'Non-serious' TV players may get the boot

Licence holders will be given a year to put channels on air.

The government is planning to come down heavily on companies that sit on launches of television channels.

Licence holders will be given a year to put channels on air, failing which their licences will be withdrawn. The move is designed to weed out non-serious players. Officials say five to seven companies are sitting on licences.

Besides, private broadcasters holding rights to sporting events may have to share feed not only with state-owned Prasar Bharati's terrestrial service but also with its direct to home (DTH) service.

The proposals are going to be part of the proposed uplinking and downlinking policies, which will be considered by a group of ministers headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The first meeting of this GoM, held today, ended inconclusive. Within 180 days of the policy being notified, all existing channels and broadcasters will have to enter into an agreement with the government and execute the licensing conditions.

The measure on sharing feed with Doordarshan is expected to face stiff resistance from private broadcasters, which do not want to share feed even with DD's terrestrial network. They fear that sharing will dilute the value of sporting properties, acquired through hefty bids.

The government also proposes to put in place stiff penalties for companies violating licensing conditions.

"For the first violation, the registration of a company and the permission to operate will be cancelled for a period of 30 days. For a second violation, the erring channel will be prohibited from operating for 90 days," said an information and broadcasting ministry official.

A channel's permission to operate will be cancelled if it violates the licensing condition for a third time. To ensure that channels adhere to norms, the government proposes to enter into licensing agreements with them, specifying all the conditions.

It will be obligatory for broadcasting companies to furnish information required by the government from time to time. Licence holders will also be required to provide the government with a monitoring facility at their own cost for keeping track of content aired by channels.