There has been explosive growth in the number of TV channels that are beamed in Indian Homes. In the earlier part of this decade we had no more than 100 channels – which by the end of it has ballooned to over 500 TV Channels. Yes, that’s true we currently have over 500 TV channels that can be viewed in India and another 100 in waiting to go live.
However, what this growth has done is – It is choking the Spectrum availability. Till now it was only the Telecom Industry was feeling the heat for spectrum availability, who had stopped accepting Fresh applications from players who wanted to enter the ever growing Telecom Market.
Now, as per the notice put up by Information & Broadcasting Ministry, it has been decided to suspend receiving applications for permissions to uplink TV channels from India and downlink them in the country with immediate effect” [source]
The suspension is currently temporary as I&B ministry has sought recommendations from TRAI on this aspect. However, with limited spectrum available for Broadcasting TV channels, I am not sure if this suspension will be lifted anytime soon.
Its quite clear that Spectrum availability (or the lack of it) is going to pose a major problem in coming years. The question is – How long will ministry stop allowing new entrants? Isn’t this really a worrying factor? This kind of suspension will put a full stop to growth of Broadcasting Industry.
If the current players (be it telecom or broadcasting) know that they will not be seeing new competition, there services are not going to improve. It may turn out to be a monopolistic market for select current players only.
Whats your take on this?