ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is suffering significant financial losses due to the delay in launching DTH services. Seven companies are operating DTH services in India and also illegally in Pakistan, resulting in billions of rupees being transferred to India.
Pemra is accused of favoring the licensee company and neglecting its responsibilities. Despite three companies participating in the DTH bidding auctions, the successful bidder has failed to launch the service. As such, the law provides the other companies the opportunity to launch services, but the regulator did not do so, perhaps watching its vested interests.
If a company fails to start the DTH service within a year, the regulator is obliged to restart the entire DTH bidding process.
Pemra authority always takes credit for the development and progress of DTH services in giving briefings to the Prime Minister and President but practically does nothing. SIFC has lamented Pemra for not launching DTH services in the country.
There is a need to probe into the whole issue so that the most important and sensitive project can be started without further delay and the people of Pakistan get modern and digital services. If the direct-to-home (DTH) service in Pakistan is launched without delay it has the potential to generate approximately 20,000 jobs in the private sector in a very short time and prevent the outflow of billions of dollars to India which Pakistanis pay for illegally using its DTH services.
The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), established by the Prime Minister, has expressed concern towards the Chairman of the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) for not introducing direct-to-home (DTH) service in the country after the elapse of eight years.
A letter has been written by the Special Investment Facilitation Council to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) chairman [SIFC’s U.O. No. 13/39/IT/DTH/2024-SEFC] regarding failure in starting the DTH services in the country despite the fact, license for it was issued eight years ago.
As per the background of the issue, the bidding process for licensing DTH services in Pakistan started in 2004, after which Pemra re-initiated the bidding in 2016 when out of three companies, one Shehbaz Sky International Limited was successfully granted a DTH services license.
The successful bidding company was supposed to start the DTH television satellite service within a year of the award of the license. However, this company has not made the commercial launching of the national DTH service in the country to date. The SIFC called a meeting of all stakeholders to deliberate on the matter and took a strict view of this inordinate delay and the loss incurred due to it.
Sources in Pemra said the company, which was given the license for the DTH service, had not taken any practical step so far to launch the DTH service causing huge monetary and technological losses to the country.
It is notable that instead of meeting the conditions laid out to start the DTH service, the company moved an application to the authorities to seek a waiver of an amount of over Rs900 million, imposed in the form of various fines. The company also sought permission to procure tax-free equipment to start the DTH services in Pakistan.
According to sources, the company did not pay billions of rupees to Pemra for the license and also did not start the service as per schedule. Sources said Pemra issued a final notice to the licensee company, Shehbaz International, but the situation is unchanged. When this correspondent contacted the Shehbaz Sky International chief executive officer (CEO) to seek his version, he refused to reply to any questions in this regard.
If the direct-to-home (DTH) service in Pakistan is launched without delay, it has the potential to generate approximately 20,000 jobs in the private sector in a very short time and prevent the outflow of billions of dollars to India which Pakistanis pay for illegally using its DTH service.
Pakistan is still behind in innovation in media coverage despite good talent and resources. Around the world, DTH is the chain between broadcasters and TV audiences, whereas in Pakistan a cable operator is wedged in the middle. With DTH, signals are transmitted from direct-broadcast satellites.
The benefits of DTH are manifold: greater service coverage, more channels, better signal quality, multiple language options, the option to only pay for the channels and services that the user wants, and value-added options such as parental lock and both pre-booked and impulse pay per view.
In 2015, there were around 2.5 million DTH users in Pakistan, concentrated across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. DTH services of Indian companies such as Dish TV, Reliance Sundirect, SDN, Tata Sky, and Videocon were reported as being sold through local agents working under the radar, earning millions of US dollars per year through illegal channels.
Understandably, this is not a point of concern for authorities in Pakistan. Whereas, it is estimated that DTH service will generate 1,800 direct and another 16,000 jobs in Pakistan and save out flow of FE (USD200 million-300 million USD) from Pakistan (creating jobs and stoppage of FE is also not on the priority list of concern quarters). The biggest investment in the media industry is if DTH is launched.
Regulators say, that DTH services will democratize access to real-time audience analytics, which can help channels negotiate better with advertisers and impact their channel ratings. It hurts channels that have allegedly relied on their backdoor relationships with rating agencies, hurting the business model of rating agencies and cable operators. The democratization of viewership data from DTH services gets in the way of the media oligopoly.
Absar Alam, ex-chairman of PEMRA said, “DTH is an inevitable platform for progress in media services and the Supreme Court had instructed PEMRA not to halt auctioning of DTH licenses. The ones who are opposing and running campaigns against DTH, the ones who have approached the courts had never opposed Indian DTH”.
Delay in DTH adoption benefits the existing leaders/manipulators. Loss to the state resulted as the Paksat-1R satellite launched in 2011 had special transponders for DTH, the satellite is ending its design life in 2026 without serving DTH. In March 2018, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and China Great Wall Industry Cooperation (CGWIC) signed a contract for the acquisition of the communication satellite Paksat Multi-Mission Satellite (PakSat-MMI).
Among the range of arguments in favor of this acquisition, it was said that the Paksat-MMI would prove to be another major asset to initiate and expand various communication services including DTH. Satellite completed his life awaiting DTH services launch.
Now, a new satellite is coming this year with BSS (special capacity for DTH) with no DTH in sight, who will use this and blame it?
Some people say that DTH is being stopped by institutions and industry people with vested interests. Which, sometimes starts sounding correct. Therefore, someone must take responsibility to find out the truth behind the label of vested interest or incompetency of the Regulator vis-viz blame game.
Pakistan has suffered an immense loss in terms of money and advanced media technology due to the Direct-to-Home (DTH), a satellite service project, which has gone almost shelved due to the alleged corruption at the departmental level and gross violation of the Pemra rule and mandate given under the license to the private company, M/s Shahzad Sky Private Limited.
Sources in the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), who have been in the know about the developments for a long, have narrated the background of the DTH project and maintained that the Pemra after working for several years and deliberations took practical steps for launching the DTH project by holding official auctioning of the license for it on October 3, 2016. They said bidding, held in Islamabad, was well attended by private companies that were interested in investing in Pakistan. Of all, three companies made successful bids which were to procure Rs 14.5 billion for the government exchequer.
However, due to security clearance, the government of Pakistan refused to grant licenses to two companies while an Islamabad-based private company, Shahzad Sky Private Limited, was issued the license for providing Direct-to-Home (DTH) services in Pakistan. The bid-winner company was also given the facility to pay 50% in cash and the remaining amount in installments of 10 years. Pending the remaining amount, the company in a surprise move challenged the 20% advance tax before the Islamabad High Court and stalled its payment to the national kitty.
Sources said Indian DTH in Pakistan operates from the home project which is being used by millions of Pakistanis who are not only receiving inspiration from the Indian side through that means but are also paying billions of dollars every month to the Indian operators for viewing channels, directly, online and other means. Pakistan is already facing a dollar shortage and is facing problems even in opening LCs due to this reason.
It may be noted that the DTH project was backed by comprehensive homework at the government level. Finally, when the licence was given to Shehzad Sky it was believed that the same would be implemented and put into operation without delay to counter the Indian propaganda through media besides providing healthy entertainment to the countrymen as per our national objectives. However, the licensee company Shehzad Sky failed to start the project and provide services despite the passage of a year which consequently expired in 2020.
However, apparently through shady deals and illegal means, the company is still holding the option to start the service in violation of the license rules and regulations. Pemra was supposed to at least charge the private company for not starting the DTH services and for fulfilling the license rules as well as not making due payments. But no action has been taken against it and authorities have also not confiscated its entire money as per the Pemra section 35.