News Broadcasting
Government issues watered down concept note on Broadcast Bill, seeks feedback
NEW DELHI: The government has put out a watered-down version of the much-reviled draft Broadcast Bill for feedback from all stakeholders.
Seemingly fazed by all-round criticism, the draft Bill put on the information and broadcasting ministry website has no mention of some draconian clauses.
For example, a clause on government taking over broadcast services in times of war and national calamity has been done away with.
In the draft Bill put on the ministry website — mib.nic.in —- a certain cap on number of consumers broadcast network service providers (MSOs, cable operators and DTH platform) can have nationally has also been quietly done away with, in sharp contrast to a draft that had been circulated by the government in June.
A clause which stated in an earlier draft that no broadcast network service provider shall have more than the prescribed share of consumers/subscribers in a city or state subject to the overall ceiling of 15 per cent for the whole country doesn’t find a place in the draft put out by the government today.
Some of the powers of the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India too have been clipped in the new draft.
What’s more, the government has put the entire draft Bill on the website of I&B ministry, in itself an historic action of sorts.
A key point worth noting here is that this action (of making the contents public) by the I&B ministry means that the Bill currently stands as having been withdrawn. This is because once a ministry refers a decision to the Cabinet, it is covered by the Official Secrets Act, and the only way it can be brought into the public domain is to withdraw it formally.
The move comes a few days ahead of a meeting that the ministry called with the industry on various aspects of media.
The meeting has been scheduled for the evening of 14 August, which also happens to be the eve of India’s Independence Day.
Though the move is being seen as an attempt to blunt criticism on lack of transparency on the part of government while formulating an important policy, a section of the industry has been caught by surprise by its timing.
“Considering it’s going to be a long weekend, starting Friday (11 August) evening with holidays on 15 and 16 August, the government has given too short a time to revert with serious feedback,” a broadcaster exclaimed.
However, to be fair to the government, it has also given the general public and industry about 30 days to formally lodge objections and suggestions relating to the draft Broadcast Bill, which when leaked in the media end-June (Indiantelevision.com also got hold of its contents), created an all-round furore.
The concept note on the Bill states that it seeks to achieve the following:
(i) To provide legislative sanction retroactively to government guidelines on various regulatory aspects such as television channels’ uplinking/downlinking, private FM Radio and community radio, DTH, Teleport, etc.
(ii) To set up a new Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of India and delegate the regulatory functions presently being performed by the ministry of I&B to this new authority.
(iii) To incorporate the provisions of the existing Cable Television Networks Regulation Act in the new legislation through appropriate repeal and savings clauses and provide for licensing of cable operators.
(iv) To make enabling provisions in areas like cross-media restrictions, minimum searching of local content for all TV channels and their obligations towards social service messages.
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
