New norms for foreign channels in down-linking policy

Foreign television news channels beaming into India will not be allowed to air advertisements or programmes targeted at India.

Also, sports channels will have to share content with the Prasar Bharati on a revenue share basis. This forms a part of the government's guidelines regarding the television channels' down-linking policy.

The move is a deviation from the earlier stand that considered allowing channels to air India-specific advertisements and content after obtaining the government's approval.

The new guidelines are likely to impact international news channels like BBC and CNN. Also, sports channels like ESPN and Star Sports will see revenue "" both from advertisement and subscription "" coming down as a result of the content-sharing regulation.

"The sports channels' management companies having TV broadcasting rights shall, with immediate effect, share their feed with the Prasar Bharati for national and international sporting events of national importance, held in India or abroad, for terrestrial transmission and DTH broadcasting (free-to-air)," the ministry said.

It added that these would be decided by the ministry in consultation with the ministry of sports and youth affairs, the Prasar Bharati and the rights' holder concerned.

The government also made it mandatory for channels downlinking into India to register themselves in the country for an effective control on their operations.

"No person or entity shall downlink a channel, which has not been registered by the ministry of information and broadcasting," the ministry said while releasing the new guidelines.

This will mean that all foreign channels, including entertainment and news channels, will have to have an Indian office.

"In case of cricket events, these shall include all matches featuring India and the finals and semi-finals of international competitions," it said, adding that in cases where rights have been obtained prior to the issue of the notification, the rights' holders will be obliged to share the feed for all matches featuring India and the finals.

"Revenue sharing formula of 75:25 in favour of the rights' holders without any minimum guarantee/opportunity cost should be applied," it said, adding that the party offering the maximum revenues would be given the marketing job.

The guidelines also put in a minimum net-worth criteria for the channels. For every first channel that is downlinked to India, it will be mandatory for the company to have a minimum net worth of Rs 1.50 crore. For every additional channel, the company should have additional net worth of Rs 1 crore.