News & Media

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) yesterday issued a notification amending the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 (the Rules) to streamline the local cable operator (LCO) registration process. Effective from yesterday, the LCO registrations will be conducted entirely online with the MIB as the registering authority, the government said in an official statement yesterday in New Delhi.

With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) tariff regulations coming into effect, select pay TV channels have confirmed leaving DD Free Dish, Storyboard18 has learnt. According to TRAI regulation, a pay TV channel must convert to free-to-air (FTA) if it is on a free TV platform such as DD Free Dish. This is a requirement of TRAI’s new tariff regulation, which was upheld by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) in December 2024.

The cable industry has called on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to enforce ad-free programming on pay TV channels, arguing that subscribers are subjected to advertisements for 2596-35% of viewing time despite paying for the service. According to sources in the industry, in this background, pay TV subscribers in India shell out, on average, as much as ^19 per month per channel (plus taxes) for most of the popular channels. Yet, their viewing experience is inundated with excessive advertisements.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has refused to grant a stay to broadcasters challenging the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) tariff regulation related to pay channels on DD Free Dish, according to media reports. With the refusal, the tribunal has given the tribunal has given two weeks to the broadcasters to file a new Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO). The order in this regard was passed by a TDSAT bench, comprising Chairperson Justice D. N. Patel and member Subodh Kumar Gupta. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for February 6, 2025.

Regulating over-the-top (OTT) platforms comes under the purview of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said, adding that one of the six advisory groups that he had established, had flagged the issue, highlighting concerns from the perspective of telecom service providers (TSPs).

The Indian broadcasting industry has long been a cornerstone of the nation’s media landscape, evolving significantly from its humble beginnings with Doordarshan in 1959. Over the decades, the sector witnessed seismic shifts—first, the liberalisation wave of the 1990s, which introduced private broadcast and cable networks, followed by the DTH revolution in the early 2000s. Most recently, the meteoric rise of Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms is rapidly transforming how content is consumed. However, this rapid growth has exposed glaring regulatory gaps, creating an uneven playing field between traditional TV distribution and OTT services.

The cable industry has raised alarms over the delay in implementing TRAI's recommendations on encrypting private channels on DD Free Dish, warning of "no tangible progress" despite the July 2024 directive. The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to address unauthorized retransmissions and ensure regulatory parity between public and private DTH operators, warning that the current exemptions for DD Free Dish are creating market imbalances and revenue losses.

While addressing a Parliament Question during the ongoing session of the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Railways, and Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, highlighted the urgent need to strengthen existing laws governing social media and OTT platforms.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued the Consultation Paper on ‘Regulatory framework for Ground-based Broadcasters’. The Guidelines issued by MIB from time to time for Uplinking and Down linking of Satellite Television channels in India, containing the terms and conditions for TV broadcasting services, make it mandatory for the broadcasters to use satellite medium i.e. uplinking and down linking of television channels through satellite, for providing their channels to the Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs).

The telecom regulator has called for structured regulation of OTT communication platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, among others, following security concerns raised by law enforcement agencies and mobile carriers in the country.