Media houses protest restrictions in draft broadcast Bill

The representatives of some of the country's top media houses today urged the government to withdraw the restrictions on cross-media holdings and preferential carriage for Prasar Bharti from the draft broadcast Bill.

The group, under the aegis of Indian Media Group, also protested the media policing provisions, calling them "stringent", and suggested that all news media be brought under the Press Council Act of 1967 after amending it.

The IMG team "" among them Zee Telefilms Chairman Subhash Chandra, NDTV Executive-Director KV Narayan Rao, India TV Chief Executive Officer Chintamani Rao, CNN-IBN Joint Managing Director Sameer Manchanda, Times Now's Sunil Lulla and DNA's Pradeep Guha "" met information and broadcasting secretary SK Arora to oppose the provisions of the draft Bill.

IMG is an association of about 55 television, radio and publication companies.

"We don't support restrictions on cross-media holdings as Indian media industry is at a very nascent stage. These cross-media restrictions cannot be applied to India, as in the case of developed countries like US, because we are a pluralistic nation. We don't even speak one language like some of these western nations," Chandra told journalists after the meeting.

According to the draft Bill, no broadcasting company would be allowed to own more that 20 per cent in any other broadcasting company like radio or a television distribution company like a cable operator or a direct to home (DTH) operator.

If implemented, the worst affected would be Zee, Star and NDTV, which have multiple broadcasting ventures as well as television distribution business. Opposing the stringent provisions in the draft Bill on policing the media, the group suggested that a single code of conduct be formulated for news in TV, radio, Internet and print.

Alternatively, all such media could be brought under an amended version of Press Council Act, 1967.

The group also commented that the proposed Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India should be constituted by independent people to retain its autonomy and not become an arm of the government.

Speaking about the preferential treatment meted out to the public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, Chandra said, "We have told the government that preferential carriage should be given to Prasar Bharati if, and only if, it is in 100 per cent public broadcasting mode all the time."

Currently, there is a "must carry" provision for Prasar Bharati channels on cable which block 3 out of 10 channel slots available on prime band, that has long irked the private broadcasters. It hurts them even more during prime time slots when they make the maximum revenue and public broadcaster too airs its prime time content.

The association was of the view that provisions like this would shackle the industry while what was really required was an enabling environment from the government.

"We require capital infusion and technical support. Allow us to be sizable as per global standards first," added Chandra.