ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Electronic Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) held a bidding for the issuance of 58 Satellite Television Licences here on Friday.
The Bidding Committee was headed by the Chairman, PEMRA Muhammad Saleem Baig and private members of the authority Sarfraz Jatoi, Mrs. Nargis Nasir and Mrs. Shaheen Habibullah were also present during the bidding.
PEMRA had offered 70 Satellite TV Licences in seven categories: Eight in news & current affairs, 27 in entertainment, five in sports, two in agriculture, 12 in regional languages, four in health and 12 in education, genres, through an advertisement dated December 25, 2018. On May 2, bidding for news & current affairs, entertainment and regional languages was concluded, whereas, on the second day licences in Health, Sports, Education and Agriculture were offered through open bidding.
News & current affairs category channel brought highest bid of Rs 283.5 million, whereas entertainment category went for Rs 50.5 million.
Highest bid for regional languages channels offered Rs 102 million, agriculture for Rs 52 million, sports for Rs 42.5 million, education for Rs 46 million and health Rs 42 million bid.
The successful bidders would be required to deposit the balance amount of earnest money of their offered bid within 15 working days.
The bidding was conducted in a transparent and fair manner and all the prequalified companies participated in the bidding process and expressed their unequivocal confidence and support on PEMRA for holding bidding in a professional manner.
PEMRA held the bidding to cope with the increasing demand of digital distribution mediums i.e. IPTV, Digital cable and upcoming DTH which had the capacity to carry more than 250 channels.
However, so far PEMRA had issued 88 TV channel licences.
The launch of these TV channels would not only contribute significantly in terms of investment and employment but would also offer wide variety of entertainment, education and information to masses.