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UK Digital Economy Bill proposes legal mandate for Channel 4 to invest in films
MUMBAI: UK‘s new Digital Economy Bill has decided to place a legal commitment on broadcaster Channel 4 to invest in films. The bill, announced by the Queen as part of the state opening of Parliament on 18 November, is expected to become a law in the next few months.
Said head of the broadcaster‘s filmmaking arm Film4, Tessa Ross, “This is a prize we have been working towards for some time and are absolutely delighted that we are well on the way to achieving that goal. Channel 4 has supported Film 4 since its inception and volunteered a commitment to it in a new expanded digital remit back in March 2008.”
Film4 presently invests around $16m (?10m) a year in feature projects like Slumdog Millionaire that grossed $377 million worldwide and this year‘s awards contenders, The Lovely Bones and Nowhere Boy.
Hailing the measures, UK Film Council (UKFC) chief executive John Woodward said, “Including Film 4 in Channel 4‘s remit for the first time is a prize the UK Film Council has been chasing for many years.
“As long as Channel 4 has not been required by legislation to make films, Film4 has remained on a knife-edge. The new legislation will finally embed Film4 at the centre of Channel 4‘s public service remit.”
The Digital Economy Bill also contains a two-stage strategy to tackle online piracy. The first stage is legal action and consumer education about online copyright, followed if necessary by a second stage in which reserve powers would be used to introduce technical measures, such as broadband disconnection.
UKFC chairman Tim Bevan said that the proposals should leave persistent pirates in no doubt that what they were doing was wrong and damaging both the film sector and wider economy.
“Piracy hits film revenues, threatens jobs, and restricts reinvestment back into new movies,” Bevan avered.
“The digital film future is a hugely exciting prospect, but one obvious downside to a fully digital world is that piracy will be made even easier, which is why we believe strongly that these measures should be supported and introduced as speedily as possible,” he added.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
