Panel Divided On Mandatory Uplinking From India

The cabinet sub-committee on broadcasting headed by Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is divided over the issue of uplinking.

At a meeting on Monday to discuss the proposed broadcasting bill, some of the members of the committee favoured making uplinking from India mandatory for the broadcasters. This is a stand contrary to the provisions in the draft bill.

In an addition to the bills draft, the committee also recommended formation of an independent broadcasting standards commission to frame code of ethics for the broadcasters, sources said.

In its present form, the bill allows even those who do not want to invest on an uplinking facility in the country to beam their programmes after obtaining a licence from the proposed regulatory authority, which will bring them under the ambit of the Indian law.

 

While broadly endorsing the information and broadcasting ministrys proposals, including restrictions on cross-media holdings, however, failed to take a stand on whether the proposed foreign equity cap of 49 per cent in media ventures should be reduced or the 20-per cent ceiling on cross-media holdings should be increased.

These are the issues which are likely to upset the diversification plans of big media houses.

These finer details have been left for the cabinet to decide, the sources said. But, political analysts pointed out that this has been done as some constituents of the United Front (UF) and even the Congress want the Prime Minister to decide the issue.

The bill also has its share of opponents. For example, the cable operators have taken exception to provisions to license their operations and repealing the Cable Regulation Act.

According to the cable operators, if even here areas are auctioned to two minimum operators, as proposed in the bill, the multinationals and big companies like Siti Cable and the IN network run by the London-based Hindujas will dominate the market.

While the restrictions on cross-media holdings can take care of the cable operators woes, these could come as a damper for the big media houses like The Hindustan Times, The Times of India and the south India-based Eenadu group who have interests in the print and the electronic media.

The draft bill proposes that a person/company would be issued licence to operate only one of the seven listed services.

The services outlined by the ministry are, terrestrial radio broadcast, terrestrial TV broadcast, satellite radio broadcast, domestic satellite TV broadcast, non-domestic satellite TV broadcast, direct-to-home broadcast and local delivery services.