News Broadcasting
No agreement, but IBF, MSOs continue discussions
NEW DELHI: The meetings that the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) panel had separately today with some of the MSOs in Delhi over various issues relating to conditional access system (CAS) proved to be inconclusive, though both the MSOs and the broadcasters said it was “positive step” in the right direction as such meetings had never been held in the past.
According to information available with indiantelevision.com, the various MSO representatives have asked for a distribution margin around 70 per cent, something which did bother the broadcasters whose point of view was that these margins are much above global trends.
According to an IBF source, “Our aim is simple: dispel the perception that broadcasters are against CAS. Rather, such meetings now will be an ongoing process and broadcasters would like to sort out contentious issues with the cable industry. After all, we are all part of the same big industry.”
The individual meetings went on for long and some more with big independent cable operators are also scheduled tomorrow. It seems that both the broadcasters and the cable industry want to go into tomorrow’s government-piloted task force meeting on CAS with something to show.
In the last task force meeting held about 10 days ago, the chairman of the task force, Rakesh Mohan, joint secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry, had requested the broadcasters and the cable industry to sort out issues like distribution margins amongst themselves so that the panel could take forward the implementation of CAS to its logical end.
Pointing out that the talks today did not bring out things in black and white, a senior representative of an MSO told indiantelevision.com that when queried on the individual pricing of channels in a bouquet, the IBF panel is reported to have said that this was an issue that should be discussed with individual broadcasters.
The IBF source said, “Now these discussions should be held individually with broadcasters as the plans each broadcaster are different.”
The broadcasters’ stand has been that unless the pricing of free to air channels in the basic tier in a post CAS regime is defined, it would be difficult to arrive at individual pricing of channels in a bouquet.
Various bouquets are priced differently and in most of them there are some ‘weak’ channels that ride the package. For example, the Zee Music channel in the Zee Turner bouquet or National Geographic Channel in the Star bouquet or Animal Planet in the One Alliance are considered `weak’ channels and the government has directed that when CAS is implemented the pricing of each channel should also be made public to be displayed by cable operators for the consumers’ benefit.
Star India representative during one of the meetings with Siti Cable is reported to have said that a 70 per cent distribution margin is on the higher side as the global trend puts the figure around between 50-55 per cent.
An MSO is also reported to have opined that if individual meetings with broadcasters need to take place then a time-bound schedule should also be given as this process may be time consuming.
The MSOs’ stand has been that unless the broadcasters sort out such issues they would be unable to firm up a business plan and order equipment needed for implementing CAS — again a matter that was discussed during the last task force meeting.
News Broadcasting
Newsrooms rethink AI, trust and revenue models
Editors and tech leaders debate tools, deepfakes and viability.
MUMBAI: If yesterday’s newsroom ran on caffeine and chaos, tomorrow’s may well run on code but with a human still holding the pen. At the 22nd edition of the Video Broadcast and Broadband Tech Summit hosted by IndianTelevision.com, some of the sharpest minds in Indian media gathered to examine how artificial intelligence, automation and shifting audience behaviour are reshaping journalism. The session, titled The Newsroom of Tomorrow Tools, Trust, and Business Viability In Focus, did not descend into techno-utopian hype. Instead, it wrestled with a more uncomfortable question: how do you stay relevant, credible and profitable when the audience is changing faster than the headline cycle?
The panel featured Govindraj Ethiraj, Editor of The Core, Dr Nilesh Khare, COO of Sakal Media Group; Prakaran Tiwari, Chief Executive Producer at NDTV Profit; Manoj Padmanabhan, Head of Business Media and Entertainment at AWS; Neeraj Mishra, Key Account Manager at Vizrt and session chair; and Mayuresh Konnur, Bilingual Correspondent at Collective Newsroom, publisher for BBC in India.
Govindraj Ethiraj set the tone with a frank assessment. “The reason people do not consume as much news through us is because they are consuming news through other sources they trust more,” he said. In a fragmented ecosystem flooded with content, trust has become the real differentiator.
Yet AI is undeniably transforming workflows. Ethiraj admitted he now uses AI tools to proofread his own articles. “Sometimes it is scary how much it picks, but it helps,” he said. What once required layers of sub-editing can now be assisted by machines trained to flag errors, inconsistencies and structural weaknesses.
He pointed to how newsroom roles have evolved. The desk editor, widely advertised over the last 15 years, barely existed in its current form before the internet boom. As digital publishing accelerated, tasks such as curating listicles, ranking stories and optimising headlines became specialised functions. Now, many of those responsibilities can be performed or at least supported by AI systems. The disruption is not hypothetical; it is operational.
Dr Nilesh Khare approached the issue from both a business and technological standpoint. Sakal Media Group is developing its own large language model, built on 60 years of text and photo archives. The goal is independence. “We won’t need to depend on other platforms to develop ours,” he said, underscoring the strategic value of proprietary data.
For Khare, AI represents opportunity as much as anxiety. It can help expand content across geographies and languages, particularly in bridging North and South Indian markets. It can streamline production and reduce costs. He did not shy away from the implications. “As a journalist I feel bad but as a content producer I feel good that we will require less manpower,” he said, articulating a tension many in the room recognised but few openly admit.
He also highlighted how audience behaviour is evolving. Today, a retail investor can follow a stock using Gemini or GPT instead of toggling between multiple news channels. News is no longer consumed linearly; it is queried, personalised and synthesised. The newsroom must therefore produce content that survives not just on screens but within AI-generated summaries.
Prakaran Tiwari offered a more philosophical reflection. “AI has developed itself and adapted on the basis of how news is consumed. It’s all about giving a perspective,” he said. In his view, the competitive edge will not lie in speed alone but in interpretation. Facts are increasingly commoditised; context is not.
He also suggested that formats are fluid. While short-form video dominates social feeds, long-form audio is resurging. Govindraj Ethiraj noted that in the United States the 2024 election was described as the “podcast election”, reflecting how audiences are investing time in deeper, long-form discussions. The newsroom of tomorrow must cater to both scrolling and sustained listening.
Manoj Padmanabhan of AWS reframed the debate. Technology, he argued, is not an existential threat but an amplifier. “The power is given to the human journalist with all this technology in their hand, with it acting as a support or assistant to deliver the correct and relevant news to the people,” he said.
The traditional divide between a “normal” newsroom and a “digital” newsroom is fading. “It will not be two newsrooms,” he said. “It will be one newsroom.” In that integrated environment, the storyteller remains central. AI may assist with research, editing and distribution, but editorial judgement remains human.
Neeraj Mishra of Vizrt echoed the assistive narrative. India, he said, is a market of organised chaos, where news broadcasters are pushing ever-increasing volumes of content. AI will help manage scale. It is not here to replace people but to assist them.
Production barriers are already collapsing. “You don’t need a green screen to produce content now,” Mishra observed, hinting at virtual production tools and real-time rendering technologies. And this, he said, is only the beginning. In a cost-conscious market like India, AI adoption in both B to B and B to C segments is likely to rise sharply. The skills are available, he argued, the real question is whether organisations are willing to invest.
If opportunity was one half of the conversation, risk was the other. Mayuresh Konnur warned that fake news is now being peddled with alarming ease using AI tools. Deepfakes, synthetic audio and fabricated visuals can damage credibility overnight. Several journalists, he said, have already faced instances where manipulated content was circulated in their name.
“Eventually it becomes a question of how authentic you are in the market,” Konnur noted. In a crowded information economy, credibility is the ultimate moat. Regulations and clear guidelines, he argued, are necessary to curb misuse without stifling innovation.
Mishra added a note of caution against overuse. “AI should not be everywhere. It has to be used optimally,” he said. The value lies not in blanket automation but in strategic integration.
One of the most resonant metaphors came from Padmanabhan. AI, he suggested, is like a brush in a human hand. Powerful, versatile, transformative but inert without the artist. It cannot survive without the human touch.
Konnur distilled the session’s core takeaway, AI is inevitable, but the art of storytelling will never disappear.
In a media landscape defined by speed, shrinking attention spans and intense competition, the newsroom of tomorrow is not simply a technological upgrade. It is a recalibration. Between efficiency and ethics. Between automation and authenticity. Between reducing manpower and retaining meaning.
The algorithms may write cleaner copy and generate sharper graphics. They may even predict what audiences want before audiences know it themselves. But the enduring task remains unchanged to tell stories that inform, interrogate and inspire.
And for that, the human newsroom is still very much open for business.
