Public service telecast compulsory, fees for live telecast by non-news channels: New TV rules
The new rules for television channels operating in India say, among other things, that every channel must telecast a minimum of 30 minutes of public service programmes every day. The rules—formally called ‘Guidelines for Uplinking and Downhinking of Satellite Television Channels in India, 2022’ and thus applicable for channels both uplinking from and downlinking to India—were approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, November 9.
The reason given for making public service telecast compulsory is that “airwaves/frequencies are public property and need to be used in the best interest of the society”.
A set of eight topics have been approved for the segment, as per the guidelines. They are “(i) education and spread of literacy; (ii) agriculture and rural development; (iii) health and family welfare; (iv) science and technology; (v) welfare of women; (vi) welfare of the weaker sections of the society; (vii) protection of environment and of cultural heritage; and (7 (viii) national integration”.
Another aspect of the new rules is that a fee of Rs 1 lakh per day has been determined for live telecast of any event by a non-news national channel. This covers sports channels.
People in the know said that the country’s top sports channels, Disney-Star, Sony, Zee and Viacom18 are likely to ask the government for a waiver of this fee as it is in addition to the Rs 1 to 2 lakh per day that channels pay as the charge for frequency allocation, for live uplinking or telecast of events, to the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) wing of the Department of Telecommunications.
However, devotional channels have been waived this per-day fee if the live telecast is of “devotional/spiritual/yoga content”.
