The Financial Express: IPTV will be brought back under the Cable TV Act in India. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will bring IPTV back under the Cable TV Act in the soon-to-be released consultation paper on the subject. Earlier Trai had sought to bring IPTV within the telecom regulations framework. This attracted contradictory views from the broadcasters and telecom operators over the regulation of content. Trai says they have revisited the consultation paper on IPTV, and has decided to retain it in Cable TV Act, 1995.
Trai, in its earlier consultation paper, had suggested amendments to the Cable TV Act so as to exclude IPTV from its ambit. Among the objections raised by the broadcasters on Trai’s proposal of excluding IPTV from the purview of Cable Act, both Zee and STAR TV said the foreign direct investment limit of 49% on cable services should also be applicable to IPTV services provided by telecom players like Bharti and Reliance too. Because telecom has an FDI cap of 74 per cent, while Cable has 49 per cent.
Now Trai says IPTV will be regulated by Cable TV Act. Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said that they would have to factor-in the technological changes and the legal angles of the functioning of IPTV in the re-worked consultation paper. Trai had withdrawn the IPTV consultation paper after receiving differing views from cable and telecom operators.
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