The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) today notified the amendment of existing Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) guidelines adding two new paragraphs to the regulations after paragraph 15.
The amendment is mainly focused on the sharing of infrastructure by their HITS operator and the conditions for the grant of the same entity. Currently, India only has one operational HITS service which is run by IndusInd Media and Communication.
The new guidelines state that HITS operators whenever feasible should share the platform infrastructure on a voluntary basis for distribution of TV signals provided that the signals of the HITS platform are provided to the subscribers only through Cable operators only with encryption of signals.
The sharing of transport stream transmitted by the HITS platform between the HITS platform and MSOs will be permitted while the HITS platform will not be allowed to be used as a teleport for the uplinking of TV channels.
Those willing to share their transport stream with MSO will have to ensure that the MSO has a valid interconnection agreement with the company for the same.
The sharing of infrastructure by HITS operator with MSO is only supposed to happen on Indian controlled satellites with prior written permission from the Department of Space (DOS). The infrastructure sharing will only happen after both the new applicant and existing licensee submitted a detailed proposal for infrastructure sharing giving details of infrastructure proposed to be shared and in the manner, infrastructure will be shared.
The same will require approval from MIB, NOCC, WPC, DoT, security clearance from MHA, clearance for satellite use and transponder sharing from DOS, NOCC-DoT certification, and Wireless Operating license issued by WPCW.
The sharing of satellite resources and uplinking infrastructure will only happen after written permission of MIB and WPC and NOCC, DoT. The respective operators will have to maintain the historical log data of CAS and SMS for two years.
The permission for the same will only be granted after compliance of all provisions of the guidelines issued by MIB, NOCC, and WPC, DoT for grant of license to the HITS operator.
