Six months ultimatum to news channels to conform to uplinking rules

Business India, New Delhi: Union cabinet on Friday gave the last extension of six months to news and current affairs channels to show that their structural equity confirms to the uplinking rules.
“The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its last extension of six months from now (till September, 2005) to show that its structural equity conforms to this regime,” Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy told reporters after a Cabinet meeting here. There will be no further extensions, he added.

He said, “The policy requires the news channels to adhere to a cap of 26 per cent of FDI and the Indian entity to have not less than 51 per cent. But for a variety of reasons, many existing news channels have not been able to conform to this changed system.”

He said the companies operating such channels were earlier required to conform to the revised guidelines by March 2004, that is, to restructure their equity to conform to these guidelines.

The decision for extension of the deadline will give time to the Ministry to finalise the proposal to review the uplinking guidelines, Reddy added.

The Union Government had taken a decision on July 25, 2000 to further liberalise its uplinking policy and permit the Indian private companies to set up uplinking hub/teleports for licensing/hiring out to other broadcasters. The new policy also permits uplinking of any television channel from India. It also allows the Indian news agencies to have their own uplinking facilities for purposes of newsgathering and its further distribution.