KARACHI, 14 January 2006 — Cable operators have threatened to black out Pakistani channels if the government does not lift a ban on Indian channels soon.
Last month, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which regulates satellite broadcasting in the country, banned 35 foreign TV channels, many of which are Indian.
“We have informed the government that we won’t wait longer than a month to see if the ban is lifted. Otherwise we’ll take extreme action,” said Khalid Arain, vice chairman of Cable Operators Association of Pakistan (CAP).
“We may stop showing Pakistani and other entertainment channels if the ban is not lifted,” said Arain.
Local media owners recently formed their own group called the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA). CAP and the PBA will meet to discuss the situation.
“We will opt for further action after the meeting with all stakeholders, including the PBA. We will ask them to help us negotiate the ban with Islamabad,” Arain said.
Cable operators said they would wait for at least two more weeks to see if the issue was settled. They say they have suffered losses due to the ban as a majority of their clientele is addicted to Indian channels and have withdrawn their subscriptions. “In just a little over three weeks since the ban was imposed our revenues have dropped 50 percent because of disconnections,” Arain complained.
India and Pakistan normalized their relations in the middle of 2003 following which many cross-border routes were opened to ensure increased interaction between the two people. The two governments have also decided to reopen the Khokhrapar-Munabao border next month. But despite all this, Pakistani authorities consider it against “national interests” to allow Indian channels to be watched across the country.
“Most of our clients love to watch Indian channels for movies and soaps and this ban has left them all at a loss and caused us huge revenue losses,” said Arain.
PEMRA, which works under the Ministry of Interior, has sweeping powers on viewing of satellite channels. It has been withdrawing and imposing bans on cable operators since the satellite TV culture came to Pakistan in the 1990s.
PEMRA allows the broadcasting of only 64 approved foreign cable TV channels. Forty of them are English-language channels, five Arabic, two German, one Persian and one each in Bengali and Turkish. Aside from these, two Islamic teaching channels and 12 other Pakistani channels are legal. PEMRA regulations bind operators into running state-owned PTV and other Pakistani channels on priority frequencies.
