KATHMANDU: The international television channels, which had stopped their broadcasts after implementation of the clean feed policy, will complete the installation of required equipment for broadcasting their channels without any advertisements within two weeks.
Television distributors in Nepal have said that it will take a maximum of two weeks to implement the policy completely after installation of the necessary equipment.
The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, which had announced the implementation of the clean feed policy as per the Advertisement (Regulation) Act 2019, had set a deadline of October 23 for all cable operators to take appropriate measures to broadcast foreign channels without any advertisement. However, not all the channels were able to implement the policy within the given deadline due to which they stopped their broadcasts after the deadline.
According to President of Federation of Nepal Cable TV Operators, Dhruv Sharma, the clean feed policy could not get fully implemented in some channels due to delays in the import of equipment and its installation. “The policy is likely to get implemented fully within 15 days as some of the main channels are in the process of installing the required equipment for clean feed broadcast,” he added.
Likewise, Sudeep Acharya, managing director of Dish Home, informed that channels like Discovery, Star and BBC are in the process of installing the necessary equipment for clean feed broadcast, which will be fully implemented within two weeks.
Many international channels had gone off-air from free-to-air for failing to follow the policy in the stipulated time. Some of the paid channels that can be broadcast with downlink permission in Nepal have also stopped broadcasting as per the law. Such channels are also installing the necessary equipment.
Currently, clean feed policy has been implemented in major television channels under Sony Group, Zee Network and India Cast.