Prasar Bharati launches new platform to share news feed
Called PB-Shared Audio-Visuals for Broadcast and Dissemination, or PB-SHABD, this platform will provide audio, video, text and photos
The Prasar Bharati has started a news sharing service that will allow registered news entities like newspapers, magazines, news channels and digital news publishers to pick news feeds uploaded by Prasar Bharati’s network of 1,500 reporters and stringers in different formats.
Called PB-Shared Audio-Visuals for Broadcast and Dissemination, or PB-SHABD, this platform will provide audio, video, text and photos. Prasar Bharati is India’s public broadcaster that includes Doordarshan and Akashvani.
Information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur announced that the service will be free for all registered entities for the first year. To be sure, the platform’s terms and conditions say that the service is free for use until September 2024.
“We get thousands of stories from our network of reporters. We cannot put all of them in our programmes, especially those that are of local interest. [Those can be used by] smaller and local papers and channels,” Gaurav Dwivedi, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Prasar Bharati, said. The pricing plans have not been worked out yet and will be worked out after Prasar Bharati gets feedback from registered entities, he said. “We will carry out an outreach programme for registered entities,” he said.
According to the terms and conditions of use, the news entities can use and re-distribute content from SHABD using their own logo without giving SHABD any credit for it. However, the news entities are not allowed to edit and change the context of the news story, and cannot use any AI tools to modify it. The terms of use also prohibit news entities from morphing or using voice cloning technologies on the content.
The date and time stamp on the news content must not be removed or masked. While the registered entities can keep the content for pepetuity, if they air/broadcast/publish that content again after seven days, they much prominently label the content as “File”.
“[U]sing any part of the content with the intent to do mischief, commit fraud, deride the country and its institutions, or to create a law-and-order situation is prohibited,” the terms say.
If the news entities do not abide by these terms, they will be stripped of their service rights, and may also be prosecuted under relevant laws.
PB-SHABD does not place Prasar Bharati’s content in the public domain. The copyright will remain with Prasar Bharati, Dwivedi told HT. If a journalist on YouTube or another social media website wants to use Prasar Bharati’s feed, they must first furnish their details to the MIB under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. If an unregistered journalist uses Prasar Bharati’s content, they would be sent a copyright notice through the social media website, as is the case right now, he said.