The Indian government will assign a national identification or registration number to the country’s LCOs and is also poised to create a national list of cable operators to streamline the working process in the cable TV industry.

In a new advisory, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) said it shall assign a National Registration Number to each registered LCO on receipt of company registration details, including subscriber base, and that a centralised ‘National Register of LCOs’ would be prepared to be placed in the public domain.

MIB regularly comes out with details of the total number of MSOs operating in the country along with their office addresses, apart from publishing lists of distributors whose registration are cancelled by the government or have expired.

At present, an LCO can register simply by going to the nearest post office. However, the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Communications and IT in a report, which specifically dealt with the cable TV sector, on Thursday suggested that local cable operators register with the MIB, which will also help neutralise subscriber under-reporting apart from other issues. (https://www.indianbroadcastingworld.com/parliamentary-panel-cable-tv/)

Meanwhile, the MIB advisory added that it issued a note in January 2024 to address the issue of difficulties faced by the LCOs in renewal of their registration as well as to warn the cable operators against operating without valid registrations.

Now, to further address concerns raised by the industry and streamline the process of cable operators’ registration, MIB said LCOs are directed to furnish details of their companies within 15 days through the Broadcast Seva Portal.

The details sought by the MIB include LCO registration number; address of the post office that had granted the registration, along with the registration and expiry dates and the number of subscribers serviced by a cable operator.

“With effect from 01 .04.2024, MSOs and HITS operators may provide signals or enter into fresh interconnection agreement(s) with only those LCOs whose name appear in the National Register of LCOs published by the Ministry,” the MIB advisory said.