Indian TV channels taken off air in Nepal

TT, 28 Jun 2019, Kathmandu:Indian television channels have been taken off the air in Nepal for 24 hours in protest against a proposed bill which seeks to restrict foreign TV channels from broadcasting advertisements.

Indian channels such as Star Plus, Colors, Zee TV,Sony TV, Star Utsav are very popular in Nepal. Except news, Nepali viewers prefer Indian channels for entertainment.Kulfi kumar Baziwala , Yeh Rishta Kya Kahlata Hai and The Kapil Sharma Show are some of the popular programmes preferred by Nepali viewers.

Internet and Digital Television Coordination Committee and Nepal Cable Television Association closed the distribution of foreign channels and the broadcasting of advertisements for 24 hours from 3 pm on Monday to 3pm on Tuesday.If implemented, the Advertisement (Regulation) Bill,registered in parliament by the K.P. Oli government, will restrict foreign television channels, mainly Indian, from broadcasting advertisements.

Indian broadcasters have said that they cannot provide a clean feed to Nepal as it is economically and technically not viable.The cable operators argued that the proposed policy will cause a severe drop in income as foreign channels will not be available for distribution.

Dozens of artists and poets on Wednesday staged a protest against the bill to express solidarity with Nepali journalists and presented their satirical views against the legislation.. The Nepal government will impose a hefty fine of upto Rs 1 million on media outlets found guilty of damaging any one's reputation, raising alarm among journalists..