Broadcasters are fuming over last week?s sharp hike in fees to get and renew television licences, which they feel discourage smaller players, impose heavy financial burden and leave them at the mercy of the government. Some media firms, especially those operating in the news & current affairs space, are seeking legal opinion about the new rules which took effect October 7, which hiked net worth criteria by nearly seven times and raised licence fees.

Broadcasters are also talking to their lawyers on the provisions to deny licence renewal for those found guilty of violating the government?s programme code five times. The broadcasters? body has already criticised this provision.

?We are seeking legal opinion on the new uplinking/downlinking norms. Prima facie, the move goes against our democratic right to engage in business. The move eliminates chances for smaller regional players who want a news channel licence,? said a senior executive of a southern media company planning to apply for such a licence.

Two recognised bodies, the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) have criticised the new norms, putting the government in a fix.

While declining comment on the stricter net worth requirements for news channels, both BEA and NBA have attacked the rules on renewing licences.

Under the new uplinking/downlinking norms, the government will not renew the licence for channels found guilty of violating the ‘Programme and Advertisement Code’ on five occasions or more. BEA said the move aims to control media, while the NBA expressed ‘regret’ about the norm. Current norms say all channel licences must get renewal after every 10 years.

In its defence, government sources claim the norms have been in works for over 15 months and were made in consultation with all stakeholders and on the recommendations of sector watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). ?The aim is to deter non-serious applicants from crowding the media landscape and to have effective guidelines punish those who violate norms. If the government wanted to control the media, as alleged, it could have adopted what Trai had recommended ? Rs 100 crore net worth requirement for a news channel licence and Rs 25 crore for non-news channel licence. But it did not and came up with something which will not stop the growth of media business,? said a senior government official.

The Cable TV Act always had the provision of withdrawal/cancellation/non-renewal of TV licence for violators; so there is nothing new in the revised guidelines, the official said.

Earlier, the net worth requirement for a news channel licence was Rs 3 crore (now Rs 20 crore) and Rs 1.5 crore (now Rs 5 crore) for non-news channels.

Broadcasters are not buying the argument on the renewal norms. ?A government official can pull up an individual channel on content for four times on one pretext or the other and finally threaten that channel with non-renewal, should it not fall in line,? BEA said. On its part, NBA said there was ?no requirement? for such a norm. ?There certainly cannot be any power vested in the I&B ministry to cancel or ‘refuse to renew’ a broadcaster?s licence on their subjective view that a television channel has violated the terms of the Uplinking & Downlinking guidelines or the provisions of the Cable TV Act,? NBA said in a statement. Both BEA and NBA are planning to seek an appointment with I&B minister Ambika Soni to discuss the matter.