IHC Allows PEMRA To Issue New Licences, Dismisses PBA Plea

PEMRA will continue the process of granting licences to new satellite TV channels following the dismissal of plea of Pakistan Broadcasting Association (PBA) by IHC, APP reported.

The regulatory body issued a notification, stating that the court issued the ruling after it assured that ‘’legitimate rights of all its licencees/ stakeholders shall be protected in accordance with the law of land and provision of PEMRA laws”.

The notification also stated that while PEMRA since 2002 has issued 80 TV channel licences, it aims to cope with the increasing demand of digital distribution mediums like IPTV, Digital Cable and upcoming DTH distribution services which has capacity to carry more than 250 channels.

Meanwhile, while PEMRA has the go ahead to issuue new licences, news channels have not been paying their workers for months and firing them in the name of ‘financial crunch’.