Cable hub licence won’t require MHA nod

New Delhi: In a major relief to the industry, the Union information and broadcasting ministry is set to resume the clearance of licences for Multiple System Operators (cable hubs that downlink and distribute signals to consumers) across the country after a gap of almost an year, and the proposal for a mandatory security clearance from the ministry of home affairs has been withdrawn.  

Sources stated that the move to clear licenses for MSOs comes after a directive by the Delhi high court in August wherein the government was asked to take up the issue of pending licences at the earliest.

It is understood that over 100 licenses are pending before the I&B ministry since 2017, since the regime of the then I&B minister Smriti Irani.

Sources stated that the delay in the process occured as MHA had expressed its inability to review the aleardy existing licensing process. The ministry is now expected to gear up for the licensing process soon,  sources added.

The process to issue new licenses and renew the existing ones was stuck after the ministry last year asked for security clearance for all such cases afresh — all existing and new MSOs — from the MHA last year as reported by this newspaper first on December 14 last year.

The move to seek fresh security clearance was mooted was aimed at stopping the broadcast of illegal and unauthorised television channels in the country.

The government was seeking to make it mandatory for  all MSOs to secure a security clearance from the MHA.

The move was proposed in an effort to stop broadcast of banned channels like terror suspect Zakir Naik owned Peace TV and state owned Pakistan TV in sensitive areas like Jammu and Kashmir.

The decision to make it mandatory for MSOs to seek an annual vetting by the Central intelligence and security agencies came after the Union I&B ministry received several complaints from various quarters that the signals of several banned channels, were being broadcast in several parts of the terror affected Kashmir valley.

The government had felt that there was a need to tighten the noose on the local MSOs who were beaming satellite feed to such channels which air objectionable content and stop its broadcast in the country.