Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has started taking action against the local news and entertainment channels showing excessive foreign content and traders selling illegal Indian Direct-to-Home (DTH) sets in Pakistan. The authority had given 15th October as the deadline to implement the regulations. Otherwise, strict action would be taken against the channels airing foreign content more than the prescribed limit and traders selling illegal DTH sets. As per the law, only 10 percent of airtime is allowed for foreign content, while the maximum limit for Indian content is six percent in 24 hours.
PEMRA Chairman Absar Alam said that adequate time had been given to cable operators and satellite channels to adjust their timings as per the legal requirements. He added that strict monitoring would commence from midnight on Saturday and action would be taken against channels from Monday. Apart from foreign content on Pakistani channels, PEMRA is also set to launch a massive operation against Indian DTH sets from Monday.
While the action of banning foreign content appears to be in reaction to Indian authorities banning Pakistani artists and content in India, the authorities in Pakistan should realise the negative impact such decisions could have in the local market. After Indian films had been banned in Pakistan in 1960s, and because of the deterioration of local cinema industry, the Pakistani cinema industry had almost crashed. It was only a decade ago when distributors were allowed to import Indian films, which resulted in the revival of cinema-going culture in Pakistan.
TV industry could be seen in the same context as well. The monitoring authority should analyse beforehand the negative impact the decision could have on viewers. Switching through channels, it is not hard to see that local entertainment channels are almost non-existent. Furthermore, people of different age groups prefer different things. Children prefer cartoon channels; youngsters prefer sports channels while older people prefer drama and other entertainment channels. And there is no appropriate alternative available to at least children’s entertainment or sports channels. In this day and age, all content is easily available online, and that cannot be restricted. Pakistani dramas have survived alongside shows from India, Turkey and most recently even from China.
While the decision to ban the illegal DTH trade is justified on account of its black market, PEMRA should have placed an alternative in place first. It is not merely about the number of channels and which country they are aired from, as DTH is also of the quality to which local cable operators cannot compete with. Local DTH auction has been delayed over the years, thrice in 2016.
Lastly, PEMRA should not give a knee-jerk reaction to the situation prevailing between Pakistan and India. Rather, it should assess the potential damage that could result from these actions. If people are deprived of the content they wish to watch, they would simply switch to other mediums available to them. Cinema industry had shown similar concerns earlier this month that a ban on Indian movies would only result in an increase in piracy and decrease in viewing of movies in cinema. Therefore, there must be alternatives available for consumers to switch to before the implementation of this decision. *