Parliament panel seeks early talks on broadcast bill

The parliamentary standing citizens committee on communication theory and info technology wants the ministry of info and broadcasting to innovate the new Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill in the parliament at the earliest, according to a report tabled by the panel in the parliament on Tuesday.The MIB had informed the committee on January 17 that after completing consultations with stakeholders (which were extended until October 15, 2024), the MIB would prepare a new draft of the bill and create a draft Cabinet Note on it to circulate for inter–ministerial consultation. The draft bill will then be submitted for the cabinet’s consideration.“This process is expected to take some time. The Committee will be duly informed about the progress of this process,” the MIB informed the committee in its action taken response.The committee had recommended that the cable television industry should be regulated through a comprehensive act as currently there are multiple acts, rules and guidelines along with multiple regulators such as MIB, TRAI, and Department of Telecommunications. . “[T]he Committee impress upon the Ministry to ensure that adequate consultations are done with all the concerned stakeholders,” the committee had written in its report dated February 8, 2024, and sought for a timeline for tabling the bill in parliament.In the January “Action Taken Notes”, the MIB wrote, “Nevertheless, the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2024 aims to bring OTT services under its purview. The OTTs and other services are also aimed to be brought under the purview of broadcasting code proposed under the draft Bill.” This is the first time that the MIB has formally acknowledged the existence of the 2024 version of the bill that HT had reported in July 2024.While the first draft of the bill was placed in public domain for public consultation on November 10, 2023, the second draft was shared with selected stakeholders in July 2024 and was not placed in the public domain. Each copy of the second draft bore a watermark unique to the stakeholder to trace leaks. Stakeholders were instructed to collect their individual copies of the second draft from Shastri Bhawan and give an undertaking that they would not share the Bill further.The second version sought to impose obligations of streaming platforms (“OTT broadcasting services”) on all news content creators, including those who are not associated with legacy media or registered digital media. Given the wide definition of “OTT broadcasting services”, even achartered accountant who posts videos on YouTube and Instagram about how to file IT returns was a ‘professional’ under the Bill and could attract provisions of the Bill if they have enough followers/subscribers as could a person who only uploaded cooking videos.Obligations for such broadcasters included, amongst other things, certification or vetting by an in-house content evaluation committee (CEC).In August 2024, the government asked the stakeholders to return the watermarked copies and said that it would publish a fresh draft of the bill after detailed consultations.

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