Telecom and broadcast regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has floated a consultation paper for regulating channels and services offered by local cable operators and direct-to-home (DTH) operators called platform services.

All cable TV and DTH operators offer certain kind of programming services that are only shown on their platform but are not obtained from broadcasters. These are called platform services. These include movies, music or local news channels offered by the cable operator as well as value-added services, such as ‘movie on demand’ and ‘pay per view’ services offered by the DTH players.

The Regulator’s move to regulate platform services comes after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting expressed concern about the transmission of these local channels over a wide geographical area, like any other national or regional channel, without obtaining any permission from the Ministry.

The Ministry believes that a proper regulatory framework is required to govern these channels and value-added services since programming is similar to the programmes transmitted by regular TV channels.

Some of the issues the paper is reviewing include whether these channels should be defined as broadcast channels or value-added services. The TRAI is also seeking stakeholder’s opinion on issues such as the kind of content that platform services should be allowed to transmit. For instance, some stakeholders believe that cable channels should not offer local news as they trespass into the domain of regular broadcasters.

Issues, such as registration process, security clearances, limits on geographical reach of these channels, compliance with advertising and content code, and conditions of imposing penal provisions in case of violations have also been raised.

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