.
Sometime early next year, a claim servicing company will send notice to all creditors listed by the company.
"The potential buyer of much of WorldSpace's global assets has decided not to buy the assets relating to and supporting the subscription business in India," the company said.
Worldspace, which had filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in October last year, has more than 90 per cent customers located in India. Its broadcast footprint covers over 130 countries including India and China, all of Africa and the Middle East and most of Western Europe.
As the Indian subscriber's contract is with WorldSpace Inc, the US company, it wont be able to offer a refund for any unused portion that a subscriber may have paid for services to be rendered beyond the termination date.
However, as per the potential remedy under the US bankruptcy law, subscribers may file a claim under the claims procedure that is intended to protect creditors of the bankrupt company.
Sometime early next year, a claim servicing company will send notice to all creditors listed by the company.
Had that been the case, Tata Sky would have gone bankrupt paying fines. I still remember the day we took it, the brochure said 'more music channels and radio channels coming soon'. It's been 3.5 years now and the number of music channels has gone down, and there are NO radio channels at all. Not that I would listen to them either way, however when I call them up they refuse to acknowledge that fact.
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