Centre considering revision of FDI limits for broadcast sector

New Delhi, Mar 18 : The Central Government is considering revising the foreign investment limits in various subsectors of Broadcasting.

Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Asha Swarup said,"We are of the opinion that the composite limits for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FII), both direct and indirect can be kept at 74 per cent in the case of infrastructure and platform services like teleports, Direct To Home (DTH), Hypertext Induced Topic Selection (HITS) and satellite radio. "

Already 100 per cent foreign investment is allowed in the case of non-News and current affairs channels and channels permitted under the downlinking policy. No changes are proposed in the 26 per cent limit for news and current affairs channels and 49 per cent for cable operators.

On Conditional Access System (CAS), Swarup said, "the Government at present is in the process of analysing the impact and success of the CAS implementation in the four metros so that appropriate lessons can be drawn for its further extension and if need be suitable improvements can be made in the present regime to make it more acceptable to stakeholders. "

The Government has since received three surveys and evaluation reports on CAS. These studies were conducted by BECIL, IIMC and a consumer organisation VOICE, she said.

Swarup said that a national digitalisation plan for the country would have to be voluntary in all steps and will have to provide for simultaneous provision of analogue and digital service. Broadly speaking our aim should be to phase out analogue transmission by the end of the Twelfth Plan 2017, she said.

ANI