New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that the foreign direct investment limit in news channels and FM radio services be raised from 26% to 49%, subject to clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
It has also suggested that the limit for FDI in broadcast carriage services such as cable TV, direct-to-home, IPTV, mobile TV, HITS and Teleport be enhanced to 100%, up from the current limit of 74%. However, companies in these businesses can avail of the automatic route as long as the FDI is not higher than 49%.
For FDI components higher than 49%, they would need the approval of the FIPB, the telecom regulator said as part of its recommendations that were made public on Thursday. The regulator made these recommendations based on the responses of industry stakeholders to a consultation paper that was put up by the authority on July 30, 2013.
It also recommended maintaining of status quo with respect to FDI limits for uplinking of non-news and current affairs TV channels as well as downlinking of TV channels, but FDI should go through FIPB. These segments are currently allowed to have 100% FDI.
Trai said that several stakeholders have stated that the present cap of 26% for uplinking of news and current affairs channels acts as a disincentive to prospective investors from infusing funds as they do not find it economically and financially beneficial.
"This is the reason cited for the fact that hardly any news broadcasting company has been able to fully utilise its existing FDI limit. They have further commented that the survival of Indian news channels in the long run has become a matter of serious concern as today the Indian e-News sector does not have the necessary wherewithal to even compete nationally and no Indian news channel has been able to set up an international bureau abroad," the authority said in its recommendations.
Sunil Lulla, managing director and chief executive officer of Times Television Network, which runs Times Now, ET Now and Movies Now channels said, "We applaud Trai for endorsing the industry's view. We believe capital investment will enable growth and expansion in cable and news television. It will bring in quality players and create a global standard for India."
In June this year, a committee that is led by economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram had recommended upping FDI limits for television news and FM Radio to 49% while it had said that where control by foreign or local players is not of consequence, like in the case of broadcast carriage services, 100% FDI should be allowed. Trai's recommendations are in line with those of this committee.
No comments:
Post a Comment