Policy Initiatives

DTH Service: Direct To Home (DTH) service is a comparatively recent entrant as compared to cable transmission. DTH is an addressable system and covers the entire country. The programmes transmitted through DTH can be directly be received at homes by installing small dish antennas at convenient locations in the building .DTH transmission does not require any intermediary, since an individual user is directly served by the DTH operator.

Policy on IPTV : The government has put in place the policy on IPTV enabling another mode of distribution of close to 550 permitted satellite TV channels til date through the Telecom and Cable Networks. This is bound to give not only a new digital visual experience to the Indian viewer with various value added and interactive services to cater to the persisting demand of the subscriber for new and interactive services but also for the platform service providers. The policy on IPTV now offers greater clsrity on the issues involved and both the telecom operators as well as the cable operators will be able to provide IPTV services and will be regulated as per their respective licensing conditions.

Head-end In The Sky (HITS) : To speed up the process of digitilisation of cable services located in non-CAS areas of the country, the Government is in the process of taking a view on the recommendations of TRAI on the issue of the proposed policy framework on the Head-end In The Sky (HITS) mode of delivery of content to the cable operators. This system will enable the packaging of content in digital form at the level of HITS operator who will uplink it to a satellite to be received by the cable operators and thereafter distributed in digital mode through cable network.

Mobile TV : Mobile TV is another mode of distribution of TV channels. A joint group of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has considered the regulatory and licensing issues of mobile TV and held that if mobile TV services are to be provided in the broadcasting mode using transmission of terrestrial or satellite broadcast signals, they will come under the domain of MIB and will be governed by the applicable laws. If they are provided by using the infrastructure of telecom service provider, they will fall in the domain of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT).

Policy Framework

Television Sector

Source: FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2011

Print Media

As per the master circular from RBI on Foreign Investment in India and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in print media is capped as follows:

• Publications of newspaper and periodicals dealing with news and current affairs: FDI/NRI investment in Indian company up to 26 percent with prior approval from FIPB.
• Publications of Indian editions of foreign magazines dealing with news and current affairs: FDI/NRI investment in Indian company up to 26 percent with prior approval from FIPB.
• Publications of scientific and technical magazines/ specialty journals/ periodicals: Upto 100 percent FDI with approvals from FIPB .

Future Outlook

• It is expected to reach a size of US$ 13.9 billion in next five years i.e. by 2015 at a CAGR of 17 percent. The growth estimates till 2015 are due to a rapid growth in the subscriber base for DTH.
• Indian Film Industry is one of the world's largest with more than 1000 movie releases and over 3 million movie goers annually.
• In 2009, the print media industry stood at US$ 3.8 billion and showed a moderate growth of 2 per cent. The industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9 per cent and reach around US$ 5.9 billion by 2014.

Other Policies

• Broadcasting Bill
• Foreign Investment Policy
• Advertisement Policy

Useful Web links

• Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:www.mib.nic.in