Why in news?

• The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has issued fresh advisories with respect to the Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India, 2022.
• Through the advisory, the Ministry has clarified certain points of the guidelines.

What’s in today’s article?

• Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Satellite Television Channels in India, 2022
• News Summary

The guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Satellite Television Channels in India, 2022

• In November 2022, the Union Cabinet had approved the new ‘Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Satellite Television Channels in India, 2022’.
  • These were amended after a gap of 11 years.
• As per the guidelines, all TV channels in India, including private channels, are required to broadcast at least 30 minutes of content daily on themes of national importance and of social relevance.
• The guidelines also covered the issue of uplinking and downlinking.
  • Uplinking and downlinking shall be subject to clearance and approval by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
  • The policy mandates that channels uplinking in frequency bands other than C-band must encrypt their signals.
  • Broadcast companies will be allowed to uplink foreign channels from Indian teleports.
    • This would create employment opportunities and make India a teleport hub for other countries.
      • Currently, only 30 channels are uplinked from India out of the total 897 registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).
    • At present, Singapore is considered the hub for teleport uplinking.
    • However, after the new guidelines come into effect, foreign channels are expected to show greater interest in using Indian teleports.
• The guidelines tried to streamline the process so as to improve ease of doing business.
  • The new guidelines allow a news agency to get permission for five years instead of the current one year.
  • The penalty clauses have been rationalised, and separate sets of penalties have been proposed for different types of contraventions.
    • At present, a uniform penalty is applicable for all types of contraventions.
  • Requirement for seeking permission for the live telecast of events has been done away with.
  • Only prior registration of events to be telecast live would be necessary.

What was the Rationale behind the new guidelines?

• The government has argued that since airwaves/ frequencies are public property they need to be used in the best interest of the society.
• Also, the govt. wanted to improve the ease of doing and make India hub for teleport uplinking, which in turn would generate employment.
• However, analysts criticize this move by saying the, while airwaves may be public property, broadcasters had paid hefty fees for their use.
• Any binding guidelines that adversely impact their commercial interests may not be fair.

News Summary

• MIB has come out with an advisory to clarify certain aspects of the “Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India, 2022”.

What are key highlights of this advisory?

• Obligations to be followed form March 1
  • From March 1, all private television channels will be required to air national interest content for 15 hours every month.
• Clarification regarding national interest content
  • The national interest content can be embedded in the programmes being telecast, and that the content need not be of 30 minutes at a stretch.
  • The public service broadcast can be split over smaller time slots, but can’t be done from midnight to 6 am.
• Keeping the record of the content telecast
  • The broadcasters are also required to keep the record of the content telecast for a period of 90 days.
  • The government requires the broadcasters to submit a monthly report online on the Broadcast Seva Portal.
• Sharing of contents between the broadcasters
  • The content can be shared between the broadcasters and a repeat telecast on one or several channels is also allowed now.
• Eight themes of national importance and of social relevance
  • Education and literacy;
  • Agriculture and rural development;
  • Health and family welfare;
  • Science and technology;
  • Welfare of women;
  • Welfare of the weaker sections of the society;
  • Protection of environment and of cultural heritage; and
  • National integration.
• Scope of themes expanded
  • The list of themes of national importance and of social relevance are indicative and may be expanded to include topics such as water conservation, disaster management, etc.
• Exemptions given
  • The condition applies to all channels, except those mentioned specifically as exempt, where this may not be feasible.
  • These include wildlife channels and foreign channels, besides live telecast in case of sports channels.
  • Channels broadcasting more than 12 hours of devotional/spiritual/yoga content are exempt from furnishing monthly reports.
• Compliance mechanism
  • The advisory sought to achieve the objective of public service broadcasting by the private TV channels through voluntary compliance and self-certification.
  • The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will monitor the channels for the broadcast of this content.
  • In case non-compliance is observed in the Ministry’s view, an explanation will be sought.
  • If a channel continues to be non-compliant, more steps can be taken based on specific advisories that will be issued from time to time, and on a case-to-case basis.