Broadcasting is I&B’s and IT’s remit

Proposed changes in the draft Telecommunications Bill 2022 aims to level the field by bringing the regulation of communications services provided by over-the-top players on a par with those offered by cellular network operators. This is unexceptional. But if the regulation were to extend to broadcasting, it would create unnecessary extraneous oversight of an already regulated industry. Broadcasting has co-evolved with telecom. But it operates within a distinct set of rules that govern content and carriage. This distinction should not be blurred by licensing requirements for services provided through telecom networks. Converging technologies in TV, radio and digital media will rely increasingly on spectrum. But the department of telecommunications (DoT) does not possess the institutional capacity to oversee the health of the industry that the I&B and IT ministries and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) do.

Predicating the regulation of information that travels on telecom networks on the use of spectrum would be a perverse application of oversight based on input rather than output. Content regulation is in an entirely different silo from optimising use of radio frequencies. And they should remain apart. Any jurisdictional overlap could affect freedom of expression. The ministry of broadcasting has a light touch to content regulation that has over the years led to the development of a vibrant media and entertainment industry. Oversight of uplinking and downlinking, platform services and fees, and quality of service is provided by Trai. It would be in GoI‘s interest to allow an independent regulator to oversee carriage rules. Consumer protection is adequately addressed through legislation enforced by the IT ministry.

GoI is trying to contemporise telecom laws as part of a future-ready digital regulatory framework. Some bits of the regulatory architecture need to be shuffled around among the clutch of laws that are being drafted. The process, however, must be sensitive to overreach.