Uplinking guidelines for TV channels out finally

After two drafts, an aborted press conference and a final nod from Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, the revised uplinking policy for television...

After two drafts, an aborted press conference and a final nod from Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, the revised uplinking policy for television news channels from India, bearing a strong resemblance to the guidelines laid down for newspapers, was announced by Minister of Information and Broadcasting (independent charge) Ravi Shankar Prasad today.

The guidelines will apply to the existing news and current affairs television channels uplinked from India as well as those proposing to uplink from India from the date of issue of the guidelines.

Issued a week after the Cabinet took a decision to allow only those news channels with 26 per cent foreign equity to operate, the guidelines stipulate that the channels uplinking news from India/desirous of uplinking from Indian soil be registered in India, with majority of board directors being resident Indians.

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The CEO or the head of the channel and those exercising editorial control over news and current affairs programmes have to be resident Indians.

Permission for usage of facilities and infrastructure for live news and footage collection and transmission, irrespective of the technology used, will be given to channels uplinked from India.

Prasad said that for a smooth transition, content providers and channels currently using VSAT and satellite video phone and similar other infrastructure used for uplinking and transfer of content will be allowed a maximum of three months to adhere to the basic framework of the guidelines, the bottomline being permission will be given to only those channels which are uplinked from India.

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