A Reconciliation Of Telecom And Broadcasting Licenses On The Cards

We’d seen this coming: The government is reviewing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limits across media platforms – Radio, DTH, Broadcasting, Cable and Telecom, reports PTI. The FDI limits and proposed changes are as follows:

Radio: 20 percent, to be increased to 26 percent (source)
DTH: 49 percent (with a cap of 20 percent per foreign investor)
Head-end In The Sky (HITS): to be increased to 74 percent (source)
Telecom: 74 percent
IPTV: likely to be 74 percent (source)
News Broadcasting: 26 percent
Non-News Broadcasting: 100 percent
Internet Service Providers: 100 percent
Cable: 49 percent, to be increased to 74 percent (source)

So the difficulty for the government is in setting a signle rate of FDI, as platforms across Telecom and broadcasting converge. The ideal situation wuold be 100 percent FDI, but some sectors like news broadcasting are considered ‘sensitive’. It’s therefore likely that the government will separate content from carriage (the platform) and have separate guidelines and limits for each. It’s quite a tightrope to walk. Also in the works is a content code for regulating content, and content guidelines for IPTV.