PEMRA Bans Indian DTH, Channels in Pakistan

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has decided to launch a crackdown against illegal Indian satellite dishes and illegal Indian content on Satellite television channels, and cable networks.

Announcement was made by Mr. Absar Alam, Chairman PEMRA, during a press conference in Islamabad today.

Mr. Alam said that Cable TV operators broadcasting illegal Indian TV channels will be dealt severally and there’s a blanket ban on Indian DTH service providers.

Similarly, all Pakistani TV channels can air Indian content with less than 6% of total air time, starting October 15th, 2016.

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With 6% Indian content, a total of 10% foreign content can be shown at most by local TV channels.

This means that a total of 2 hours and 24 minutes can filled at most with foreign content out of which a maximum of one hour and 26 minutes can be Indian content.

Any additional airtime for Indian or foreign content on local TV channels will result into legal action from PEMRA, the chairman said.

To a question he said that punitive action will start from fines and may include suspension and revocation of the license after repeated violations.
 
He asked cable operators to immediately stop airing illegal Indian CD channels otherwise strict action will be taken.
 
He said that multi-pronged strategy has been devised to control the import, sale, purchase and use of illegal Indian satellite dishes in the country.
 
He appealed the general public to stop use of illegal Indian dishes as it was violation of the law and against the national interests.

Chairman emphasized that import of Indian DTH equipment and cards has been banned and there’s already an ongoing action against those who sell Indian DTH or help consumers load their subscription charges.

To a question, the Chairman PEMRA said under the strategy, help of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, intelligence agencies, local police has been taken to curb illegal DTH services in Pakistan.
 
He said that FIA will also be approached for ensuring that the business of illegal Indian dishes is banned. He said that the PEMRA will write letters to chief ministers of the provinces, chairman Federal Bureau of Revenue in this regard.

FIA, in collaboration with PTA, other authorities, has been hunting for Indian DTH operators in Pakistan.

In an ongoing operation, the bank accounts, branchless banking accounts, mobile numbers and websites of those operating Indian DTH services in Pakistan have been shut down for selling Indian DTH equipment and subscriptions.


  • Damn! i wanted to setup DISH TV… it’s actually fantastic…seriously….. legalize the system than banning it… Cablewalas probably paid off these guys…

    • To legalize, Dish TV needs a license in Pakistan. Will they even want to get it? Secondly, Indian channels on legalized DTH will also need landing rights. Will they get it? No.

      • Actually Indian DTH have content licence for India only, even they block Cards being used in UAE if UAE govt asks them

        • You are right. They don’t want to ban the DTH services (on the basis of morality) they just want that it should be int he control of government and in this way they want to make money.

          • In the last two days, there are reports today of police taking bribes from the people in houses in which they have seen dish antennas. The police is doing it because they heard PEMRA has threatened to raid homes where they see dish antennas

    • cablewalas are using dishtv decoeders too. if u are such in hurry buy a sim based decoder with sharing

  • Hall Road full of Indian DTH They can never seize equipment due to political influence

    • Hall Road people are amazingly “innocent”. They are burning alleged porn DVDs in large bonfires for press while on the other hand selling satellites that can be used to get non-Islamic channels (and that includes porn) at same time.

      • is cline or cardsharing included in this ban ?
        (there is no financial in cline its all working on sharing methodology or free ware just like FTA)

    • Exactly. Its better to bring an alternative rather than banning things. When they will be providing the solution as Pakistan DTH. why one would go for Indian DTH.

  • Agar Pakistan mein DTH aa bhi gaya to 200 ya 300 se ziada channel to ayen gay hi nhi kyun k sare channel to banned hain. kam az kam 999 channels ate hain indian DTH per.

  • Good Move by the PEMRA we should ban all Indian related things……look at how they see us (Pakistanis) always trying their best to destabilize pakistan by plotting terrorism and blaming it on pakistan,jealous of our friendship with china,and prosperity of Pakistan and treat our kashmiri brothers and sisters.We should unitedly boycott every indian products and find the alternative

      • Nope Indians see us a hell on earth.
        Americans don’t see us that bad at least they make a Good Export Partner on the other hand what has India given us always trying to sully Pakistan image

      • You Indian puppet. Have you seen that they do not allow any Pakistani TV channel in India? Never. Better move to India if you want everything which ruined our society.

        • You idiot, have you seen the amount of Indian, English, Porn on web? Do you want to ban that too?

          Pakistani Musicians and dramas earn millions from India. Do you want to ban that too?

        • because they are patriotic and love their country and sorry to say we dont love our country people like us vote for that candidate who made “Pakki Nalli” in front of our home…. Bagladesh established in 1971 and have their DTH ….we launched one satellite which even not works in Pakistan ….We are even worse than 1947 in economic growth….our country cant progress like this….we need to change ourselves and this corrupt system

      • Are you aware of the World affairs and matters go see some of their news websites and see all the hate their for the Pakistani Nation
        I am amazed at seeing our own Pakistanis still trying to defend India
        As for the Americans they are like that to everyone……at least they make a Good Export Partner and invest in Pakistan.

  • I purchased dish tv in December 2015 and it’s great, feeling sad if subscription renew agents are hunted down.

  • Pakistan DTH will be Big flop because usmain channel be max under 200 ho gaye or mostly Pakistan people like Indian content even i don’t like Indian drama channel but on Dishtv it has all the sports channel In FULL HD and in Pak DTH u will not see sports channel PTCL smarttv is 480p so before banning it make your Full HD DTH

    • why people will even bother indian tv when they can watch on official channels of indian tv on youtube.

    • Nope wrong info, people use to like Indiot content till Pakistani Drama industry were struggling, but HumTv & Ary Digital & also Indiot Paid Tv (GEO) have produced pretty good drama & about sport lol People aren’t a die hard fan of sports in Pakistan, its Just Cricket & unlike Indiots (cricket is there religion) for us its just a game, who cares category !! so PTV SPORT even can do the job for us (with trillions of add) but its ok, atleast Pakistani tu hai…………….& PEMRA should make sure that no Indiot shit is available in market then for sure Pakistani DTH will be Hit :))

      • Now that’s where u shine as total ignorant , pcb sold matches rights to tensports which was owned 100 percent by zee tv India. Who told Pakistani board to sell rights of match broadcast to them? Ptv buys feed from them to show you matches nothing more than that.

  • Lolz, bhai is se pehle 15-20 baar tu aisa order main parh chuka hon. Aaj tak tu ban nahi hua koi Indian content.

    Yeh khabar jab TV par chali tab bhi woh Indian Ads ke bech main hi chali hogi, ya phir indian song dub kar ke.

    Kuch nahi hona, yeh wohi baat hai ke India ne kashmir par buhat zulm kar dia hai is bar main hum break ke baad baat karte hain..

    —-BREAK—–

    Hello I am Arjun Kapoor I am QMobile, Are You..?

    ————————————

  • well if u guys have a fiber net connection (stormfiber + transworld etc gives 15 – 30 mbps connection within 3-4.5k per month ) all u need a free hd iptv list from internet. use that to watch 999 + channels buffer free

    • It’s too late and also thoughtless. Ban whatever you want but what does pemra give as alternative??? You may cry and agree but 99.9 percent others will still buy satellite dishes or stream the content they want from Internet.

      Pemra have stupidly long procedures for landing rights and nonsensical requirements. They should be attracting international channels like those in India such as universal and fox and star Hong Kong, movies now and Romedy

      They have no licensing for over the top streaming services. They are sadly lost in 1980s decade when world started to migrate from analogue to digital.

      Chairman pemra has weak technical and licensing advisors.

      India has won the dth wars and almost won content war also. Pakistan so far back. As a Pakistani I am ashamed of PEMRA and the institution it has become.

      • Actually in this decade many countries moved from analogue tv to dvb-t standard ,even countries in Africa have digital tv but Pakistan is stupidly trying hard to shift cable to digital first

    • konsi limit? jab apna na iptv hai kisi kam ka nahe hi dth planing. Indian DTH is more than 10 years old.

      • Aam Admi or ye Abdul or ju bhi Indiots kay favor may hai …. Wahi ja kay maro, We Pakistani’s even will watch PTV whole day/night if its 24 hrs a day channel lol, but Indiots can go to hell, aur abay TV dekhtay hi kiu ho !! dump the TV & start using youtube logo kay Vlogs check karo ziada achay hotay hai :p

        • U must be stupid to link me as a fan of Indian tv. The point is you have not even watched Pakistani channels on paksat so you don’t know anything about content on Pakistani tv channels. Most of them have just Indian movies and tv shows. Just look at Pakistani newspapers they only talk about Indian Bollywood news. Can u even dare to say anything about them? Dth needs huge investment and Pakistani governments had no plan to challenge cable lobby but now they are starting dth to make revenue for more corruption nothing else.

    • Bilkul theek kaha Dr Shahab aur jo news bulletins main Indian songs dubbed hote hain har news ke sath woh kis khaatey main jaega? Indian/Pakistani/Mix?

      • bhai forget these ads just tell me whenever u turn tv why there are indian dramas or indian movies displayed on Pakistani tv? Just look at Paksat all pakistani channels showing total Indian content.

  • control the import, sale, purchase and use of illegal Indian satellite dishes in the country………….. He is a fool. No one imports dishes from India only STB is imported from there via Afghan border according to many newspapers.

  • Why even Indiot content is been allowed for even 6% (1 hr 26 min’s), even though PEMRA is fully adopted son of NS Mafia, but still appreciate there decision against Indiot contents.

    • The most important question is why shows like big boss and comedy nights with kapil are imported?. Why there is no oversight on these kind of shows?

  • Yes its very strict orders yesterday at 9:20 Pm all indian Channels whose broadcast on DISH TV DTH are not showing. Only few channels are showing

  • Even Bangladesh have launched their own DTH and we are still in analogue cable era and doing these cheap steps when world is trying to settle down on Mars

    • Bangladesh launched DTH same say they started crackdown. They are clever and they did the right thing. Forget analogue cable tell me why ptv is still using same old analogue technology on airwaves? why it is not shutdown yet? even countries in Africa have turned off analogue tv.

      • Yes they should have digitize but i know areas where even analog is not available :) this is Pakistan dear ….Approx everyone who has LED have bought TATASKY,Videcon or Dish Tv and people who knows about sharing using them free…. We are going backward …….already lost part of Pakistan and pray for what is left that Allah keep it safe

  • Launch your own Pakistani DTH and Indian Dishes will die in no time! But if you make a CRACKDOWN without providing an alternative, it will only get EXPENSIVE but keep going underground. You can’t stop underworld business

  • Sir kia ye Un k liye bhI problem hai jinho ny dish lagwai hue ha jo k free ha without monthly ya yearly fee ha.. Un logo k liye problem ha ya nahi jinho ny without fee lagai hue ha,jo lifetime free ha..

  • When both countries banned each other’s films – after the arrival of the VCR and other video devices – Three generations of Pakistanis have been brought up watching Indian films. Indian songs are popular in all kinds of functions. Pakistan is not an island, people will have access to international media one way or another. Patriotism does not mean blocking media, patriotism is letting the people of the country do as they please. No one took permission from the government to watch Indian films via VCR. Only a government completely clueless about the wishes of the people makes decisions which angers them. Our elected representatives have no idea what the people who voted for them want

  • The DVDs they are burning are scratched and broken, not the ones which are in perfect working order

  • i have local dish its free but it has some indian channels free of cost can some one tell me its illegal or not ?

  • is it ordinary old dish antennas (not dish tv) also banned?and if it is in house,is it will be rid from the police?

    • I HAVE ASIA SET 3S AND I AM WATCHING SOME INDIAN+PAKI CHENNALS WHICH IS FREE ON AIR. BUT I DONT KNOW WHICH IS ALSO BANNED OR NOT
      KINDLY EXPLAIN ME
      THANK

  • 10 months later …

    I was using dish TV my life was happy all the sports drama news I wanted no issues .

    I was free from the local monopoly of services like PTCL, WorldCall and neostat.

    Then this decision came ….

    Forced to uninstall Dish Tv now I have tried everything Pakistan Cables have to offer and let me tell you mind my French they are SH*T

    No customer service
    Poor audio and video
    The slightest rain cause disruption in service

    Thank you PEMRA for making life more lemony

  • ہمارے شہر میں انڈین چینل چل رہے ہیں فوری کاروائی کی جائے

    Nehang tehsil sahiwal district Sargodha


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