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| Trai recommends no cap on downlinking or uplinking of channels |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 22, 2010, 20:34 IST |
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today recommended that no cap be placed on the number of satellite channels permitted to be downlinked for viewing or uplinked from India.
The Trai also recommended that the total networth requirement should be Rs 25 crore for the first channel, and enhanced by Rs 10 crore for each additional channel for uplinking of non-news channels.
For news channels, the total networth requirement should be Rs 100 crore for first channel, and enhanced by Rs 25 crore for each additional channel.
In case of kids, scientific and educational channels, the networth requirement should be Rs 5 crore, while the authority recommended that for recognised universities who may come up with educational channels, there should not be any networth requirement.
Favouring a single-window clearance system for uplinking or downlinking of channels, the Trai proposed that the applications should be processed quickly and the decision on the application should be finalised within three months from the date of submission of the application.
The broadcast regulator said that the eligibility criteria for registration of a TV channel should be revised to include experience in media sector and the period of permission for uplinking or downlinking to be made uniform for 10 years.
It suggested that at the time of considering the renewal of permission of the existing permission holders, the eligibility criteria of networth of the company and experience of the top management will not apply.
However, other terms and conditions like period of permission, annual permission fee, revocation of permission, renewal of permission and transfer of permission would be applicable.
The Trai further suggested that the channels, being uplinked from India but not downlinked in India, should not attract the programme code and the advertisement code of India.
Responsibility of content should be left to the broadcasters who have to take care of the rules and regulations of the target country for which content is being produced and uplinked.
However, the uplinked content should not contain anything which is against the sovereignty, integrity and national security of India as well as its friendly countries.
For the monitoring purpose, these channels should be required to preserve the recordings of the proceedings for at least six months.
The recommendations on uplinking and downlinking had been sought by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in view of the increasing number of TV channels.
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