The ordinance will also seek to extend Doordarshan's stiff programming and advertising code to foreign satellite networks, so as to offset the ``disadvantages'' suffered by the national broadcaster.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is also going to make the transmission of Doordarshan mandatory on the prime band and pursue the implementation of the Act with State governments. The ordinance will amend Section 5 and Section 6 of the Act which have a fairly lenient programming and advertising code.

More importantly, ``programmes of foreign satellite channels which can be received without the use of any specialised gadgets or decoder are exempt from both sections''. This is anoversight that the Ministry seeks to correct to protect the ``national interest''. Once DD's programming and advertising codes are applicable to even foreign satellite channels, liquor advertisements will automatically be banned.

Section 8 will be amended to make it mandatory for every cable operator using a dish antenna or television receiver to re-transmit at least two DD channels. But with a Parliament session beginning on February 22, the Ministry would prefer not to tom-tom its draft ordinance.

The Ministry is also preparing a background note on DTH for the Group of Ministers meeting in the second week of this month. The Group of Ministers -- L K Advani, George Fernandes, Yashwant Sinha, Jagmohan and Pramod Mahajan -- will be examining all the arguments for and against lifting the ban on Ku band transmission. The issues to be studied will include the need for a moratorium, the process of licensing, regulation of content, and whether DD should get special treatment.

In fact, inaugurating theBroadcast Engineering Society Expo, an international conference on terrestrial and satellite broadcasting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Mahajan made cautionary noises about DTH. He said the Government would be ``cautious'' while taking the decision as ``DTH has got more power than Pokharan''. Stating that broadcasting will get ``frightening power'' through DTH as ``signals will have more powers than hydrogen bomb'', he said, ``proper checks and balances'' were needed so that it is used for the betterment of society.