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'Show National Interest Content For 30 Minutes', Centre Drafts New Rules For TV Channels
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India, 10 Nov 2022 6:46 AM GMT
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Creatives : Ronit Kumar Singh
A confident and reliable journalist who always desires to toss the unheard voices. I cover politics and governance extensively through stories.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has specified that television channels must show content related to national interest or public service daily for 30 minutes. The obligations do not apply to wildlife, sports, and foreign media.
In a new set of rules for Indian television broadcasters, showing the content of national interest or public service daily for 30 minutes is now mandatory. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has rolled out the provisions in its latest uplinking and downloading rules.
However, the ministry has added that the obligations need not be followed by the sports, foreign, and wildlife channels. The officials mentioned that the ministry is working on modalities to decide the timings of broadcasting the content in the national interest.
The new guidelines read, "Obligation of public service broadcasting — As airwaves/frequencies are public property and need to be used in the best interest of the society, a company having permission under these guidelines for uplinking a channel and its downlinking in India may undertake public service broadcasting for a minimum period of 30 minutes in a day on themes of national importance and social relevance."
Themes Of National Importance
The themes of national importance include rural development, health, agriculture, education, the spread of literacy, science and technology, the welfare of women, protection of the environment, and national integration, among others.
The channels can air content for 30 minutes every day on the themes mentioned above, according to the 'Policy Guidelines for Uplinkling/Downlinking of TV channels.
The guidelines also noted that the central government could issue general advisories from time to time to the channels for broadcasting content in the national interest, and the channels shall comply with the same.
Making India An Uplinking Hub
In an effort to make Indian an uplinking hub, the ministry has also allowed companies to uplink foreign channels from Indian teleports, reported NDTV. This would help in beaming content in countries covered by the satellite footprint.
Following the new rules on uplinking, television channels of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are expected to uplink from India. Earlier, Singapore was the preferred uplinking hub for channels beamed in several countries.
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