Dish TV yesterday had hit a new high at Rs.16.30 and today, it is among the top five losers, going down over 4.5% to Rs.14.85.

The Govt yesterday evening approved changes in information & broadcasting (I&B) guidelines to bring them in sync with the existing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, allowing 100% FDI in the direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting services sector.

Other changes:

• DTH licences will now be issued for 20 years
• Renewal every 10 years
• Licence fee will be similar to that in the telecom sector – revised from 10% of Gross revenue to 8% of adjusted gross revenue (AGR).
• AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from gross revenue.
• License fee to be collected quarterly v/s current annual.
• DTH operators allowed to operate platform channels to a maximum of 5% of their total channel carrying capacity
• A one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs.10,000 per channel shall be charged from an operator.

This is not going too well with the company as news reports suggest that due to these new changes, the company might have to pay Rs.185 crore in past dues towards licence fees and its total dues and debts will rise to Rs.2500 crore. This means the company will have to look at ways and means to raise liquidity through various options.