In a statement issued on Tuesday, Pemra “explicitly cautioned” cable operators from suspending TV channels and changing their numbers without the permission of the authority. It also cautioned them from telecasting “illegal TV channels and excessive/vulgar CD channels.”
“Pemra has also asked cable operators to immediately stop distribution of illegal TV channels as well as CD channels as any non-compliance to this directive would result in imposition of heavy fines, suspension or revocation of cable operator’s licenses under the Pemra laws,” the statement read.
The authority claimed to have issued the statement following public complaints.
The statement also appealed to the public to register their complaints on their toll-free telephone number or via their website.
On June 6, Pemra suspended Geo TV’s licence for 15 days and imposed a Rs10 million fine on a complaint filed by the defence ministry for ‘maligning’ the country’s top intelligence agency. On April 19, Geo blamed the ISI of involvement in an attack on anchor Hamid Mir, which they aired for eight hours.
Earlier in May, the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan claimed that the organisation received a letter from Pemra’s regional manager instructing them to undo the earlier channel re-shuffling. Cable operators had pushed Geo News down to a lower berth.
COMMENTS (5)
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Please keep Geo banned for good. There was so much peace in the world without Geo.
What is a recourse for a consumer who wants to watch a channel but his/her cable operator is not showing it? Cable operator wisdom is better than consumer ?
I think Cable Operators are going to be out of business soon and consumers that are being neglected this way will move towards Dish / satellite based systems. They should think deep before stopping channels that consumers want to watch on their own.
"Changing channel positioning" is a ridiculous allegation by Geo TV. Let me clear a few facts. PEMRA does not specify which channel position each channel should have. It's upto the cable operators to decide on order of channels. Keeping in view the demand and popularity of a channel, they can put a channel at a higher number but it's not binding on them from PEMRA or any other law. PEMRA should make a new law for channel numbering on cable TV networks. It must be noted that Geo News is paying the same amount for its license as Such TV is paying. So, it's highly unethical and unfair to give priority to a channel just because it has more PR and powerful. PEMRA should either instruct the cable operators to number the channel alphabetically or set different licenses prices for different ordering. For example, a channel that is paying more license fee will be on higher number whereas a channel that is paying less license fee will be on lower number,
Please tell me something. Geo and ARY both got suspended for 15 days. So their channel position is obviously gone. What do you expect me cable operator to just leave that channel blank? No way, I moved all channels down. Now ARY and GEO are back and so now I will place them at the end. This is only logical.
If Geo or Ary cared so much about channel position, then don't go abuse ISI and get banned in the first place. This should be a lesson for everyone.
So PML-N and Geo in action again nice joint venture