The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Monday approved the licensing of new satellite TV channels through open bidding.
The issuance of licences to Satellite TV channel had been halted on orders of the Lahore High Court until the appointment of a regular chairperson of the authority.
According to a press release, Pemra has also determined the number of licenses to be issued and their genres in light of court orders. During the meeting on Monday, the authority approved amendments to the PEMRA Television Broadcast Station Operations 2012, and in regulations regarding security clearance of directors/licensees of Satellite TV channels.
Those granted licenses during the meeting included the Punjab Food Authority (two non-commercial FM radio channels), and Beaconhouse National University (BNU). The request of Virtual University for the renewal of non-commercial Satellite TV licences, VTV-I and VTV-II in specialized subject category was also approved. Two landing rights permissions were approved for M/s Mediacon Network (Pvt.) Ltd, Karachi, for Foreign TV channels: English Club TV and Kidzone TV. Besides, landing rights permission granted for the channel named TOONANIr was cancelled on the applicant’s request.
Likewise, approval was granted for a mobile TV (video and audio content provision) services license to M/s Ideation (Pvt.) Ltd. Islamabad, and two Internet Protocol TV distribution service licenses for M/s. TES Media (Pvt.) Ltd, Islamabad, for Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad Telecom Zones and M/s Neyatel (Pvt.) Ltd, for Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Faisalabad Telecom zones.
The authority also reviewed the status of DTH licensing during the meeting.
The press statement said that the information secretary was welcomed as a member of the authority in light of the latest amendment to the relevant ordinance.
Published in Daily Times, December 18th2018.