Broadcasters request for regulations that benefit consumers

Broadcasters panel constituted on the eve of FICCI Annual Conference held on 12th March coined that, government   has no right to push media organization into regulations that are unrealistic, don’t solving the issues that are long term, and are not beneficial for consumers.    

Taking about the Regulatory hurdles, the broadcasters brings three issues- revisiting the licensing system, providing addressability following the completion of digitisation and taking a hard view on carriage fee.  

The panellists included MIB secretary Bimal Julka, Star India CEO Uday Shankar, Viacom18 CEO Sudhanshu Vats, Discovery Networks SVP & GM South Asia Rahul Johri, and FCC commissioner Ajit Pai. The session was moderated by NDTV group CEO Vikram Chandra. 

Julka set the tone by emphasising the government’s resolve to formulate uniform, consistent and inclusive regulation. He said that the government is facilitating the process of digitisation and that if industry wants, the government can intervene. Talking about the third phase of digitisation, he agreed that there are multiple issues but said that the stakeholders should play a participatory role in the process of regulating the industry. 

Taking the baton, Shankar, who is also chairman of the FICCI Media and Entertainment Committee, said that the most important thing is to determine the need for regulation before the government decides to come up with one. “The government should first determine how it will benefit the consumer. It [regulation] should be able to improve the quality of the content,” he said. 

Referring to digitisation, he said that when the process started, everyone thought it would not only increase the bandwidth in a significant way but will also increase transparency in the value chain. “Has it happened? MSOs have seeded boxes but their economics hasn’t improved. The carriage has gone down only marginally. It’s a selective success of the regulation,” Shankar lamented. 

He added that digitisation should have brought transparency and discipline into the overall system.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4431-broadcasters-request-for-regulations-that-benefit-consumers.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4431-broadcasters-request-for-regulations-that-benefit-consumers.html