Cleanfeed implemented from today

Kathmandu: Clean Feed has been implemented in foreign television channels broadcasting in Nepal from Friday mid-night. The Clean Feed has been implemented from the date fixed by the Act after the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology took a stand not to extend the deadline. Despite the requests from the private sectors the ministry had implemented clean feed without extending the deadline.
Now foreign channels have become clean feeds. There is a provision in the Act 2019 made to regulate advertisements that foreign television channels should have a clean feed by October 24.
The government had refused to extend the deadline for broadcasting clean feed from organizations like Indian Broadcasters Forum, Discovery Networks, BBC News and Nepal Cable Television Federation. The ministry has said that if the channel including Cleanfeed is not broadcast, it will be in accordance with the law.
Now there is a legal provision to close foreign channels if advertisements are displayed. The act published in the Gazette on October 24, 2019 had given one year time to the service providers to go for clean feed.
According to the Nepal Cable Television Federation, only 32 foreign channels are currently broadcasting. More than 180 channels, which can be purchased in packages and played for free, have been shut down for the time being.
Of the 92 channels bought by the television broadcaster in the package, only 60 channels have now given clean feed channels.
Some channels have not been able to complete the preparations. 12 channels of Zee network and eight channels of Sony are broadcasting with clean feed. However, cartoon channels, BBC, Al Jazeera, Stars and Colors package channels will not be broadcasted in Nepal immediately.
Now the channels of sports including football and cricket are also not being broadcasted. Apart from paid packages, 120 channels available for free on ‘Free to Air’ have also been shut down.
Of the Indian news channels, only ‘Zee News’ is broadcasting now. Other news channels do not want to broadcast in Nepal with Clean Feed. It is inconvenient to place a clean feed in a news channel as the advertisements are placed on different parts of the screen of the news channel and the timing of the advertisement is also uncertain.
As the timing of the advertisement during the live broadcast is not certain, it is seen that Clean Feed may have problems in the live broadcast of the sports channels. However, Indian broadcasters have promised to manage the sports channel.