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No new licences for DTH TV to be issued
KATHMANDU, APR 22 -
The government has stopped issuing new licenses to operate direct to home (DTH) satellite television citing lack of satellite transponders having a footprint in Nepal.
The Ministry of Information and Communications decided to stop granting permission to hopeful DTH operators temporarily after Tele Direct, one of the 10 firms that had applied to run DTH service in Nepal, withdrew its application due to lack of satellite transponders.
“We have received applications from 10 firms, and all of them have been given the go-ahead,” said Mahendra Prasad Guragain, joint secretary at the ministry. “Following the withdrawal by Tele Direct, we found it necessary to study the availability of satellite transponders before granting new permits.”
The government has formed a committee under the coordination of Guragain to study the matter and prepare a report on the situation of satellite transponders having a footprint in Nepal.
Leasing a satellite costs over Rs. 250 million annually. A satellite transponder bandwidth of 108 MHz is needed to transmit 60 channels in MPEG 4 format. Moreover, satellite transponders having a footprint in Nepal have already been occupied by Indian companies.
Guragain said that since firms obtaining a license must start service within 12 months, the study would also examine the possibility for firms which have already obtained a license.
According to the ministry, Satellite Channel, Dish Media Nepal, M Vision, CG Techno Dreams, Telko Investment and Marigold Entertai-nment have obtained licenses. Among them, Satellite Channel is already working on starting service and it has announced its monthly subscription fee. Dish Media Nepal is in the process of obtaining a license to set up a earth station.
Satellite Channel and Dish Media Network are rushing to provide DTH service with 80 and 74 national and international channels respectively.
Similarly, Tele Direct, Cosmic Telecommunications Service, Biswabinayak Network and Clean Commu-nications have been approved to operate DTH service, but they have not paid the fee and collected their licenses.
“If the firms do not collect their license within three months, it will be scrapped,” said Shailija Regmi, under secretary at the ministry.
She added that the licence fee to operate DTH television was Rs. 1.5 million.
Posted on: 2010-04-23 08:17
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