TRAI to issue new broadcast-policy consultation paper in next few days
TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said the Authority has completed the process of pre-conversation for a broadcast policy.
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At the annual Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) FRAMES conference, TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said the consultation paper on the new broadcast policy will be released within the next few days. He added that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has completed the process of pre-conversation for a broadcast policy.
The policy's focus areas include encouraging production of local content, making India a global hub of content, strengthening public service broadcasting, fuelling growth across the media and entertainment verticals, and promoting the ease of doing business. Other key focus areas are combating piracy, ensuring content security, copyright protection, and improving terrestrial broadcasting.
Speaking about the proliferation of screens and mobile in particular in relation to television, Lahoti said mobile supports the growth of television and expands TV's reach rather than replacing the TV which has a headroom to grow as 140 million homes are yet to get their first TV.
He said that is it often considered now that since people have started consuming most of their content on their smartphones, why would they want to watch TV anymore? Lahoti answered saying that TV is a large screen device and phones are much smaller in size. Thus, the viewing experience on both is completely different.
"Mobile is not replacing TV, it is augmenting TV and expanding the reach of TV. It is also expanding the viewing time. Since TV cannot be carried everywhere, mobile helps people view content on the go, thereby increasing the viewing time. This will rather support the industry," he said.
"I personally feel it is good for the TV industry as it will give them the chance to innovate and improve its quality and make itself more affordable. So, I don't think there is any reason to think TV is dead," Lahoti added.
He further added that unlike OTT, TV has over 900 channels and a lot of these channels are in regional and traditional languages. OTT platforms are nowhere near achieving this, he said. For India, regional content is very important.
Lahoti shared, "Another thing is that almost 1000 MSOs are operating the entire cable TV system. They are present right in the field, they are next-door to the consumer, and so they have the strength of accessing the consumer, unlike OTT. TV has to leverage their strength and provide a service for the consumer."
