New Delhi: The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the proposal for revision of the guidelines for obtaining licence for providing Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcasting service in India.
Addressing the mediapersons here, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar mentioned about the salient features of the Union Cabinet’s decision.
He said Licence for the DTH will be issued for a period of 20 years in place of the present 10 years. Further, the period of Licence may be renewed by 10 years at a time.
The Licence fee has been revised from 10 per cent of GR to eight per cent of AGR. AGR will be calculated by the deduction of GST from GR.
The License Fee will be collected on quarterly basis, in lieu of presently annual basis.
The DTH operators will be permitted to operate to a maximum of five per cent of its total channel carrying capacity, as permitted platform channels. A one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs 10,000 per PS channel will be charged from a DTH operator.
Sharing of Infrastructure between 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 per cent FDl in the existing DTH guidelines will be aligned with the extant Government (DPIIT’s) policy on FDl as amended from time to time.
