Friday, November 11 2005 19:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government today (November 11, 2005) made it mandatory for channels downlinking into India to register themselves in the country to have an effective control on their operations and banned any advertising and news programmes designed specifically for Indian audiences in case of news and current affairs channels.

"...no person/entity shall downlink a channel, which has not been registered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting," the Ministry said releasing the new downlinking guidelines.

It also went ahead with the clause of mandatory sharing of cricket rights with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

"The sports channels/sports rights management companies having TV broadcasting rights shall with immediate effect share their feed with Prasar Bharati for national and international sporting events of national importance, held in India or abroad, for terrestrial transmission and DTH broadcasting (free-to-air)," the Ministry said and added that these would be decided by it in consultation with Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, Prasar Bharati and the rights holder concerned.

"In case of cricket events, these shall include all matches featuring India and the finals and semi-finals of international competitions," it said, and added that in cases where rights have been obtained prior to the issue of the notification, the rights holders will be obliged to share the feed for all matches featuring India and the finals.

"Revenue sharing formula of 75:25 in favour of rights holders without any minimum guarantee/opportunity cost should be applied," it said, adding that marketing would be alloted to the party which offers the maximum revenues.