Electronic Journalism

Lesson 15 : Media Policies - Laws For Electronic Journalism

Cable Television Networks Act

Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995:

It basically regulates the operation of Cable Television in the territory of India and regulates the subscription rates and the total number of total subscribers receiving programmes transmitted in the basic tier. In pursuance of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2002, the Central Government may make it obligatory for every cable operator to transmit or retransmit programme of any pay channel through an addressable system as and when the Central Government so notifies. Such notification may also specify the number of free to air channels to be included in the package of channels forming the basic service tier.

The following are the important provisions of this Act

Cable television network not to be operated except after registration: No person shall operate a cable television network unless he is registered as a cable operator under this Act : Provided that a person operating a cable television network, immediately before the commencement of his Act, may continue to do so for a period of ninety days from such commencement ; and if he has made an application for registration as a cable operator under section 4 within the said period, till he is registered under that section or the registering authority refuses to grant registration to him under that section.

Programme Code: No person shall transmit or re-transmit through a cable service any programme unless such programme is in conformity with the prescribed programme code :Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to the programmes of foreign satellite channels which can be received without the use of any specialised gadgets or decoder.

Advertisement Code: No person shall transmit or re-transmit through a cable service any advertisement unless such advertisement is in conformity with the prescribed advertisement code: Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to the programmes of foreign satellite channels which can be received without the use of any specialised gadgets or decoder.

Maintenance of register: Every cable operator shall maintain a register in the prescribed form indicating therein in brief the programmes transmitted or re-transmitted through the cable service during a month and such register shall be maintained by the cable operator for a period of one year after the actual transmission or re-transmission of the said programmes.

Compulsory transmission of two Doordarshan channels

1. Every cable operator using a dish antenna or Television Receiver only shall, from the commencement of this Act, re-transmit at least two Doordarshan channels of his choice through the cable service.
   
2. The Doordarshan channels referred to in sub-section (1) shall be re-transmitted without any deletion or alteration of any programme transmitted on such channels.

Use of standard equipment in cable television network: No cable operator shall, on and from the date of the expiry of a period of three years from the date of the establishment and publication of the Indian Standard by the Bureau of Indian Standards in accordance with the provisions of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 (63 of 1986), use any equipment in his cable television network unless such equipment conforms to the said Indian Standard.