Govt to modify draft Broadcasting Bill

New Delhi, Oct 3: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is modifying the controversial draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill in the wake of the protests across the media sector.

I&B Ministry Secretray K S Arora here today said the government will soon formulate revision of the provisions in the light of views of various stakeholders.

The draft bill was put up for a national debate and the government would have a relook at its various provisions keeping in mind the views received, before taking it for interministerial consultations, he said speaking at the India Broadcasting Digital Networks Forum.

Mr Arora said the Regulatory framework provided for in the draft bill was not final. It will do for the time being, but a new mechanism will have to be put in place with the convergence of technologies which was fast taking place, he added.

'' In the near future we will have to address the issue of convergence across the sectors of Telecommunication and Information Technolgy,'' he said.

He said as far as the regulation of content was concerned, the government was all for self-regulation by the broadcast industry. If anything goes against the ethics and norms, the responsibility will lie with the content producer and not with the platform for its carriage. The latter will be held responsible only if they doctor the content in the process of carriage. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry regulator will take care of these technicalities.

Mr Arora said it was challenge for the government to keep abreast of the new technologies in formulating regulatory policies in such a way as to protect both the interest of consumers and give an impetus to the growth of the industry.

Pointing out that it was not easy to understand the full impact of a new technology, and drawing parallel with foreign countries does not always help, he called upon investors to design a business model that suited the India economic and social conditions.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) chairman Nripendra Misra in his remarks also underlined the changing scene in the broadcast sector due to the rapidly growing convergence between telecom and broadcasting. In future there was going to be commercial convergence as telecom and broadcatsing services may be bundled together, he informed.

He said TRAI was just a carriage regulator and its goal was to exercise least regulation and encourage investment and development.

Regulation comes into play when market fails, he added.

Later, replying to a question, he said the government would soon resolve the issues relating to licensing for launch of IPTV.

Mr Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms Ltd and Mr Shane O' Neill of Liberty Global also spoke at the Forum cohosted by the Indian Teleivison Dot Com and Media Partners Asia(MPA).

UNI