I&B Ministry
Budget 2022: I&B ministry allocation slashed to Rs 3980.77 crore in FY23
Mumbai: The Union Budget 2022 has earmarked a total sum of Rs 3980.77 crore for the ministry of information and broadcasting in the fiscal year 2022-23. This amounts to a decrease of Rs 90 crore from last year.
With the exception of the Press Council of India that saw an increase of Rs 7 crore, up from Rs 20 crore in FY22 to Rs 27 crore for FY 23, the budgets for all other autonomous bodies under the MIB were slashed.
Allocation for Prasar Bharati’s declined to Rs 2,555.29 crore from Rs 2,640.11 crore in the last financial year. The same was the case with The Films and Television Institute of India (from Rs 58.48 crore last year to Rs 55.39 crore this year), the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (from Rs 65 crore to Rs 52 crore), Children’s Film Society of India and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.
Allocation for broadcasting under the social services head has also gone down from Rs 2,921.11 crore to Rs 2,839.29 crore. There was also a reduction in the budget for ‘information and publicity’ from Rs 971.26 crore to Rs 942.04 crore.
‘Information and publicity’ covers establishment expenditure of media units in the country such as the Bureau of Outreach and Communication, Press Information Bureau, Publications Division, New Media Wing, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), Films Division, National Film Archive of India, Electronic Media Monitoring Centre and others.
Hailing the budget as “beneficial”, information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said that it is a blueprint to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of a new India in the 100th year of its independence.
The annual budget for 2022-23 was presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Tuesday.
I&B Ministry
AIDCF moves TDSAT over Waves plan to stream linear TV channels
Industry body flags regulatory gap as OTT push sparks broadcast turf war
NEW DELHI: The battle between traditional television distributors and digital platforms has found its way to the courts, with the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) moving the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against Prasar Bharati’s latest OTT play.
At the heart of the dispute is Waves, Prasar Bharati’s OTT platform, which has invited applications to onboard linear satellite TV channels. Aidcf, which represents multi-system operators (msos), argues that this move sidesteps existing broadcasting rules and risks tilting the playing field in favour of digital platforms.
The federation’s petition hinges on a key provision in the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines, 2022. Clause 11(3)(f) allows broadcasters to downlink channels only if they provide signal decoders to recognised distribution platforms such as MSOS, DTH operators, hits operators and iptv platforms. OTT platforms, aidcf points out, do not feature on that list.
In simple terms, AIDCF’s argument is this: if OTT platforms are not officially recognised distributors, they should not be receiving broadcast signals in the first place. By inviting channels onto Waves, the federation claims, Prasar Bharati is opening a backdoor that lets broadcasters bypass long-standing rules.
The concern goes beyond legal interpretation. Aidcf says OTT platforms currently operate without a clear regulatory framework, allowing them to expand into traditional broadcasting territory without the compliance burden that cable and satellite operators must carry. That, it argues, creates an uneven contest.
There is also a warning for broadcasters. If they provide signal decoders to an OTT platform like Waves, they could risk breaching the very conditions under which their downlinking permissions were granted.
For its part, Prasar Bharati’s Waves initiative is positioned as a step towards wider access and digital reach, bringing linear television into the streaming era. But critics say the move blurs the line between regulated broadcasting and largely unregulated streaming.
The matter is expected to come up before tdsat next week. The outcome could do more than settle a single dispute. It may help define how India regulates the fast-merging worlds of television and OTT, where the lines are getting fuzzier by the day and the stakes, sharper than ever.
