| NEW
DELHI: The government
is likely to exempt English movie channels from sourcing 15 per cent of their
total weekly programming from India.
“We realize that not enough of English movies are made
in India and mandating such sourcing of films from India for
English movie channels would be difficult,” an official
of the information and broadcasting ministry has told Indiantelevision.com.
This
would mean that the likes of Star Movies, HBO, Zee Studio, MGM and TCM (the last
two are available on Dish TV’s DTH service) can breathe easy.
The draft Broadcasting Bill 2006 had said that all TV channels
should source from India 15 per cent of their total content
broadcast every week.
For Indian channels, dishing out primarily Indian entertainment
programmes, this clause in the draft Bill should not cause much
of a problem, but for foreign news and kids channels (Cartoon
Network, BBC, Disney, etc) and niche ones like Discovery Travel
and Living, Animax, it would mean reworking programming line
ups.
Channels
like Animax, Disney, Toon Disney, Cartoon Network and Pogo would have to make
more programmes in India or source them from here, which is not done up to the
proposed 15 per cent.
The government official explained that the proposed
clause, which is based on similar laws elsewhere in the world, was more aimed
towards addressing the concerns of the Indian animation industry.
A section of the growing Indian animation industry, led by
some big companies, had petitioned the government some months
ago that foreign channels, especially kids’, should be
directed to source a certain quantum of their programming
from India.
However, the government doesn’t propose to specify the quality of
sourced programmes as and when the Broadcast Bill is enacted into a law. “That’s
up to a respective channel to decide,” the official said.
Even foreign
news channels like BBC, CNN and Euro News need not worry unnecessarily.
The
proposed 15 per cent local programming does not mean live news, as had been envisaged
buy some channels.
It could be in the form of even current affairs programming
like documentaries, talk shows or news features.
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