NEW DELHI: There should be an independent broadcast regulator to address issues like technology and pricing and to administer the conditional access system, according to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
"Time has come for an independent regulatory structure for broadcasters," Ficci general secretary Amit Mitra said here today.
He said India could consider three regulatory models - the one that Australia has, another that the US has adopted, and the third one that prevails in Hong Kong, Thailand and NewZealand.
"The Australian one has a portfolio of areas which the regulator looks into, whereas in the United States, regulation is done by a single statutory body. The third model is that adopted by Hong Kong, Thailand and new Zealand where the regulator delves into licensing and content issues," Mitra said
Speaking on the occasion, the chief of law firm Amarchand Mangaldas Shradul Shorff, also the head of Ficci’s legal cell, said the endeavour should be to streamline the entire CAS rollout and to have a regulatory mechanism at the very basic level, initially.
Ficci, in association with Amarchand Mangaldas, will hold a meeting of all the conditional access system stakeholders in Mumbai on 1 August, a day before a new government-sponsored body on CAS meets there, to discuss the issue, Mitra said here.
Information and broadcasting ministry secretary Pawan Chopra, industry representatives and consumer groups will also participate in the meeting, he added.