* ‘Government committed to self regulation based on Public-Private Partnership model’
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today announced that the Government was planning to establish a thirteen member National Broadcasting Content Complaints Council… headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge that entailed involvement of key stakeholders of the media and the entertainment industry and civil society.
Addressing the inaugural session of the CII Content Summit Adapting from Wired to Wireless… here, Soni said this proposal was based on consultations held with civil society representatives and the representative body for entertainment channels that is the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF). The constitution of such a body would enable a process to view content through an appropriate mechanism.
Reiterating that the Government was committed to put in place a system of self regulation based on the Public Private Partnership model, she said she had met Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Veerappa Moily in this connection yesterday to apprise them of her Ministry’s plans.
The BCCC would have representatives of bodies like the News Broadcasters Association, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, the National Council for Protection of Child Rights, the National Commission for Women, National Commission for SC/ST, and other similar bodies besides four members of the broadcasters and four representatives of civil society.
She said as far as content was concerned, it had to be balanced with the prevalent diversity in the country, the existence of multiple channels, the suitability and tastes of different target audiences and the nuances of the regional media.
Moreover as the volume of programming had increased, self regulation was the way forward keeping in mind the fact that television was becoming increasingly localized. A self regulatory mechanism would ensure an element of objectivity in viewing and addressing issues relating to content.
She said the system of self regulation put in place by the NBA with regard to news HAD worked well and a constructive partnership between the Government and the NBA had ensured that the system of self regulation worked effectively addressing the concerns of both. The self regulation model put in force by ASCI had also worked effectively in modulating content in the advertising industry.
Regarding the roadmap for digitalization, Soni said the Ministry had extensive discussions with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to ascertain the date for fixing the sunset hour for digitalization. The need for a modified timeframe was felt keeping in view the enormity of the challenge and the need to give the industry sufficient time to gear up to meet the challenge.
The roadmap drawn up by the Ministry had been forwarded to TRAI and based on TRAI’s final recommendations, the Ministry would amend the concerned Act to position these policy changes. Proposals have been submitted to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee related to reduction of taxes for digital headends, set top boxes and rationalization of taxes including income tax holiday for prospective investors.
The Minister also said the Ministry had approved a plan scheme for upgrading the free-to-air DTH platform of Doordarshan, DD Direct Plus, to carry 97 channels by the end of this year instead of 57 channels as of now, and then increase it to 200 channels by December 2012. This would enable those persons who cannot afford to incur recurring expenses on a monthly basis to be able to watch TV channels at a onetime cost for purchase of STB without any further expenses.
On the issue of copyright, Soni said that the Ministry would work towards streamlining issues to address the concerns of key stakeholders. She said the effort was to put in place a mechanism where neither the radio nor the music industry felt threatened.
The Minister reiterated that her Ministry would play a role of a facilitator promoting innovation, convergence new media formats and multi media platforms.
She said content had undergone a vast change in the past years, but there were concerns of children, senior citizens, and family audiences, and â€?protectors of Indian arts and customs’ that needed to be addressed. Furthermore, there was often uncertified and â€?no fully correct news’. However, she made it clear that there was no question of a censor board for the television industry.
She felt that all TV channels should be members of the IBF or the NBA as that would make it easier o address their concerns.
Answering a question, she said the aim was to make the International Film Festival of India of international standard, and the National Film Development Corporation as well as the Public Service Broadcasting Trust were working towards helping new filmmakers.
Amit Khanna, Chairman of the CII National Committee on Media and Entertainment, and Reliance BIG Entertainment, said production houses like Reliance and UTV were also encouraging new filmmakers.
Ronnie Screwvala, UTV CEO and co-Chairman of the CII National Committee on Media and Entertainment said content drives content, but it needs to be defined as not mere linear story telling but moving pictures. It has to be personalized, interactive, and community-responsive.
At the same time, it should be the prime choice and franchisable and so consumers have to pay to make it earn revenues.