Govt merges four-film units with NFDC; revises guidelines for providing DTH services

New Delhi, December 24: To fulfill the commitment to support the films sector, Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the merger of Films Division, Directorate of Film Festivals, National Film Archives of India, and Children's Film Society, India with National Film Development Corporation.

 

Apart from the Children’s Film Society, the rest of the units are subordinate to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The government has expanded the Memorandum of Articles of Association of the NFDC, thus assigning the organisation the activities performed by the other four units.

 

Briefing media in New Delhi after the Cabinet Meeting, Information, and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, the merger of Film Media Units under one corporation will lead to convergence of activities and resources and better coordination.

 

The Union cabinet has merged five film units to create one government entity to handle all issues related to movies.

 

The umbrella organization, NFDC, consequent upon the merger of Film Media Units will be uniquely placed with regard to promotion, production & preservation of film content - all under one management. The vision of the new entity will be to ensure balanced and focused development of Indian cinema in all its genres-feature films, including films /content for the OTT platforms, children's content, animation, short films, and documentaries.

 

According to the statement released by the cabinet, the merger of Film Media Units under one corporation will lead to convergence of activities and resources and better coordination, thereby ensuring synergy and efficiency in achieving the mandate of each media unit.

 

The merger of Film Media Units under a single corporation will lead to synergy amongst the various activities with better and efficient utilization of misting infrastructure and manpower. This will lead to a reduction in duplication of activities and direct savings to the exchequer.

 

Apart from it the Cabinet also gave a nod for the appointment of a Transaction Advisor and Legal Advisor to advise on the transfer of assets and employees and to oversee all aspects of operationalisation of the merger. According to the government notification, no employees of any of the four units to be merged into NFDC will be retrenched as a result of the merger.

 

The new entity aims to ensure balanced and focused development of Indian cinema in all its genres-feature films, including films/content for the OTT platforms, children’s content, animation, short films, and documentaries.

 

Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved the revision in guidelines for providing DTH services in India. He said the DTH license will be issued for 20 years in place of the present 10 years. The license fee will be collected quarterly basis instead of an annual basis. DTH operators will be permitted to operate to a maximum of 5 percent of its total channel carrying capacity as permitted platform channels. There will be sharing of infrastructure between DTH operators. The Minister said guidelines have been amended to allow 100 percent FDI in DTH services.