The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued Guidelines for platform services offered by multi-system operators. These Guidelines provide the definition for the ‘platform services’ and lay down the norms for the multi-system operators, MSOs in running the platform services. The guidelines state that there will be simple online registration process for Platform Services channels by MSOs at nominal fees of 1000 rupees per PS channel.
The online registration portal for this purpose is under preparation and shall be notified shortly. Only entities registered as Companies will be allowed to provide local news and current affairs. The total number of permitted PS channels per operator will be capped at 5 percent of the total channel carriage capacity. MSOs have been granted a period of 12 months to comply with the guidelines issued today.
Cable operators are granted registration for the distribution of Registered TV Channels. The guidelines have been issued to ensure that network capacity of Cable Operators is utilised primarily for this.
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