PEMRA Announces Date, Terms for the Auction of DTH Licenses in Pakistan

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has announced that it is restarting the auction process of DTH licenses and date for the auction has been set as October 3, 2016.

PEMRA had previously planned to auction DTH licenses late last year, but whole processed was scrapped when new PEMRA chairman was appointed just one week ahead of auction.

PEMRA had previously invited applications from interested companies, registered under Companies Ordinance 1984, for grant of licences under Section 19 of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as amended by the PEMRA (Amendment) Act 2007 for establishing & operating a Direct-to-Home (DTH) Distribution Service in Pakistan.

PEMRA said that its previously shortlisted companies will stay valid and they need not to apply afresh. However, they shall be required to furnish additional documents to meet the revised eligibility criteria given in the IM (information memorandum for DTH license auction).

The Information Memorandum (IM) including the eligibility criteria, application form, documents required, base price, bidding methodology, shortlisting procedure, the terms & conditions of licence etc is also issued and is available at PEMRA’s website here.

DTH License Fee Details

• Three (3) licences for Direct-To-Home distribution service (DTH Licence), provided that there are enough eligible applicants, shall be awarded.
• A single DTH Licence shall be awarded to any single applicant company.
• The Base Price for DTH Licence shall be Pak Rs. 200 million
• An annual variable licence fee of 2% of the gross revenue generated from DTH SERVICE & fixed annual fee of PKR 10 Million will be paid to PEMRA
• The variable fee shall be waived of for initial three years w.e.f. the date of issuance of license.

DTH Auction

• DTH licenses will be issued through an open bidding process on October 3rd, 2016

The applicant company shall submit application along with a non-refundable processing fee of Rs. 500,000/-in the form of Demand Draft or Pay Order drawn in favour of PEMRA.

The complete applications along with required documents must reach the address given below on or before 15-08-2016 till 1600 hours Pakistan Standard Time.

Only shortlisted applicant companies shall be invited to participate in the bidding process for the award of DTH Distribution Service licences.

Eligibility Criteria

• DTH licenses won’t be issued to companies that operate in broadcast media (electronic TV channel holders).
• One company must not control (directly or indirectly) more than one DTH license
• Applicant must have at least 50% ownership from local partner.

Through above criteria, Jang and ARY group have become ineligible. Similarly, one telco — that was previously shortlisted — has also become ineligible too as it was fully owned by a foreign group.

Timeline for the auction of DTH licenses is as following:

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