News Broadcasting
MPA, USIBC oppose ‘must carry’ Trai provision
MUMBAI: While lauding its efforts to migrate to a digital era, affluent industry bodies like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) and US-India Business Council (USIBC) have come down heavily against Trai’s proposed move to mandate must-provide of TV content.
MPA is strongly opposed to any `must carry provisions and believes that they will only act to hamper the necessary investment required to digitalize networks,the powerful bodies of Hollywood studios and media coMPAnies has said in a submission.
The two organizations, while making submissions to a consultation paper on `Digitisation of Cable TV Networks, have also made a strong pitch for raising foreign investment caps in cable networks to 74 per cent and easier licensing regime for a digital era.
Concurring with MPA, the Delhi-based USIBC, through its media cell, has exhorted Trai not to push ahead with the must-provide clause, which has been repeatedly referred to as must-carry in the submissions.
Do not implement a must-carry provision for digital cable networks. We strongly disagree with the concept of requiring broadcasters to offer their content to every cable network operator, whether digital or not. This distorts the operation of the market, putting the negotiating strength in the hands of the network operator,USIBC has said.
The must-provide clause or making available all content on a
non-discriminatory basis to all types of platforms has kicked up dust in India with most foreign pay broadcasters opposing the regulators move, which still needs to be notified in the Official Gazette to come into effect.
As of now, broadcasters such as Star and Sony do not offer their content to the DTH platform of Dish TV, 20 per cent owned by Zee Telefilms.
The lobbying importance of MPA and USIBC could be gauged from the members of the two organizations. MPA member companies include Buena Vista International Inc, Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International Inc, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc, (both these two part of Sony group, which has a large presence in India), Warner Bros. International Theatrical Distribution Inc and 20th Century Fox that is part of Stars parent company News Corporation. USIBC members include the likes of Discovery, News Corp/Star, DowJones and Sony.
While discussing a possibility of offering incentives to promote
digitalisation, including pricing and fiscal incentives in the form of import duty and service tax sops, both the organizations have also strongly rooted for raising of foreign investment cap from 49 per cent to facilitate easy inflow of investment for digitalisation.
Pointing out that it recognizes that the current limit on direct foreign investment of 49 per cent for cable networks was set without any awareness of digitalizatios, MPA has submitted, This limit should be reviewed to take account of the huge investment needed to make the transition.
USIBS is more direct when it exhorts the Indian government, through Trai, to introduce 74 per cent foreign equity in digital cable networks.
As the Internet,telecommunications and broadcast media converge, equity caps for each service should be equal.A jump to 100 per cent may not be feasible in the near term, but a goal of 74 per cent to bring digital cable service in line with telecom is quite appropriate. High foreign equity caps allow smaller Indian cable service providers to access capital necessary to offer new services and expand market share, as we have seen in the telecom sector,it has said in its submissions.
Interestingly, both the organizations have supported implementation of conditional access system as a technological measure that, if properly used, can enable a healthy digital transition. MPA feels it is necessary for all cable operators to be capable of delivering encrypted signals, that is CAS-capable.
Other issues like a licensing framework for digital cable TV networks, a flexible time-frame for transition from analog to digital transmission and a uniform pricing regime for digital networks have been highlighted too by MPA and the USIBC, both which have heaped praises on Trai for considering these difficult issues related to digitalisation.
However, the tone is firm.MPA firmly believes that a light regulatory environment, coupled with a deep respect for copyright is the key to nurturing a successful television sector,the studio organization has submitted.
Globally, while some developed markets like the US and the UK are still grappling with migration to a digital era, amongst the developing nations, only India is attempting to chart a path towards digitalization of TV and cable services.
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.
