Cabinet approves revised DTH service guidelines

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday (23 December 2020) approved the proposal for revision of the guidelines for obtaining license for providing Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcasting service in India.

License for the DTH will be issued for a period of 20 years in place of present 10 years. Further, the period of license may be renewed by 10 years at a time.

License fee has been revised from 10% of gross revenue (GR) to 8% of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from GR. License fee will be collected on quarterly basis in lieu of presently annual basis.

DTH operators shall be permitted to operate to a maximum of 5% of its total channel carrying capacity as permitted platform channels. A one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs 10,000 per PS channel shall be charged from a DTH operator.

DTH operators, willing to share DTH platform and transport stream of TV channels, on voluntary basis, will be allowed. Distributors of TV channels will be permitted to share the common hardware for their Subscriber Management System (SMS) and Conditional Access System (CAS) applications.

The cap of 49% FDl in the existing DTH guidelines will be aligned with the extant government (DPIIT's) policy on FDl as amended from time to time. Adoption of the extant FDI policy will bring in more foreign investment into the country.

The decision will come into effect as per revised DTH guidelines are issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

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