GS Paper 2
Syllabus: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation
Source: TH
Direction: The article highlights the public service obligation guidelines for TV channels in India.
Context: The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry issued a fresh advisory for the implementation of the Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India 2022.
Background:
- Uplink is a term used to describe a communication line used to send electronic messages to satellites.
- On the other hand, downlinking refers to the communication path utilised to receive the satellite’s electronic communications.
- The Union Cabinet had approved the 2022 Guidelines to ease the issue of permissions to the companies/ limited liability partnerships (LLPs) registered in India for –
- Uplinking and Downlinking of TV Channels,
- Setting up of Teleports/ Teleport Hubs,
- Use of Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG)/ Satellite News Gathering (SNG)/ Electronic News Gathering (ENG) systems,
- Uplinking by Indian News agencies and temporary uplinking of a live event.
The benefit of the new guidelines: It will replace those operational since 2011, would –
- Ease of compliance for the permission holder
- Ease of Doing Business
- Simplification and Rationalization, etc.
Highlights of the I&B Ministry’s fresh advisory:
- It mandates ‘public service broadcasting’ of national and social importance (with effect from March 1, 2023) for private TV channels through voluntary compliance and self-certification.
- It said the content could include the themes of –
- Education and spread of literacy,
- Agriculture and rural development,
- Health and family welfare,
- Science and technology,
- The welfare of women and the weaker sections of society,
- Protection of the environment and cultural heritage and
- National integration, etc., and could be extended to include similar subjects such as water conservation, disaster management, etc.
- The content need not be of 30 minutes at a stretch and shall be accounted for cumulatively on a monthly basis i.e. 15 hours per month.
- The broadcasters have the liberty to modulate their content. For example, the topics of national importance and social relevance embedded in the programmes broadcast by private TV channels would qualify for their obligation.
- The broadcasters would be required to submit a monthly report on the Broadcast Seva Portal on compliance.
- The broadcasters will have to keep a record of the content telecast for 90 days.
Exemptions from the public service broadcasting obligation:
- Any content transmitted from midnight to 6 a.m.
- Foreign channels, downlinking in India [in languages other than those specified in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution].
- The channels broadcasting [more than 12 hours] sports and devotional/spiritual/yoga content shall be exempt from furnishing the monthly reports on the Broadcast Seva Portal.
Conclusion: According to a FICCI-EY report, with television subscriptions estimated to add another 42 million by 2025 from 178 million in 2021, public service broadcast is not a bad idea in a diverse country with myriad issues.
Insta Links:
Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India 2022
Mains Links:
Q. Has digital illiteracy, particularly in rural areas, coupled with a lack of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) accessibility hindered socio-economic development? Examine with justification. (UPSC 2021)
