Government toughens rules for TV broadcasters

Tightening its grip on TV channels and their broadcast content, the government has laid down fresh eligibility rules for granting and renewing licences to TV channels.

These include stricter compliance with programming and advertising codes set by the information & broadcasting ministry, as well as enhanced capital requirements.

A statement issued by the I&B ministry on Friday says renewal of permission will be considered subject to the condition that the "channel should not have been found guilty of violating the terms and conditions of permission, including violations of programme and advertisement code, on five occasions or more". Broadcasters have to renew their licences every 10 years.

The ministry's programme and advertising code says that programming should not be obscene, vulgar or denigrating to women and children, offensive to a particular community, against the 'national interest' (whatever that may mean), or against friendly relations with other countries.

The call as to whether a particular channel has transgressed is taken by an inter-ministerial committee headed by the additional secretary in the I&B ministry, which has an electronic media monitoring centre that keep tabs on TV content.

The ministry has also ramped up the 'policy guidelines for uplinking and downlinking of TV channels', increasing the net worth criteria for uplinking of non-news or current affairs channels and downlinking of foreign channels from Rs1.5 crore to Rs5 crore for the first channel and Rs2.5 crore for each additional channel run by an operator.