New media council on the horizon? India’s parliamentary panel pushes for media and telecom convergence

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has suggested that in order to improve the way laws controlling print, broadcast, and internet media are implemented, the government should establish a media council. The committee's report on the grant demand for 2025–2026 included this proposal, and it was delivered to the Lok Sabha on March 21.

In the framework of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, the committee's suggestion would enable the government to control over-the-top (OTT) broadcasting services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.

What is the key point?

The merging of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is recommended in the committee's report on the 2025–26 Demands for Grants, which was presented to the Lok Sabha on March 21. The aim is to address the technology convergence of media and communication platforms by simplifying monitoring and policymaking.

Also, the report recommends the government to form a media council that would regulate print, broadcast, and digital media. The Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, that proposes regulatory structures for Over-the-Top (OTT) services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime aligns with this suggestion.

To keep pace with technology, the committee has asked the MIB to review the upcoming law on broadcasting periodically. To better organize the suggested media council, it was further recommended that the MIB request technical support from MeitY.

While a few telecom players welcomed the proposal, the digital and television industries remain sceptical about whether convergence is a reason enough for regulatory singleness. 

Call for Convergence

Convergence is gaining wider and wider acceptance in the government, as can be seen in the recommendations made for the media council and the convergence of the MIB, MeitY, and DoT. When the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper on the subject in January 2023, convergence first became popular in the technology sector. 

The consultation paper has clarified media and telecommunication convergence as the convergence of the two services into a single product combining the purposes of the original services.TRAI clarified that different forms of convergences have occurred over time, these include:
Device convergence: A single device is capable of doing several things. A good example is a smart TV, which is the integration of the functionality of a normal TV with a computer as well as other gadgets.
Network convergence: In which one delivery channel carries several disparate types of media. "For instance, cable companies today process voice, video, and data information on one network and frequently provide their services as a package deal (e.g., phone, TV, and internet services," accordong to TRAI.

The question of convergence is still up for debate even though TRAI did not make any official recommendations on the subject. It was brought up by the regulator during last year's National Broadcast Policy consultation. "The regulatory framework and legislators need to pay attention to the technological improvements, particularly the convergence of devices and content. These days, mobile phones, smart devices, and televisions can all access the same content." It had contended that these platforms present a regulatory problem because of the variations in their distribution methods. Convergence was not included in TRAI's final policy recommendations, nevertheless. 

Speaking about the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications, Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, Director General, COAI said, “The recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT to merge the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under a single umbrella, is expected to improve coordination in handling issues related to technology convergence. In whatever format this is implemented, it will lead to a focused and composite handling of issues, thereby formulating policies which are equally applicable to all the concerned ministries, as cited above, and reduce multiple policy formulations on the same subject, thus improving transparency and compliances.

Taking the same logic into the operational domain covering spam/fraud messages and calls spanning over both telecom networks and OTT channels, it is necessary to apply one set of policies and regulations to both components, i.e., TSPs and OTTs."

He further added, "while telcos are currently being governed by the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCPR) 2018 and noticeable results have been observed in the spam/unwanted forms of communication via the TSPs, the App based communications currently not under the same regulation, remain unchecked and are becoming a growing concern for the consumers and the government.

While it is encouraging to note the recent announcement of DoT collaborating with one of the top OTT Communication Players in the country to prevent the spam and scam communications in India through a safety and educational campaign; we believe that it would be proper for regulatory and security measures to be put in place for all players, including OTTs and TSPs, to be governed by the same regulatory framework.

Therefore, we are hopeful that this step will help in uniformly addressing the issue of spam, telemarketing, etc. to a very large extent across all communication channels and help remove/restrict the scourge of unwanted/fraud communications, thus providing much needed relief to the consumers.”

Why it's important

Because there are differing opinions about whether or not there is any true convergence of services, the government's push for convergence is significant. For instance, Jio disagrees with Airtel's view that as the same television content is delivered over several channels, the regulatory regulation of these channels should likewise converge. According to Jio, the government should maintain the distinction between content and carriage in its regulatory requirements. 

The justification for the proposal is the increasing convergence of content and carriage services. The historical distinction between telecom networks, broadcasting platforms, and digital services has diminished, with the same content available on various devices and networks. Smart TVs, smartphones, and broadband connections enable consumers to access broadcast media, Internet services, and telephony from one platform, leading to regulatory loopholes and policy duplications.

In its report, the committee points out that several ministries are simultaneously developing parallel policies on issues like spam, data protection, and content control. One ministry, it argues, can provide a clearer and more responsible framework for managing converging technologies.