• The Union Cabinet has approved revised guidelines for Direct to Home (DTH) broadcasting services. The guidelines allow 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in DTH.
• Also, it has increased the license period to twenty years. Earlier, it was ten years.
• The license fee has been revised to 8% from 10% of the Adjusted Gross Revenue.
• The broadcasting firms will have to pay the license fee in quarterly basis. The firms are now paying in annual basis.
• The guidelines also enable the DTH service providers to invest more coverage leading to increased operations and higher growth.
• Under the new guidelines, the Government of India has allowed the DTH operators to share the infrastructure. The service providers shall share common hardware for their Conditional Access System applications and Subscriber Management System. This will bring in more efficient use of scarce satellite resources. Ultimately, it will help to reduce the costs borne by the consumers.

DTH :

• It is Direct To Home Service. It is a digital satellite service that provides television viewing services through satellite transmissions. On the other hand, in a Cable connection, the cable TV operators receive the signals from satellite and transmit to nearby areas through cables. In DTH, the customers are directly connected to the satellites.