PM backs direct to home TV
As disappointing as it may sound for cable operators, the DTH (direct to home television) is here to stay and it has the support of none other than the prime minister of the country.
“DTH must be allowed and has to be allowed,” said Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley during a press conference on 26 May 2010 last week.
The prime minister said that when the country decided to open itself to foreign television networks services and when BBS television was introduced, the government had promised to the people that the same services that is being promised to Thimphu valley will be provided to all parts of the country to all the citizens within five years.
It is well beyond five years and there are still large numbers of homes and villages that have no access to television which I think is widely important for democracy, said the prime minister.
“DTH is the only way through which we can reach out to the otherwise unreachable places through cable operators,” the prime minister said.
There are however conditions laid down for the cable nemesis. The condition the government has laid for DTH operators is that they will not compete in the urban areas.
“To that, they will be bound by the same rules and regulations with respect to number of channels and kind of programs they can relay or provide through their services. And they would be subject to the same kind of monitoring and control as the cable operators,” said Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley.
Addressing talks afloat that DTH operators are not being regulated under the rules which are applicable to the cable operators, the prime minister said if it is true that the DTH operators are not subject to any of the restrictions that the cable operators are, then the ministry of communications and particularly BICMA are not doing their job and the government will ensure that these gaps are plugged.
The prime minister said measures are also in place whereby the cable operators would not be considerably disadvantaged. At the same time, people will have access to information through DTH channels and programs that are of the kind that are in keeping with the government’s policies and not of the kind that are undesirable.
The DTH television was approved by the government last year during a cabinet meet.
Sonam Pelvar in The Journalist