New Delhi, Jan 17, 2025, IANS

New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday issued key amendments to the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 to streamline the local cable operator (LCO) registration process and further ensure ease of doing business. The LCO registrations will now be conducted entirely online with the ministry itself as their registering authority, the ministry said in a statement. Upon successful verification of applicant details -- including Aadhaar, PAN, CIN, DIN etc -- LCO registration certificates will be issued in real-time. LCO registrations will now be granted or renewed for a period of five years. “Also, a provision for appeal against the denial of registration or renewal for LCO registration has been added,” according to new guidelines. Earlier, LCO registration process was carried out at the local head post office of the area in which the office of the LCO is situated in an offline mode with Head Postmaster as their registering authority. The manual registration process was cumbersome and time consuming. Also, the area of operations upon obtaining registration was limited to specific areas. LCOs will apply for new registration or renewal of registration online on the Broadcast Seva Portal of the ministry and the registration certificate shall be issued online. “The processing fee for registration or renewal is Rs 5,000 only and the application for renewal of registration will be made at least 90 days before the expiry of the registration,” said the ministry. Existing LCO registration will remain valid for the period mentioned in the registration certificate. In case where the existing registration of the LCO is valid for less than 90 days, the applications for renewal, if any, shall be made immediately on the portal, according to the new guidelines. According to the government, the registration and renewal procedure is in line with the government's commitment to ease of doing business.