Regulatory framework must for orderly growth of broadcast sector: Manish Tewari

The Information and Broadcasting ministry has been working hard to put in place a comprehensive regulatory framework in the broadcast sector to provide a level playing field to all the constituents in the past 14 months, Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said. 

The ministry has been working on a slew of regulations like cable TV digitisation, cable monopoly, TV rating agency guidelines and government entry in the broadcast sector to correct the anomalies prevailing today. 

It has also set up an inter-ministerial committee to review all the recommendations that come from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on references made by the ministry. 

Speaking after the inauguration of BES Expo 2014, Tewari said that for any sector to grow and flourish, a stable and predictable regulatory regime is a must.

Elaborating on the key regulations that were taken up by the ministry to correct the aberrations, Tewari said that the TRAI recommendations on cable monopoly are with the inter-ministerial committee. 

“As we speak, an inter-ministerial committee is in the process of considering those recommendations. I think we will be able to put in place a mechanism whereby no state in India will have cable monopoly,” Tewari averred. 

Tewari also said that the government would not allow state-owned entities in the broadcasting sector with the exception of Prasar Bharati. 

“We have been able to take a view of not allowing government and political entities in the broadcasting space whereby effectively proscribing that Prasar Bharati would continue to remain the only public broadcaster which has a component of government funding and the rest of the space be left to private players to come and compete and be able to disseminate content as they feel like,” he said. 

Elaborating on the key regulations that were taken up by the ministry to correct the aberrations, Tewari said that the Cabinet had recently approved guidelines for the TV rating agencies, which were framed based on complaints from the broadcasters over the credibility of TAM Media Research. 

He also said that the current rating system does not reflect the reality of television viewership in India as a sample size of 10,000-odd people meters is too small for 145 million television homes. 

Tewari applauded the Prasar Bharati for taking the issue of TV viewership to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which is currently investigating the case to check whether TAM has abused its dominant position. 

The minister pointed out that the television broadcast sector is fragmented with over 800 channels, more than half of which are news channels. The fragmentation and the dependence of broadcasters on advertisement revenue have created aberrations in the industry. 

The government has issued around 800 odd television licences over the past two and a half decades. 

Source: Televisionpost, 15 January

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4054-regulatory-framework-must-for-orderly-growth-of-broadcast-sector-manish-tewari.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4054-regulatory-framework-must-for-orderly-growth-of-broadcast-sector-manish-tewari.html