Coming, guidelines to police TV on the Net

Govt is all set to bring in a regulation for TV through Internet and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Aug 20, 2007, 01:55:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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You may no longer have to depend on cable operators or Direct-to-Home service for watching television. The government is now ready to bring in a regulation for television through Internet and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

A joint group comprising officials from the Information and Broadcasting and the Telecom ministries has been constituted to draft a regulatory framework for IPTV and Internet television. "The group is due to submit its report soon," an official said.

The government will also ask the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to consult the industry for laying down functional guidelines. TRAI will look at the facilities to be offered by service providers.

Multi-Service Operators and cable operators have expressed concern, saying IPTV would be able to show foreign channels without any restrictions.

The joint group will also examine the issue of content. "For IPTV and mobile television, only the channels approved by the ministry can be allowed. But it would be difficult to enforce the same in case of internet television," the official said.

The government's content code will apply to IPTV and mobile television, a senior I&B ministry official, said.

The government is considering the law under which the new broadcast modes can be regulated as well as how it should be done. "The current broadcasting law does not cover IPTV, internet television or mobile television because the mode of transmission is not traditional--meaning, satellite or terrestrial," a senior I&B ministry official said. For the ministry, the issue is that if the new broadcast modes are considered cable services, the definition of broadcasting service and cable operators will need to change, an official said.

Ministry officials believe that by the time the new technologies are ready to be implemented on a big scale, the regulatory framework will also be ready. So far, MTNL and the Bharati Group have announced IPTV services on a pilot basis in South Delhi. Prasar Bharati has started mobile television services for six channels in New Delhi area.

The introduction of new technologies may coincide with implementation of the Conditional Access System in remaining parts of four metros – sometime early next year. These IPTV companies and Prasar Bharati also expect at least a year to launch the service in a full-fledged manner.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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