FUNCTIONS OF THE AUTHORITY

The Authority is responsible for facilitating and regulating the

establishment and operation of all broadcast media and distribution
services in Pakistan established for the purpose of international,
national, provincial, district, and local or special target audiences.
Basically it allow all cable operator to broadcast channels according
PEMRA permission and PEMRA also issue license to every channel
owner in the country, the license have certain expiry date after this
date the channel owner have to renew the license by paying some
charges on it.

PEMRA’s MANDATE
Improve the standards of information, education and entertainment

Explanation

PEMRA impose certain obligation on channel owners to provide authentic

information to their viewers and they also improve the standard of
entertainment.

Enlarge the choice available to the people of Pakistan in the media for news,
current affairs, religious knowledge, art, culture, science, technology,
economic development, social sector concerns, music, sports, drama and
other subjects of public and national interest ;

Explanation

Basically PEMRA has increasing the number of channels by providing licenses

to new channel owners recently they provided license to many news
channels.

Its main object is to increase the number of channels not only the number of
channels but also effective channels.

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 Facilitate the devolution of responsibility and power to the grass roots by
improving the access of the people to mass media at the local and
community level ;

Explanation

PEMRA also focused on providing better media facilities to every people of

Pakistan means they try to minimize the cable charges so that a middle man
can easily afford. Through this approach every person can increase its
knowledge about what’s going on in Pakistan and the rest of the world.

Ensure accountability, transparency and good governance by optimization

the free flow of information.

Explanation

PEMRA try to create a great sense of responsibility in every citizen of

Pakistan.

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 ORGANIZATION CHART OF PEMRA

STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATION (SOQ)

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 The interested parties [the companies registered with SECP under the Companies
Ordinance, 1984] desirous of getting licenses to establish and operate International Scale
TV broadcast stations in Pakistan, are advised to formally apply on the prescribed
Application Form along with the Application Processing Fee as specified in the Schedule
to the Rules and the Statement of Qualifications (SOQs) to the Pakistan Electronic Media
Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in the form and manner set out herein. The stations so
established shall operate only through satellite linkages and the license so granted would
also include permission to uplink/down-link the satellite options, subject to the payment
of relevant fees etc. as specified in the Schedule to the PEMRA Rules 2002.

 Information provided in each SOQ will be used by the Authority exclusively to

evaluate the technical, financial, managerial, legal and other capabilities of the interested
companies. Only such companies which are pre-qualified by the Authority after such
evaluation may participate in the subsequent competitive bidding for the grant of license
to establish or operate a TV broadcast station in Pakistan.

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PRE-QULIFICATION

In Pre-Qualification we discuss about the channels eligibilities requirements which are as

follows:

Eligibilities Requirements

In order to be eligible to submit a bid for the grant of license to establish or operate a
Satellite TV Broadcast Station in Pakistan, the applicant must be pre-qualified by the
Authority. An applicant must fulfill the following eligibility requirements for pre-
qualification:

(a) It must be a company or a body corporate, incorporated in Pakistan with

SECP and not an individual;

(b) Should not include Members/Directors/Shareholders who are not citizens of

Pakistan or resident in Pakistan;

(c) Should not be recipient of funds from a foreign government or organization;

(d) Should not be a firm or company the majority of whose shares are owned or
controlled by foreign nationals or whose management control is vested in
foreign nationals or companies;

(e) Should not include a person or persons who already own or operate, as sole or
joint shareholders, any other broadcast station, printed newspaper or

If any one of the above edibility is not fulfill by channel owner so the channel owner
would not able to get a license from PEMRA.

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ORGANIZATION AND MANDATORY CONTENTS OF SOQs:
Each SOQ (Statement of Qualification) shall include the following information

• Organization of the company

• Management and organizational set-up (organization structure)

• Financial Capability – Source of finance and cash flow

• Technical Proposal

• Cross Media Ownership Affidavit

• Ultimate Beneficial Ownership Affidavit

MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY

(a) Organizational set-up – names and CVs of key personnel.

(b) Experience and capability to efficiently manage the license to establish and operate a
Television broadcast station.

FINANCIAL CAPABILITY
The financial capability means the financial soundness of the company; the following
points are also included in financial capability:

The company and each Members/Directors of the company shall submit:

(a) Details of financial and operating background for the last 3 (three) years
demonstrating financial viability, including audited financial statements duly certified by
a firm of chartered accountants.
The financial statements should include consolidated balance sheet and income and profit
and loss statements. Similar financial and operating information for any parent company,
affiliates and associated undertaking/ companies should also be included. The tax returns
filed by each Member/Director of the company for the most recent 3 (three) years
together with the tax assessment orders of the relevant income tax authorities).

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(b) An up-to-date statement showing the outstanding liabilities (both fund based and non-
fund based i.e. bank guarantees, letter of credit etc.) to banks and financial institutions.
(The company and each Member/Director of the company will also be required to submit
the details of issued and paid-up capital).

(c) Any other relevant information regarding financial track record and capabilities of the
company that it believes would be helpful to the company.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

The Technical Capability section of the SOQs shall include information with respect to
the technical expertise, satellite and infrastructural capability of the company to manage a
TV broadcast station.

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DISCUSSION WITH CABLE OPERATOR

We taken a valuable discussion with Digital Cable TV Network the key points of this
discussion are as follows:

• Firstly they said that all Indian TV channels are banned in Pakistan except those
which allow by PEMRA.

• All Zee Channels are totally banned in Pakistan the reason they provided to us is
that these channels telecast some illegal programs which create wrong perception
in mind of Pakistani citizens.

• In Karachi there limited number of cable operators

• Cable operator also required to get a license from PEMRA, in order to get a
license they have to pay certain amount of money and the license have one year
validity period after this period they have to renew it, without this license they are
not allow to perform their regular business activities.

• Cable operators have to certain amount of money to STAR channel owner and
HBO because these channels are not Pakistani channels.

• Pakistan channel owners pay charges or we can say that a TAX to government and
cable operators are not bound to pay for broadcasting of Pakistani channels to
their respective channel owners.

• The cable operator also informed us that PEMRA monitor all cable operators in
Karachi or in the whole country also by visiting the offices of cable operators.

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LIST OF PAKISTANI CHANNELS

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 • Aag TV • Indus News
• AAJ TV • Labbaik TV
• ARY Digital • Masala TV
• ARY One World • MTV Pakistan
• ARY Shopping Channel • News One
• ATV (Pakistan) • NVibe
• Business Plus • Play
• CNBC Pakistan • PTV Home
• Channel 5 • PTV News
• G Kaboom (Previously • PTV Global - USA
Channel G) • PTV Bolan
• Din News • QTV
• Dhoom TV • Roshni TV (Currently Affair)
• Express News • R-world
• Filmazia • Royal TV
• Film World • Rung TV
• Geo TV • Samaa
• Geo News • Silver Screen
• Geo Super • Star Asia
• Haq TV • Sun
• Hum TV • TV 2 Day
• Indus Vision • TV One
• Indus Music • The Musik
• Virtual TV 1 • Virtual TV 2

PEMRA issues licenses to five TV channels

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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on
Tuesday issued licenses to five private television channels including Geo English
News.

According to a PEMRA news release, those channels also include:

• Business plus
• Wikkid Plus
• Sachal TV
• Aruj TV
• Roze TV
• VSH

“PEMRA at this occasion repeat its commitment to promote and expand private
electronic media in Pakistan so that everyone can enjoy access to information,”

Explanation

PEMRA promote private Pakistani Channels in order to facilitate the citizens of Pakistan.

PEMRA divided the Pakistani Channels into brooder categories which are as follows:

o News Channels

o Entertainment Channels

o Sports Channels

o English News Channels

o Channels for kids; these channels specifically broadcast programs for kids like
Wikkid-plus

o Islamic channels; these channels specifically present religious programs only.

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 Indian Channels

Basically PEMRA allow few Indian channels which are being broadcast in Pakistan the
name few Indian channels are as follows

• Star Plus
• Star Movies
• Star Gold
• Star World
• Star One
• Sony
• National GEO Graphics
• Sony Max
• DD Urdu
• ETV Urdu
• Peace TV - Islamic channel, Broadcast few programs in Urdu
• Kitab TV - Islamic Channel
• Sahara Samay Urdu - News channel launching soon
• Munsif TV Hyderabad - News channel launching soon

CATEGORIES OF BROADCAST & CABLE TV NETWORK LICENSES

There shall be six categories of licenses which are as follows

• International Scale Stations

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• National Scale Station

• Provincial Scale Station

• Local Area/Community Based stations

• Specific and Specialized Subject stations

• Cable Television network stations

IN-ELIGIBILITIES FOR GETTING A LICENSE:

A license to establish or operate a broadcast or cable TV network station shall not be

granted to

a) A person who is not a citizen of Pakistan or resident in Pakistan

b) A foreign company organized under the laws of any foreign
government
c) A firm or company the majority of whose shares are owned or
controlled by foreign nationals or whose management control is vested
in foreign nationals or companies
d) A person whose license under the ordinance has previously been
cancelled because of the contravention of the provisions of the
Ordinance
e)A person who already owns or operates, as sole or joint shareholder,
any other broadcast or cable TV network station, printed newspaper or
magazine or an advertising agency.

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14 PEMRA