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The suggestion follows the request by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) upon issues related to the uplinking/downlinking of TV channels in India.

In its recommendations TRAI says that there should be no cap on number of satellite based TV channels meant for downlinking and uplinking from India.

Today, there are around 550 TV channels which have been approved by I&B for uplinking/downlinking in India. Several applications for new TV channels are pending consideration.

Reviewing the comments by the various stakeholders upon the number of satellite based TV channels in India TRAI says a large number of transponders, both Indian and foreign, are available for TV Broadcasting and that there is enormous scope to accommodate a very large number of channels with the use of efficient coding, modulation and compression technologies.

Besides, the recommendation paper says that one stakeholder is also of the view that spectrum shortage, being looked upon a major impediment to further expand the TV space, is actually a skewed one. On the one hand, there is ample space available in the C band while it is not so in the Ku Band, as the DTH sector is expanding.

TRAI, thus, recommends that there should be no capping over the number of channels being uplink/downlink through the Indian soil yet a few changes are required to be made in wake of the changing industry scenario.

TRAI has recommended that the period of permission for uplinking/downlinking to be made uniform for 10 years. Also the permission fee is required to be revised and charged annually and I&B should not allow transfer of permission.

Further, the recommendations suggest that Net-worth requirements need to be revised for news and non-news TV channels as well as teleports. The recommendation is supported in view of the advancing number of TV channels. The current limits of net-worth were prescribed more than five years back and the number of TV channels is more than doubled during the period.

As per TRAI recommendation total Net-worth requirement should be as follows:

• Non-News and Current Affairs Channel: Rs.25 crore for first channel, and enhanced by Rs.10 crore for each additional channel
• News and Current Affairs Channel: Rs.100 crore for first channel, and enhanced by Rs.25 crore for each additional channel
• Operating a Teleport should be Rs.5 crore
  Kids/Scientific/Educational channels:  Rs. 5 crore
• No net-worth requirement for recognised Universities who may come up with Educational channels.

In regard to the eligibility criteria for registration of a TV channel, TRAI has suggested the norms to be revised and to include experience in media sector in the same. The Authority says that in the Applicant Company, one of the persons occupying a top management position, such as Chairperson or MD or CEO or COO or CTO or CFO, should have had minimum 10 years of prior experience in a top management position in a reputed media company for News and Current Affairs Channels. In so far as other channels are concerned, the Authority recommends 5 years of prior experience in top management position.

For the mandated switchover from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 with effect to a particular date, the Authority recommends is of the view that since the technology is continuously evolving, mandating a particular digital technology is not desirable.

Moreover TRAI recommendations say that India should be developed as a teleport hub. The applications seeking permission under uplinking guidelines for those channels, which are not for viewing in India, should be processed and decided within a period of 3 months, says TRAI in its recommendations.

ALSO READ: TRAI issues consultation paper on uplinking/downlinking TV channels