November 30, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 8, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: The recent developments in Pakistan’s electronic media have created over 80,000 new jobs and attracted an investment of over Rs5 billion during the last three years.

These figures are based on the licences issued by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to private enterprises in different sub-sectors of the electronic media.

PEMRA has also estimated an investment of Rs654 million in wireless cable (MMDS), some Rs580 million in direct-to-home technology, Rs154 million in FM radio sector and Rs2.6 billion in satellite TV field.

The teleport facility is likely to fetch an investment of Rs500 million, shows a report of PEMRA for June 2003 to June 2006.The report has, however, not mentioned any details of the increasing control of the private electronic media by the state and the shrinking space for freedom of information. But, it still depicts a very bright picture of the expansion of electronic media in Pakistan.

The investment would potentially give fillip to local production of complementary goods such as cable, digital receivers, dish, stabilizers, encrypted cards, antenna and TV sets. Nobel TV plans to produce 500,000 TV sets per annum while Sony, National and Singer are already assembling TV sets.

The report says that electronic media can serve as “mega employment generation tool”. Presently, the cable television sector is employing some 30,000 people who are the bread-earners of families comprising around 500,000 members. Pakistan Television (PTV) has 6,000 employees on its payroll while Radio Pakistan has manpower of over 3,000.By the end of 2005-06, the fast expanding private electronic media has generated employment for 50,000 to 60,000 people. The radio sector has employed about 1,000 people, while satellite TV generated direct employment for over 4,000 others. The direct-to-home (DTH) technology could potentially accommodate about 200 people and the cable sector around 10,000. The wireless cable (MMDS) has the capacity to generate 1,000 jobs.

At present, the report says, the electronic media is fetching annual advertisement revenue of more than Rs3 billion. The cable television is earning about Rs5 billion through subscriptions every year. With the establishment of new media outlets, the revenues of the electronic media are expected to shoot up to Rs7 billion by 2007. PEMRA is also hopeful that being a highly capital intensive and holding promising employment opportunities, the electronic media could contribute substantially to the country’s economic growth. It expects about Rs6 billion investments in the sector apart from the government’s spending on the state-run electronic media.

The number of existing television viewers of 50 million is increasing by half a million every year, the report claims.

PEMRA is of the view that in the present conditions, the country can easily sustain the establishment of over 230 FM radio stations, at least 12 to 15 satellite TV channels, around 3,000 cable networks, more than 25 MMDS stations and about two DTH operations. In the satellite television sector alone, PEMRA estimates that 36 to 44 channels may become viable until the year 2010.

PEMRA has also issued 86 licenses, in three phases, for establishing FM radio stations in 56 cities.