“We have submitted a proposal for the fourth amendment to the National Broadcasting Regulations at the Ministry of Law and Justice last Friday. The amendment includes provision to permit Nepali service providers to operate the DTH service," said Under Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications Shailaja Regmi. [break]
The Ministry will permit Nepali service providers to set up their own port and provide DTH services in Nepal. "Some organizations including the Chaudhary Group have already evinced interest in providing DTH service in Nepal," Regmi, who looks after the Audio Visual Broadcasting Section at the Ministry, revealed.
Executive Director of the Chaudhary Group Nirvana Chaudhary (CG) said his company was conducting a feasibility study for DTH service and would start the process in earnest once it gets the go ahead from the government.
Regmi conceded that many homes were currently using Indian DTH services but promised that the government will not allow Indian DTH services in Nepal once the new law comes into effect. "The Indian DTH services have made their way into Nepal due to incompetence of the customs," said Regmi, adding, if Indian service providers were allowed, Nepali providers would face difficulties in competing with them," she added.
Regmi also said that the Ministry is planning to regulate the foreign channels being aired in Nepal through the amendment in the regulations. "Currently, any channel can be aired in Nepal. After this amendment any foreign channel that wants its programs to be aired in Nepal has to get downlink permission from the government and pay certain annual fee," she said.
Regmi, however, said that the fee would be reasonable and would not affect the subscribers. "We are not focusing on revenue generation. Instead, we want to control foreign channels from airing programs that would have an adverse impact on viewers," she stated.
Advantages of DTH service
The majority of channels currently provided by the cable operators are useless to an average viewer. A subscriber of DTH service can select channels that he wishes to watch from a basket and has to pay only for the channels that he views.
The picture quality and resolution of DTH is better than that currently provided by the cable operators. Signals are directly received by the dish at home from the satellites and are not distorted by any means.
Furthermore, the cable services generally are dysfunctional during power cuts and a subscriber cannot watch the channels even if he has alternative power arrangement at home. With DTH, a subscriber can watch channels if he has alternative arrangement and don´t have to be dictated by load shedding schedule.
premdhakal@myrepublica.com
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