Guidelines Revised, DTH Service License Now For 20 Years

New Delhi: License for Direct-To-Home (DTH) service in India will henceforth be granted for a period of 20 years, instead of 10. According to the new guidelines, approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, the license may be renewed by 10 years at a time.

“Cabinet today decided to approve revision in guidelines for providing DTH services in the country. Now, DTH license to be issued for 20 years, the license fee will be collected quarterly,” Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

The license fee has been revised from 10 per cent of Gross Revenue (GR) to 8 per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), which will be calculated by deducting GST from GR.

Following are the salient features of new guidelines:

* License for the DTH will be issued for a period of 20 years in place of present 10 years. Further the period of License may be renewed by 10 years at a time.

* License fee has been revised from 10% of GR to 8% of AGR. AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from GR.

* License fee will be collected on quarterly basis in lieu of presently annual basis.

* DTH operators shall be permitted to operate to a maximum of 5% of its total channel carrying capacity as permitted platform channels. A one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs 10,000 per PS channel shall be charged from a DTH operator.

* Sharing of Infrastructure between DTH operators. DTH operators, willing to share DTH platform and transport stream of TV channels, on voluntary basis, will be allowed. Distributors of TV channels will be permitted to share the common hardware for their Subscriber Management System (SMS) and Conditional Access System (CAS) applications.

* The cap of 49% FDl in the existing DTH guidelines will be aligned with the extant Government (DPIIT’s) policy on FDl as amended from time to time.

* The decision will come into effect as per revised DTH guidelines are issued bythe Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.