Daily Times

The Pakistan Electronic Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in the last two days held bidding for the issuance of 58 satellite television licences at its headquarters. The Bidding Committee was headed by PEMRA Chairman Muhammad Saleem Baig and private members of the authority, including Sarfraz Jatoi, Nargis Nasir and Shaheen Habibullah.

The PEMRA had offered 70 satellite TV licences in seven categories: eight in news & current affairs, 27 in entertainment, five in sports, two in Agriculture, 12 in regional languages, four in health and 12 in Education, through an advertisement dated Dec 25, 2018.

On May 2, bidding for the news and current affairs, entertainment and regional languages was concluded, whereas, on the second day, licences in health, sports, education and agriculture were offered through bidding.

Licences for the news and current affairs category invited the highest bid of Rs 283.5 million, whereas those in the entertainment category sold for Rs 50.5 million. The highest bid for regional languages channels invited Rs 102 million, agriculture Rs 52 million, sports Rs. 42.5 million, education for Rs 46 million and health Rs 42 million. The successful bidders will be required to deposit the balanced amount of the earnest money of their offered bid within 15 working days.

The bidding was conducted in a transparent and fair manner, and all the prequalified companies participated in the bidding process and expressed their unequivocal confidence in PEMRA for holding the bidding in a professional manner.

PEMRA held this bidding to cope with the increasing demand of digital distribution mediums, ie IPTV, digital cable and upcoming DTH, which has the capacity to carry more than 250 channels. However, PEMRA has so far issued 88 new TV channel licences. The launch of these TV channels would not only contribute significantly in terms of investment and employment but would also offer wide variety of entertainment, education and information to the masses.