View: 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.