PEMRA Still Figuring Out the Process for Auction of DTH Licenses

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) is still engaged in consultation process on the Direct to Home (DTH) licences and once again failed on Wednesday to announce the bidding schedule that was originally planned in December 2015 but was delayed.

However, the Authority decided to devise a comprehensive policy in collaboration with Ministry of Interior and Federal Board of Revenue to make Direct to Home (DTH) project a success.

PEMRA, about six months ago postponed the Direct to Home (DTH) bidding at the end time after Absar Alam was appointed Chairman of the Authority.

PEMRA’s 112th Authority meeting held Wednesday at its Headquarters with Absar Alam in the Chair to review recommendations of the committee comprising PEMRA officers with regard to DTH Licensing in Pakistan.

The Authority was briefed about the outcome of public consultation process initiated by PEMRA vis-à-vis DTH Licensing on certain issues and had detailed discussions.

While pondering upon DTH Licensing regime in Pakistan, the Authority expressed grave concern over the menace of illegal DTH being sold in the country and recommended, immediate crackdown against the same.

PEMRA had postponed the Direct to Home (DTH) bidding just three days ahead of auction in Dec 2015

It was decided that a comprehensive policy may be devised with Ministry of Interiors and Federal Board of Revenue to make DTH Project a success.

PEMRA has also sought input of the general public/ stakeholders on various matters related to DTH Licensing process.

According to PEMRA, to promote, extend and provide a wider choice to the people of Pakistan, it intends to grant up to three non-exclusive Direct-to-Home (DTH) Distribution Service Licenses to companies incorporated in Pakistan.

The DTH licenses will be issued through a competitive bidding process under Section 19 of the PEMRA Ordinance.

But the question of when is yet to be answered.

Also Read: 8 Companies Shortlisted for 3 DTH Licenses in Pakistan


  • What one can expect from PML n and chairman like Absar Alam who sheer heading PEMRA on behalf of thieves !! Until uneducated people are in majority in Pakistan it can never make progress

    • Why you blame on PML-N govt. This Govt is the only govt who are continuing announcing new technology in Pakistan day by day.

      • They are the only one who just jumped to cancel the bidding process and injected dummy Absar Alam and they auctioned 3g to make money to establish offshor companies

        they are the only one who injected journalist in every department to control media

            • Controlled by Goverenment. Media is the bone of contention in every matter. Ab dekh lo Media fasad pehla raha hai, aaj aik program mein Tahir Ul Qadri ka Interview Videocon per kr rahe hain. yeah banda kab se khamosh tha , media ne dekha k Panama wala mamla pheeka parh raha hai to is ko bhi ly aye fasad parane

              • Tuq or anyone else makes sense on Pakistani media due to corrupt govt. Our people hate corrupt rulers and anyone opposing them is what public want to hear.

              • Who cares about TUQ? Everyone has the right to be on Media. That’s what freedom of speech and human rights is all about. Oh, wait. Noora Tax League only knows how to tax and control … and murder, and money laundering. And offshore accounts, filled with tax extorted from the people of Pakistan. MQM-Nawaz Group. Extorting money via the umbrella of legal constitution. Seriously, what’s the point of such a government or such a constitution that has the power to extort money from the general public and destroy their lives and earnings.

      • Like Taxes? And more Taxes. Oh, wait! Even more taxes!

        Technology for Taxes. New Servers and PCs for Taxes. Legislation for Taxes. Noora Tax League.

  • Why do we forget Cable operators who see their profits getting affected by DTH?
    Don’t you think it’s all about money being offered to relevant govt. authorities to delay DTH?
    If you may recall, Mobilink did the same to delay the launch of Ufone and afterwards to delay Mobile Number portability.
    DTH is inevitable but will come as soon as PTA and others find a more lucrative source of kickbacks.

  • Hire PTA officials who did 3G auction if you are inefficient one. Height of nonsense. TV pe beth kr to apny apko Einstein smjh rhy hoty thy ye Absar sb.

  • While pondering upon DTH Licensing regime in Pakistan, the Authority expressed grave concern over the menace of illegal DTH being sold in the country and recommended, immediate crackdown against the same.—————————————— haha what a joke hall road Lahore is filled with Indian dth and even you can found their ads on olx. I think govt should just stop and launch free dth on Paksat and include Pakistani channels only to compete with Indian free dth. Most of other channels are Indian and they are banned or have no landing rights so Pakistani dth service with remain expensive and worthless even if they launch and our corrupt govt has already decided that they will license dth services at higher rate than neighboring India . so it is obvious without variety of foreign channels and high licences fee will doom this project in quite short period of time.

  • The delay is simple: the cable service providers who are spending millions on digitization are greasing the right palms.

  • 1- What action are they talking about against illegal DTH selling in Pakistan.
    There are multiple Indian Brands (Dish TV, TATA Sky & Videocon) are available at Hall Road (Lahore).
    So far no actions were taken against them. They are selling it openly and have no threats.
    2- The matter of launching the DTH is too much delayed. I still remember that Muhammad Ali Durrani (PML – Q) was the Minsiter of Information & Broadcast has talked about launching the DTH service in Pakistan.
    3- What about the people associated with Cable industry ?? There are thousands of families, which are directly and indirectly related to the Cable industry.

  • With internet prices coming down how needs DTH and cable TV. i’m sure it will be obsolete in coming years.

    • Future is 4k and 8k. And you cannot stream 4k and 8k over the internet. Even if you can do it it will be total wastage of bandwidth . So dthbis not go8ng any where in near future

      • India mein 4K chal raha hai aur hamare hann sirf 4 HD channels hi aye hain. Yani abhi to shuruaat hain aur bare media group har kaam mein to naqal krte hain laiken apne channel HD per nhi larahe. PSL ko dekh lo itna bara event hua woh bhi HD me nhi tha

  • One would think that there are plenty of models all over the world that we can adapt by modifying it to our specific needs?

  • Because cable operators don’t want this happen & they must be bribing gov.


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