The unstated goal is to control channels
The cost of running a news channel is already high and rising, apart from the stiff competition for advertisements and talent. A new firm planning to launch a channel must have a net worth (assets minus liabilities) of Rs 20 crore, up from the present Rs 3 crore, and it must start operations within a year of getting the licence. The new guidelines also apply to the existing TV firms on the expiry of their 10-year licence or if they propose to start new channels. These will restrict the TV industry, which is growing fast. Having more channels means more private investment and employment.
There are hundreds of TV channels which offer everyone a choice and a remote control to select the favourite and leave out the undesirable. Why should a team of bureaucrats headed by an additional secretary in the I&B Ministry waste its time and public resources to decide which channel is non-serious or flippant and should be shut? The market will ensure the survival of the fittest. On the other hand, limiting the number of TV companies makes it easier for the government to control the non-compliant. There are enough laws to punish a channel that violates the programme and advertisement code that includes anything vulgar, denigrating to women and children or against national interest. The need is to have an independent regulator, rather than bureaucrats and politicians, to decide what infringes the law.
Policy Guidelines for Uplinking/Downlinking of TV channels-Amendments
Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to recast the existing “Policy Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of TV channels”. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has proposed to carry out various amendments in the existing policy to reflect the fast evolving electronic media landscape in the country. These amendments were proposed based on an extensive consultation with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The amendments envisage, inter-alia, significant changes in the eligibility criteria of companies seeking to operate TV channels in India in order to ensure that only serious and credible operators are permitted to operate such channels and the electronic media landscape is not unnecessarily crowded by non-serious players.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has two sets of Policy Guidelines for permission/regulation of private satellite TV channels in India. While regulation of foreign TV channels uplinked from abroad and distributed in India for public viewing is governed by “Policy Guidelines for Downlinking of Television channels” notified on 11th November, 2005, private TV channels which are uplinked from India are governed by “Guidelines for Uplinking from India” notified on 2nd December 2005. Uplinking Guidelines also provide for permission and regulation of Teleports. After these Guidelines were notified, there has been an exponential growth of television channels, especially during the last few years. Till 31.08.2011 the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting granted permission to 745 private satellite TV channels out of which 366 TV channels were permitted in the category of ‘News and Current Affairs’ and 379 in the category of ‘Non-News and Current Affairs’.
Cabinet has taken following decisions in this regard:
(i) Net worth criteria for Uplinking of ‘Non-News and Current Affairs’ channels and Downlinking of foreign channels has been revised from Rs.1.5 crores to Rs. 5 crores for the first channel and Rs. 2.5 crores for each additional channel.
(ii) For uplinking of ‘News and Current Affairs’ channels the net worth / criteria has been increased from Rs. 3 crores to Rs. 20 crores for the first channel and Rs. 5 crores for each additional channel.
(iii) For Teleports the net worth criteria would be uniform irrespective of channel capacity. The net worth criteria would remain Rs. 3 crores for the first teleport and Rs.1 crore for every additional teleport.
(iv) All TV channels would be required to operationalize their TV channels within a time frame of one year from the date of permission, for which Non-News and current Affairs channels will have to sign a Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) of Rs.1 crore whereas News and Current Affairs channels will have to give a Performance Bank Guarantee for Rs. 2 crores. In the event of non-operationalisation of the permitted channel within a period of one year, the PBG will be forfeited and permission cancelled.
(v) The period of permission/registration for uplinking/downlinking of channels will be uniform at 10 years.
(vi) One of the persons occupying the top management position i.e., Chairperson or Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer or Chief Technical Officer or Chief Financial Office in the applicant company should have a minimum of 3 years of prior experience in a Media company, for both News and Non-News channels.
(vii) Proposals of merger, demerger and amalgamation will be allowed under the provisions of Companies Act, after obtaining the permissions of the Ministry of I&B as per procedure.
(viii) Renewal of the permissions of TV channels will be considered for a period of 10 years at a time subject to the condition that the channel should not have been found guilty of violating the terms and conditions of permission including violations of the Programme and Advertisement Code on 5 occasions or more.
(ix) The channels operating in India and uplinked from India but meant only for foreign viewership should be required to ensure compliance of the rules and regulations of the target country for which content is being produced and uplinked.
(x) Permission fee for uplinking/downlinking of TV channels and setting up of teleports would be Rs. 2 lakhs per channel/teleport per annum. Whereas permission fee for downlinking of TV channels uplinked from India would be Rs.5 lakhs per channel per annum. Permission fee for downlinking of TV channels uplinked from abroad would be Rs 15 lakhs per channel per annum.
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