A cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh approved the proposal of the information and broadcasting ministry for amendments in the existing ‘Policy Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of TV channels’ to include more regulations.
Under the amendment, the 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.
News channels are required to give a performance bank guarantee for Rs.2 crore. In the event of non-operationalisation of the permitted channel within a period of one year, the bank guarantee will be forfeited and permission cancelled.
The period of permission/registration for uplinking/downlinking of channels will be uniform at 10 years.
The renewal of the permissions of TV channels will be considered subjected 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 five occasions or more.
The companies wishing to start TV channels should also have at least one person occupying a top management position like chairperson, CEO or COO with a minimum three years media experience to seek permission for a new channel.
The Government has proposed these amendments based on an extensive consultation with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
