The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry on Wednesday has asked 164 private channels, which were given permission to uplink before December 2005, to register for downlinking in the country.
Out of the 500-odd television channels, the I&B has issued notices to 164 such channels including Aaj Tak, Zee TV, NDTV 24x7, NDTV India, NDTV Profit, Sun TV, Sahara One, CNBC-TV 18 and India TV.
At a cost of Rs 500,000 per channel, the government is set to add Rs 82 million to its kitty. The ministry has asked the channels to get themselves registered for downlinking by November 2010.
The move will affect only the channels which got uplinking permission prior to December 2005, as there was no such downlinking provision at that time. As per the notice, the registration will be granted by the ministry for a period of five years, which is renewable.
