Close on the heels of Indian broadcasters alleging violations by foreign channels, the government on Saturday said it would have a re-look at the uplinking guidelines to ensure that the 26 per cent cap on foreign equity is strictly followed and a level playing field maintained.
"We have decided to have effective consultations between the ministries of information & broadcasting, law, finance and company affairs so that we may revisit and revise guidelines for uplinking of foreign news channels to ensure there is no violation of the 26 per cent equity cap in letter and spirit," Information & Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
He was speaking to reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi.
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Law Minister Arun Jaitley also attended the meeting.
Prasad said the sub-group of the ministries concerned would also ensure a level playing field on tax regime for domestic and foreign news channels.
Six Indian broadcasters - including Aaj Tak, Eenadu, NDTV, Sahara, Sun and SaBE - in a joint statement on Friday urged the government to provide a level-playing field and expressed concern over certain foreign broadcasters "bypassing" the laid down procedures and guidelines.
This statement came even as the Star Group was given another week's extension from July 10 to continue operations of its 24-hour news channel in the present format.
This is the third extension being granted to Star News, a foreign broadcaster as of now, after the three-month deadline to meet the guidelines to uplink from India expired on June 26.
The information & broadcasting ministry is understood to have sought a clarification from the Star Group on its shareholding pattern in its application seeking permission to uplink its news channel from India. The group floated Media Content and Communication Services Ltd with an equity base of only Rs 100,000 offloaded 74 per cent stake in its news operations to resident Indians to abide by the March 26 guidelines.
The government stipulated that the permission for usage of facilities for live news and footage collection and transmission be given only to channels uplinked from India, but for a smooth roll over gave the channels a maximum of three months to come within the framework of the guidelines.
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