Free spectrum bounty under scanner

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is planning to review the issue of licensing TV channels. It had asked broadcasters to give details of their operational status along with the Wireless Planning & Coordination (WPC) license by 11 June. The MIB had earlier issued a notice in this regard on 25 March seeking a reply within 15 days. However, the deadline was extended as most of the channels deliberately did not respond to the notice.

 

The airwaves spectrum that private broadcasters occupy now is valued at thousands of crores of rupees and they have been allotted the license to use it without any license fee to the government. In 1995 the Supreme Court (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting V/S Cricket Association of West Bengal) had ruled that airwaves (the spectrum) are public property which must be utilised for advancing public good. Television broadcasting has now become a very lucrative industry and their sole aim in airing their programmes is profit and not the public good that the Supreme Court indicated. Their intention seems to be to capture as many viewers as they can since advertisers pay on the basis of viewership. While it is okay to contend that the channels have a right to broadcast whatever they want, since their motive is profit it makes sense that they should be paying to use this public property. In this changed broadcasting scenario we would like to appeal to the policy makers to reconsider the existing system of not charging license fee to private television broadcasters.

 

The electromagnetic spectrum is a major asset for a nation. In the United Kingdom (UK) it contributes about 3 per cent to its GDP. The Indian government too should apply spectrum pricing to all broadcasters to promote efficient use of the spectrum. This will also raise resources for the nation as was demonstrated in the recent 3G spectrum auction when the nine telecom players paid Rs 67,719 crore (around $ 15 billion) to the government which had expected to raise Rs 35,000 crore (around $7.78 billion).

 

Direct-to-home (DTH) television operators are paying 10% of their gross revenue to the government as license fee for spectrum use. The government earned Rs 908 crore as one-time entry fee (OTEF) from private FM operators in phase two of the FM when it allocated 280 radio licenses to private operators. In phase one the government had earned Rs 155 crore.

 

A channel requires 1.5 to 2 MHz bandwidth with MPEG4 compression format & 2.0 to 4.0 MHz with MPEG2 compression format. The bandwidth requirement of a channel also depends on the content it carries. Channels carrying fast moving pictures like sports, movies or infotainment require more bandwidth as compared to those with slow moving pictures like news, shopping etc.

 

Television channels do not pay any spectrum fee. Those who oppose financial assistance to Prasar Bharati and want it to face competition forget the fact that private broadcasters have free usage of air-waves and they charge a hefty fee from the people. On the other hand Prasar Bharati provides a free DTH platform in addition to its free channels.

 

When the Prasar Bharati Act was promulgated the government had promised a comprehensive Broadcast Bill. The 1997 draft of the bill (which is now lying in cold storage) said that television broadcasters would have to pay license fees as may be determined by the regulator. In 2006 the UPA Government brought out a draft for the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill but strangely enough the license fee portion of the 1997 draft had been removed from it. Needless to say private broadcasters were opposed to the bill on the grounds of freedom of expression. The real issue though was the hefty fee that they would have to pay.

 

The spectrum war is not limited to the telecom space alone and has spilled over to the broadcasting sector as well. With close to 512 TV channels being beamed and 152 more awaiting permission, the government has sought the opinion of TRAI on the need to cap the number of channels given the shortage of spectrum availability.

 

I&B minister Ambika Soni has also written to Home Minister P. Chidambaram and some chief ministers, expressing concern over illegal and unregistered TV channels beamed by some operators. Many of these channels are operating without any permission from the ministry of home affairs.

 

Some of the questions that the I&B ministry has raised with TRAI regarding regulation of TV channels include:

 

-      Should there be a five-year commitment from broadcasters for running channels to assess the seriousness of the players?

-      Should financial viability of the broadcaster be made more rigid so that entry becomes tougher?

-      Should media experience be taken into account before granting permission?

-      Should there be a cap on number of channels?

-      Should there be an amendment in the uplinking / downlinking clause?

 

The logical answer to these questions may lie in recovering spectrum usage charges from existing and prospective broadcasters.