Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry on Friday said the ministry will release a revised Uplinking and Downloadlinking Guidelines within a month to de-regulate uplinking of satellite television channels to make India an uplinking hub.
The minister was addressing the India Space Congress 2022 on October 28 when he said that of 898 television channels broadcasting in the country, 532 are currently using foreign satellites for uplinking and downlinking of their services. As of now several satellite television channels are using Singapore as the hub for broadcasting their channels. But with the deregulation of uplinking India would emerge as a hub.
He also added that neighbouring countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan use India as a hub for uplinking their television channels.
The last issue of the uplinking and downlinking guideline was published in 2011 and the process to revise them is underway. He told the reporters later that the guidelines will be revised soon, maybe within a month.
Chandra also stated that Prasar Bharat and IIT Kanpur are working together to develop a direct-to-mobile broadcasting platform to increase TV content consumption over mobile content.
With Inputs from PTI
