The telecom regulator has placed internet protocol television (IPTV) under several heads, rather than clubbing it under any single ministry.
NEW DELHI:The telecom regulator has placed internet protocol television (IPTV) under several heads, rather than clubbing it under any single ministry or department or agency, whether it’s for licensing/registration or dealing with breach of provisions.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday announced its draft recommendations for IPTV players after prolonged confusion over its regulatory framework status.
But Trai’s draft recommendations have put IPTV under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), information & broadcasting (I&B) ministry and the Department of Information Technology (IT), depending on the category of the IPTV player.
According to the draft recommendations, telecom service providers with licence to offer triple-play services can go ahead with IPTV.
Also, internet service providers (ISPs) with a net worth over Rs 100 crore and permission to provide IPTV can offer the services under their existing licences.
Since the licensor for telcos and ISPs is DoT, they don’t have to approach the I&B ministry for further registration to offer IPTV.
As for cable TV operators, they will provide IPTV services under the regulatory framework of the I&B ministry’s Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995, without requiring any other licence, according to Trai.
Based on the industry inputs to the draft recommendations, Trai would finalise the norms for IPTV.
Any violation or breach of provision by telcos, cable operators, ISPs and broadcasters “shall be dealt with by designated agencies which are responsible for administering such Acts/licence/registration/permissions”.
On content regulation, Trai has said that telecom licensees offering IPTV must show TV channels in the same form for which broadcasters have received uplinking/downlinking permission from the government.
As for news channels, only those approved by the I&B ministry can be beamed on IPTV.
So, content responsibility will lie with only the broadcasters and not the telecom companies offering IPTV.
For any other content that telecom licensees may provide, the telcos must comply with the programme and advertising code in the Cable TV Network, according to Trai.
Both I&B and IT ministries have been named for content regulation for IPTV services. DoT will be in consultation with I&B and IT ministries for complaint redressal.
Trai has recommended that the uplinking and downlinking guidelines should be amended, so that broadcasters can provide signals to all distributors of TV channels such as cable operators, multi-system operators, direct-to-home (DTH) players, head end in the sky (HITS) operators and IPTV service providers.
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