The auction of Direct to Home (DTH) may face yet another delay as Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has extended the applications submission deadline till October 15, 2016.
PEMRA had earlier set September 15, 2016 as the deadline for DTH licenses application submissions.
The Authority view is as given below.
“In view of the pendency, and likely determination after Eid of a petition before the Hon’ able Lahore High Court, PEMRA has decided to extend the Direct to Home (DTH) licenses applications submission deadline till October 15, 2016”.
PEMRA has already rescheduled the auction process of DTH licenses and date for the auction has been further delayed to October 31, 2016. However, after another extension in the applications submission deadline it is evident that the process may further be delayed.
PEMRA had earlier announced it was going to hold the auction on October 3, 2016, while the last date for submission of application was August 15, 2016.
However the 116th Board meeting of the Authority, chaired by Absar Alam, has revised the schedule and the last date for submitting the application was set on September 15, while Auction would be held on October 31, 2016.
Not to forget, this is not the first delay in DTH auction. PEMRA had previously planned to auction DTH licenses late last year, but whole processe was scrapped when new PEMRA chairman was appointed just one week ahead of the auction.
PEMRA has issued the revised Information Memorandum (IM) for the auction of DTH licenses to be held on October 31, 2016. According to the revised IM each applicant must be a company that has been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). An applicant company shall not control, directly or indirectly, more than one DTH license.
Applicants must have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs. 100 Million. The applicant company shall demonstrate that it has sufficient financial and technical resources to launch, establish and operate the DTH Distribution Service. Applicants shall have less than 50% of the shares owned or controlled by foreign nationals/companies, if any, with or without management or control vested in foreign nationals or companies. The Chief Executive Officer of the applicant company shall be resident Pakistani.
