30 minutes of content in national and public interest mandatory: I&B ministry

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday unveiled revised uplinking and downlinking guidelines for satellite television channels that allows Indian teleports to uplink foreign channels and scraps permission for live telecast of events.

The Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Satellite Television Channels in India, 2022, which have been approved by the Union Cabinet, also makes it mandatory for television channels to telecast content in national and public interest for 30 minutes every day, Information & Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra told reporters here.

He said the new guidelines have done away with permissions for live telecast of events. However, prior registration of events to be telecast live would be necessary, the guidelines said.

The guidelines also allow a channel to be uplinked using facilities of more than one teleport/satellite as against only one teleport/satellite at present.

The guidelines also make it mandatory for channels uplinking in frequency band other than C-Band to encrypt their signals.

The guidelines have been revised after a period of 11 years.