Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti on Thursday (May 1, 2025) stated it was not in favour of making an surroundings the place regulatory disparities put one medium of broadcasting at a drawback over one other.
Mr. Lahoti’s comment got here days after the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and others involved on a plea looking for a ban on the streaming of sexually specific content material on OTT and social media platforms.
He stated: “…the issues which are coming forward now are the regulatory disparities between one medium of dissemination and another. While we do welcome and want technology to come up and provide better and better audio-video experience so that the consumer can enjoy the fruits of the development of the technology, yet we do not want to create an environment where regulation discriminates between two mediums and puts one medium of broadcasting at a disadvantage compared to another; or one medium at a relatively undue advantage compared to another medium.”
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Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a panel dialogue on ‘Regulating Broadcast in the Digital Age: Key Frameworks & Challenges’ as a part of the WAVES 2025, organised by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Mr. Lahoti stated India has a really progressive regulatory framework as far as the traditional broadcasting was involved. It was being repeatedly revised and up to date to present the trade the requisite freedom, and additionally to guard the curiosity of customers and small gamers in all the worth chain, he stated.
“TRAI as a regulator has been regularly engaging with the stakeholders to see the need for review and has been updating it regularly,” he stated, including that it issued a revised regulation final yr, one which was welcomed by all the broadcasting distribution trade.
Another vital work accomplished by TRAI on this regard was an entire revamp of the licensing framework for each the tv and the radio broadcasting industries, the place — within the context of the brand new Telecommunications Act — it reviewed the framework of the previous 30 years and ready a simplified authorisation construction, enabling ease of doing enterprise. The completely different phrases and situations of varied mediums had been harmonised. The whole regulation was made “more or less technology agnostic”, and but it gave numerous freedom to the trade for infrastructure sharing and so forth., he stated.
“However, now the challenge is that we have the digital video distribution services, which may be OTT streaming services or FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) etc., which are currently being regulated under the social media intermediary guidelines of MeitY, whereas the traditional broadcasting or the linear TV is regulated under the Telecommunications Act and the Cable TV Networks Act,” he stated.
“Also, we have to see whether we are doing enough to protect the interests of consumers and also the interconnection between different stakeholders. In the case of the traditional TV, we have guardrails and the regulations to guide how they can interact and how they cannot exploit their dominant position, whether the same checks are available in the digital streaming services: these are the issues which would going forward need examination and would need certain actions,” he stated.
During the panel dialogue, Mr. Lahoti stated a latest trade examine confirmed that digital media surpassed linear tv in 2024 by way of the trade phase, and in India, digital media stood at almost $9.4 billion as in opposition to $8 billion of linear tv.
Going ahead, there ought to be minimal regulation overlaying the trade, however it ought to be ample to guard the pursuits of the customers and these on the decrease finish of the pyramid, he added.
Published – May 01, 2025 08:08 pm IST
