ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court on Tuesday overturned a Dec 28, 2016, Lahore High Court verdict of setting aside Pakistan Electronic Media Regula­tory Authority’s (Pemra) regulations prohibiting television broadcasters from entering the Direct-to-Home (DTH) market.

A five-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had taken up appeals moved by Pemra and other petitioners against the Lahore High Court order of declaring regulations 2.11 and 3.23 of the DTH Regulations 2016 as ultra vires and illegal.

The LHC had ruled that Pemra had acted in violation of its own ordinance while conducting bidding for DTH licences and set aside the auction.

In addition to Pemra, MAG Entertain­ment (Pvt) Ltd, Startimes Communi­cations Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and Shahzad Sky (Pvt) Limited had also moved appeals before the court.

Under regulations 2.11 and 3.23 of the DTH Regulations 2016, read with Rules 13(3) and 13(4) of Pemra Rules, 2009, the participation of broadcasters in the DTH distribution market is prohibited.

On Nov 24, 2016, Pemra had auctioned three DTH licences for Rs14.69 billion with an aim to curb proliferation of illegal Indian DTH causing losses of billions of rupees to the national exchequer annually.

The establishment of DTH platform for distribution of television broadcast content requires very high capital expenditure running into billions of rupees and, therefore, only the largest broadcasters would be in a position to set up a DTH distribution platform, Pemra petition argued.

Pemra has issued more than 120 television licences so far to different companies of which 91 have been issued for satellite up-linking from Pakistan and 26 with landing rights.

In addition, Pemra had also issued over 170 FM Radio licences to private operators and university campuses. It has also issued over 3,000 cable TV licences for distribution of broadcast media.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2018