New Delhi: In a bid to project India as a major uplinking hub, the government on Wednesday (November 9) announced relaxations in compliance guidelines for television channels and 30 minutes daily for primarily entertainment channels. Or made broadcasting related to the national public interest compulsory. 

The Union Cabinet has approved the Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Satellite Television Channels, 2022 in India. The move is expected to allow television channels from Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal to uplink from India instead of Singapore. Notably, Singapore is the preferred uplinking hub for channels broadcast in the subcontinent. Officials have informed that at present out of the total 897 channels registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, only 30 channels are uplinked from India.

Joint Secretary (Broadcast) Sanjeev Shankar has told the media here that, 'The requirement of taking permission for the live telecast of programs has been done away with, pre-registration of only live programs will be required.' He said that no prior permission would be required to change the language or transmission mode from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD) or vice versa. 

He further added that the channel will only have to inform the ministry about the changes to be made. Guidelines in this regard were first issued in 2005 and were amended in 2011. Keeping in view the technological progress in the interim period, it has now been amended after 11 years.

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