The Union Cabinet on Tuesday night met and fixed a cap of 26 per cent on foreign investment in television news channels seeking to uplink from India.
After the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that foreign investment in news channels includes Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign
Institutional Investment, External Commercial Borrowings and investment by non-resident Indians.
Entertainment channels continue to be dictated by the existing policy under which all channels, irrespective of their ownership or management control, are permitted to uplink from India subject to fulfilment of the eligibility criteria.
The information and broadcasting ministry had sought views of various ministries on the matter following a proposal from the foreign-owned Star TV for uplinking from Indian soil for a 24-hours channel.
After Star TV, which ends its contract with NDTV on March 31, BBC and CNBC made similar requests.