The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is working on a consultation paper to streamline the process of providing licences to television channels, said Trai secretary S K Gupta here on Tuesday. “Currently, the process of getting a licence for a TV channel is cumbersome. We have undertaken a study after a reference was made by the ministry of information and broadcasting. The idea stems from various initiatives the government has taken under the ease of doing business,” he said. In its effort to earn some extra revenue, besides ensuring transparency in providing channels licence, the government is planning to auction TV channel frequencies on the lines of private FM frequencies and telecom spectrum, early this month. The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry had sought suggestions from Trai on changes which can be introduced in the process for allocation of news and entertainment TV channels. FE
