30 Minute Slot For Public Interest Programme; Government's New Guidelines For TV Channels The guidelines also stated that there is no permission needed for live telecast of any non-news event and only prior registration of events to be telecast the live would be necessary

The ministry of information and broadcasting, on Wednesday, approved the guidelines for the uplinking and downlinking of satellite television channels in India. As per the new guidelines, the programmes of national importance would be given a 30 minutes time slot for the broadcast. It is also stated that there is no permission needed for live telecast of any non-news event; only prior registration of events to be telecast the live would be necessary, and Indian teleports may uplink foreign channels, which was prohibited until now.

As per reports, the guidelines were first issued in 2005 and revised in 2011. The current revision has taken place after 11 years after taking into account the technological advances in the interim period.

The secretary at the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) Apurva Chandra, in a news report was quoted as saying, "We have released the new guidelines after around 11 years. We've taken the approval of the Union cabinet, as per the improvement we have considered over the years. The ministry has made multiple improvements in terms of ease of doing business."

It is said that all television stations which have the Union government's permission would have to follow the guidelines. The exceptions are foreign channels, channels broadcasting live sports or those like wildlife channels in which it is not going to be feasible to broadcast such content, the report stated.

"It is not that the government will give any programmes to the television channels for broadcasting under public interest content. The channels are free to create their own content on the themes mentioned in the guidelines," said Apurva Chandra, in a statement given to PTI.