The government has allowed foreign institution investors (FII) to invest up to 26 per cent in news and current affairs channels. It has also given a green signal to television channels and teleports to uplink in Ku-Band through Indian satellites with the condition that this permission will not be used to run or operate DTH service without proper license.
Till now, 26 per cent paid-up equity was allowed in news and currents affairs channels only for foreign direct investment (FDI) and NRI investment. Banks and FIIs were not permitted to make such investments. However, the entity making portfolio investment in the form of FII/NRIs deposits shall not be "persons acting in concert" with FDI investors. The annoucement was made after a Cabinet mmeeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Union minister for information and broadcasting, Jaipal Reddy, told newspersons here last night, "Foreign investment remains at 26 per cent but it could be in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI), OCBs or FII."
Foreign news channels which used to be given event-wise permissions for uplinking from India would now be given a year's permission for uplinking.
"While calculating foreign equity of the applicant company, the foreign holding component, if any, in the equity of the Indian shareholder companies of the applicant company will be duly reckoned on pro rata basis, so as to arrive at the total foreign holding in the applicant company. However, indirect FII equity in a company as on March 31 of the year would be taken for the purposes of pro rata reckoning of foreign holdings," an official release said.
The Cabinet, which met over the issue last evening, has stipulated that no television channel shall carry a live broadcast of whole or part of any event so notified by the ministry of information and broadcasting unless simultaneously Prasar Bharati has also been offered the terrestrial and DTH broadcasting rights for the same event on reasonable terms and conditions mutually agreed upon. This aspect will relate primarily to broadcast of sports events.
The mandatory sharing of fee for cricket telecast will be for matches featuring India and all semi-finals and finals of tournaments. For cricket matches where the rights have already been purchased by companies, the mandatory sharing will apply only to finals and matches featuring India.
The Cabinet has also given its approval for introduction of downlinking guidelines. "The guidelines will provide better regulation of satellite TV channels uplinked from abroad and down linked in India especially to address concerns over content," the release said. On granting foreign news channels permission to carry India-centric advertising, Reddy said, "In case of BBC or CNN, we will take up the matter on a case-to-case basis."
"It will also provide a mechanism to check the antecedents and to verify legitimacy of the owners/distributors of the channels being downlinked in India to enable to enable to determine the suitability of the programme being seen by the Indian public."
