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The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has notified
the consolidated "Guidelines for up linking from
India". These have come into effect from December
2, 2005 and would be applicable to existing channels
as well. As per the new guidelines, the company seeking
permission to set up an uplinking hub/teleport should
have minimum network ranging from Rs. 1 crore to Rs.3
crores depending on channel carrying capacity of the
teleport.
For news & current affairs TV channels, foreign
equity holding including FDI/FII/NRI investments should
not exceed 26% of the paid up equity of the applicant
company. However, the entity making portfolio investment
in the form of FII/NRIs deposits shall not be "persons
acting in concert" with FDI investors, as defined
in Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial
Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997.
Special conditions/obligations related to non-news &
current affairs TV channels are as under :
· The applicant company permitted to uplink shall
operationalize the channel within a period of one year
from the date the permission is granted by the Ministry
of I&B; failing which the permission is liable to
be withdrawn, after affording an opportunity of being
heard.
· The sports channels/sports rights management
companies having TV broadcasting rights shall with immediate
effect share their feed with Prasar Bharati for national
and international sporting events of national importance,
held in India or aboard, for terrestrial transmission
and DTH broadcasting (free-to-air) under the following
conditions:
i) The events of national importance shall be determined
by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in
consultation with Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs,
Prasar Bharati and the concerned sports channels/sports
rights management companies. In case of cricket events,
these shall include all matches featuring India and
the semi-finals and finals of international competitions.
ii) The above conditions shall apply to all future events
including those covered by existing contracts of broadcasting
rights. However, in the case of cricket events whose
broadcasting rights have been obtained by sports channels/right
management companies prior to the issue of the notification
in the matter the rights holders will be obliged to
share the feed for all matches featuring India and finals
of international competitions.
iii) Prasar Bharati shall transmit the feed, free to
air, on its terrestrial channel and carried through
the terrestrial network and/or the satellite/DTH mode.
iv) The marketing of the events' rights (terrestrial
as well as satellite/DTH) will be decided through mutual
negotiations between Prasar Bharati and the rights holder.
The marketing rights should go to the party which offers
to maximize the revenue.
v) Revenue sharing formula of 75:25 in favour of rights
holders without any minimum guarantee/opportunity cost,
should be applied.
Foreign news channels/ agencies seeking permission for
temporary uplinking may be granted permission up to
one year at a time for temporary uplinking from time
to time through a pre-designated teleport, subject to
the following conditions:
i) The applicant is accredited with the PIB, Government
of India.
ii) The applicant undertakes to conform to the Programme
and Advertisement Codes.
iii) The applicant has a binding agreement with the
relevant teleport for the period of permission.
iv) The applicant pays a processing fee of Rs. 10,000/-
and temporary permission fee of Rs. 50,000/- per year.
The news/footage so uplinked shall be primarily for
the usage abroad by the foreign news agency/ channel
and shall not be broadcast in India without downlinking
permission and registration of the channel.
Ministry of I&B had notified the "Guidelines
for uplinking from India" in July 2000 followed
by "Guidelines for Uplinking of News and Current
Affairs TV Channels from India" in March 2003,
which were amended in August 2003. "Guidelines
for use of SNG/DSNGs"were issued in May 2003 and
addendum dated 1.4.2005 to the uplinking guidelines.
These were further amended on 20th October 2005 The
new Guidelines supercede all previous guidelines.
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