SGPC yet to get Centre nod on dedicated satellite channel

Even though the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) recently set up a studio to telecast Gurbani live from the Golden Temple, it is yet to receive the Centre’s nod to have a dedicated satellite channel.Currently, it is broadcasting Gurbani on its web channel through social media platforms.

Scores of satellite channels propagating ideologies of Hindus, Jains, Christians and other faiths are drawing the attention of a large number of viewers. When it comes to the SGPC, its reach is restricted to web channels while it allows a satellite channels to air live Gurbani.

Sources in the SGPC stated that its ambitious plan to have a dedicated satellite channel to telecast Gurbani live from the Golden Temple is entangled in rigmaroles of norms.

Shahbaz Singh, additional secretary, SGPC, said the SGPC needed to get the uplink and downlink licence for securing space from satellite from the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The licence fee is exorbitant, while the Sikh body is not allowed to earn from advertisements as per its constitution.

Moreover, as per the Centre’s norms, it is mandatory to register only in the name of an individual, while as per the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, under which the SGPC was constituted, nothing can be procured or subscribed in the name of an individual.

After the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government had managed to pass the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to end the “monopoly” of the PTC channel, the SGPC had announced to set up its own satellite channel.

Ealrier, the SGPC’s education fund had received Rs 2 crore from the PTC in financial year 2022-23 as per the agreement with G-Next Media Pvt Ltd, entered on July 24, 2012, for 11 years for the live telecast of Gurbani. The agreement entailed a 10 per cent annual increase in the fee.

Now, the SGPC does not receive anything from the satellite channel.

In the absence of its own infrastructure, they take an upload link from the PTC television network, which has its infrastructure in place to record Gurbani. The SGPC is providing Gurbani signal for free to the PTC — a TV network associated with the family of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal — in the absence of its own satellite channel.

Its subscription on social media platforms has already crossed the 11 lakh-mark, while the actual viewership is estimated to be over 40 lakh. The SGPC, in the past, had turned down proposals to monetise it.

Punjab