Broadcasters reach out to govt on airing public service content

On November 9, the Cabinet had approved the relevant norms in a proposal titled ‘Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India, 2022’.

One of the clauses stipulate that broadcasters will have to air 30 minutes of content of national importance every day on socially relevant themes, such as education and spread of literacy, agriculture and rural development, health and family welfare, science and technology, and welfare of women.

“We recommend that the PSB stipulation be either deleted or explicitly made voluntary for broadcasters and clearly provide for subsidy, tax incentives, CSR write-offs etc to those broadcasters that voluntarily engage in PSB,” the IBDF said in its letter dated November 18.

The public-service broadcasting (PSB) stipulation mandate has not gone down well with the broadcasters. In its submission, the IBDF stated that this stipulation would inherently interfere with the fundamental rights of the broadcasters.

The information and broadcasting ministry’s rationale behind introducing the PSB stipulation is that airwaves are public property. However, the IBDF has countered this view by contending that broadcasting is already a regulated industry; therefore, the ministry cannot place additional curbs on them.

It also urged that the PSB stipulation be mandated through relevant legal provisions. The foundation also highlighted that the broadcasters already air programming that covers themes of national importance and social relevance.

The IBDF has also requested the ministry to revise the stipulation that requires non-news channels to ensure that majority of directors on the board and key managerial personnel (KMP) are resident Indians since the government has permitted 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in entertainment broadcasting. This stipulation was earlier applicable to news channels, but is now applicable to non-news channels as well.

It has also recommended that the authority to determine content-related violations be granted to self-regulating panels formed by the broadcasters.

The IBDF has also requested the ministry to do away with exorbitant fees for live telecast by a nonnews channel.

The guidelines mandate that a non-news channel seeking to carry out live telecast will have to pay Rs 1,00,000 per day in case of national channels, and Rs 50,000 per day for regional channels. The foundation has also requested that the threshold of five violations be clarified to include only those serious in nature. Penalties recommended for violations in programme and advertising content are not backed by legislative provisions, the IBDF contended.