By IANS,
New Delhi : The government has proposed to hike foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the broadcasting sector, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting C.M. Jatua said the FDI limit for all carriage services, including direct to home (DTH), internet protocol television (IPTV), mobile TV, Headened in the Sky (HITS) and teleport services has been proposed to be raised to 74 percent.
The limit in FM radio is proposed to be raised to 26 percent.
The limit in news and current affairs TV channels, however, was proposed to be retained at 26 percent. It would go up to 49 percent in local cable operators (LCO).
The minister also proposed to permit FDI up to 49 percent through automatic route for all carriage services.
“For content services such as uplinking, downlinking and FM radio, no automatic route is allowed,” he said.
The minister said: “The rationale for enhancing FDI in broadcasting carriage services is to bring in parity with the telecom sector in view of convergence of technologies…
“Since digitalisation is capital intensive programme, foreign investment can be a source to supplement the capital requirement.”