I&B Ministry
Consumer body seeks I&B intervention on CAS
MUMBAI: Even as the Mumbai High Court decision on the cable industry issues involving consumers, broadcasters and cable operators is pending, a Mumbai based consumer activist organisation has decided to appeal directly to union minister of state for information and broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Consumer Action Network (CAN) president Ahmad M Abdi has written a letter to the minister urging him to take necessary steps to protect the interest of consumers under the conditional access system (CAS) regime. CAN is a consumer activist organisation comprising of lawyers registered under the Society Registration Act, 1860.
According to the letter, a copy of which is with the indiantelevision.com team, the following issues need to be sorted out:
* The ministry must constitute a regulatory authority. The consumer has got no resource to file complaints to grievances in the absence of one. Till the conversions commission becomes a reality, an adhoc regulatory authority should be in place where multifarious issues relating to the industry can be sorted out.
* The ministry must look into the fact that the broadcasters are bundling their pay channels as bouquets and pressuring the consumer to subscribe to the entire bouquet by pricing the popular individual higher. This practice adopted by the broadcasters is prima facie unfair, unreasonable and exploitative in nature and it is duty of the government to regulate and check such types of practices in public interest.
* The bouquet of “free-to-air” (FTA) channels should include the right mix of entertainment, news, sports, music and children’s programmes which can accessed by the consumer who pays the FTA bouquet price of Rs 72 per month.
* The I&B ministry must urge the finance ministry to exempt cable TV service of FTA bouquet from the service tax net. The reason being that cable TV is the basic source of information and entertainment to the common masses as well as the economically weaker section of the society.
* The state governments must yield to the request from consumer bodies that the FTA cable TV service should become exempt from the purview of entertainment tax.
* The ministry must develop a mechanism to counter the probable exploitation of the consumers by the cable operators or multi-system operators (MSOs). There are fears that the cable trade could pressure consumers to subscribers to pay channels along with FTA channels – refusing to provide FTA channels alone. It must be mandatory to provide cable TV service as per demand rather than force.
I&B Ministry
Digital radio, D2M tech set to reshape broadcasting and public messaging
Govt pushes next-gen delivery while TRAI tightens grip on spam ecosystem
NEW DELHI: India’s broadcasting and telecom landscape is undergoing a quiet but significant upgrade, with digital radio and Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) technologies emerging as powerful tools for mass communication, while regulators step up efforts to tackle spam calls.
According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, digital radio and D2M are poised to transform how content reaches audiences by making more efficient use of spectrum. In simple terms, multiple channels can now be delivered over a single frequency, opening the door to a wider range of free-to-air content.
D2M technology takes this a step further by enabling video, audio and data to be broadcast directly to mobile handsets without relying on SIM cards or mobile data. The result is a resilient and cost-effective data pipe that can deliver everything from entertainment and education to critical emergency alerts, even in low-connectivity scenarios.
At the same time, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is tightening its grip on unsolicited commercial communication, better known as spam calls. The regulator has deployed a distributed ledger technology platform to bring transparency and accountability into the system.
Through this blockchain-based setup, consumers can register their preferences on receiving promotional messages, while businesses and telemarketers must also sign up and operate within defined rules. The platform also includes a complaint mechanism that allows users to report spam, with complaints shared across telecom operators for coordinated action.
The government’s broader push is being supported by infrastructure upgrades under the Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development scheme. Implemented through Prasar Bharati, the initiative focuses on modernising networks such as Akashvani and Doordarshan, including digitisation and adoption of next-generation broadcast equipment.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan said these steps are part of a larger effort to promote emerging technologies and strengthen the country’s broadcasting backbone. The response came to a query raised by member of Parliament Rao Rajendra Singh.
Together, these developments point to a dual-track strategy: expanding access to reliable, low-cost content while cleaning up the communication ecosystem. As digital pipes get smarter and spam filters sharper, India’s airwaves may soon feel a lot less noisy and far more useful.
