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indiantelevision.com Team
NEW DELHI: The government is speeding up its views on the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that the government and its entities should not enter television broadcasting and distribution. The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has set up an inter-ministerial committee to examine all reports received from Trai relating to television broadcasting services before the appropriate authority in the government takes policy decisions.
The committee, chaired by the additional secretary in the I&B Ministry, will have representatives from the Departments of Information Technology, Telecommunications, Economic Affairs, and Industrial Policy and Promotion apart from a few experts. The representatives from these departments will not be below the rank of a joint secretary.
The two joint secretaries (Broadcasting) in the I&B Ministry will serve as member secretaries depending on the subject being taken up by the committee.
The experts included in the committee are: chairman and managing director of the Broadcasting Engineering Consultants India Ltd, the Director-Generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio, and the Engineers-in-Chief of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR).
An I&B Ministry notice says the Committee may co-opt any number of experts considered necessary from time to time.
Recommendations of the committee on Trai?s reports relating to television broadcasting services would be communicated to the I&B secretary and thereafter, to the I&B Minister for further instructions.
Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that first on the agenda of the committee will be the latest report of Trai that says central government, state governments, their entities or their joint ventures should not be allowed into broadcasting and distribution services.
The I&B Ministry is also preparing to seek opinion of Trai on surrogate ownership by political parties or politicians.
The earlier recommendation by Trai in 2008 that the government entities should not be allowed in distribution or broadcasting space was gathering dust. Now there seems to be a certain seriousness, evident from the fact that Tamil Nadu state-owned Arasu Cable TV Corp. Ltd. is yet to get a DAS (digital addressable system) licence. Arasu was earlier granted a licence for cable TV operations but with a caveat that it was conditional and depended on the government taking a final view on Trai recommendations.
Trai?s fresh recommendations will now be under the consideration of the inter-ministerial committee before the government lends its final approval. The issue gathers importance as several state governments have expressed intent to enter into the television broadcasting space.
