ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Monday announced the revised tariff for cable operators for distribution of satellite television channels.

The tariff ceiling for a foreign satellite channel has been fixed at Re1 per channel per subscriber per month.

Keeping the high cost of running the sports channels in view, the tariff ceiling for such a satellite channel would be Rs2 per subscriber per month, it said.

The tariff ceiling for encrypted Pakistani satellite TV channels has also been fixed at Rs2.

Pemra clarified that the need to fix a higher ceiling for Pakistani channels arose since they carried Pakistani content and therefore deserved a larger share in the revenue. Moreover, the Pakistani channels covered a smaller market and, therefore, needed incentives to keep operating, it said.

Pemra would give details of all its licencees to the licensed distributors.

The tariff determination would be subject to the condition that the satellite channel owners would invest a percentage of their revenue within Pakistan on research and development of electronic media and other broadcasting related activities in consultation with the authority.

The authority said the foreign satellite channel owners should endeavour to carry Pakistani content on their channels where possible.

Forced bundling of channels by the distributors would not be allowed and the charges would be billed in rupees.

The tariff will be reviewed after 18 months.

It said only those channel distributors who hold distribution licence in Pakistan for specific channels from Pemra would be allowed to provide access to cable television operators.

The operators would carry channels of the national broadcaster within their first 10 channels and all other Pakistani channels within the first 20, it said.

It said DTH service by satellite channel distributors was not permitted and a separate licence was required for it.

The satellite channel holders could only sell their channels and associated decoders to licensed cable operators, it said.—APP