India plans to raise the entry barrier for companies wanting to own TV channels news and non-news, a Financial Express report said.
Pending approval, the net worth and other financial requirements will go up 10 times for procuring a news channel license and nearly four-fold for a non-news channel license, the report further said. The government is also putting on hold the granting of new licenses until the new guidelines are in place.
The move has reportedly affected over three dozen media companies that have already applied for licenses to operate over 60 new TV channels based on the earlier norms.
Under the new proposed guidelines, new licenses will be granted to only those media firms that furnish performance bank guarantees, the report added.