The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has extended the deadline for submitting feedback from stakeholders on the proposed regulatory framework of platform services offered by MSOs.

“In response to request received from various quarters with reference to this Ministry’s Public Notice dated 1310512022 on the subject…this Ministry has decided to extend the time by one month i.e. by 22d June 2022 for furnishing suggestions/feedback/comments/inputs/views on Regulatory Framework of Platform Services Offered by MSOs,” MIB said in an advisory Monday.

The Ministry had sought another round of feedback from stakeholders after regulator TRAI had made recommendations on the subject matter last year and advised people to study those suggestions before sending in their viewpoints.

Platform services are programs transmitted by distribution platform operators exclusively to their own subscribers and do not include Doordarshan channels and registered TV channels. It shall also not include foreign TV channels that are not registered in India.

TRAI last year had made a slew of recommendations to the government on the issue of platform services, including whether they can include news channels or not and clarifying the type of news that could be carried by MSO on their platform services.

While in its suggestions TRAI had said an MSO can carry a lesser number of channels as platform services, but later agreed with MIB feedback on this aspect in a completely digitised environment and raised the number to 15 maximum per operator.

It had also suggested that no annual fees should be imposed on platform services channels. “However, a one-time registration fee of Rs.1,000 per PS channel should be charged. An online payment gateway for acceptance of the registration fees may be incorporated by MIB in the recommended online registration system,” the regulator highlighted.

The transferability of registration and interconnection with other networks for sharing of platform services were also not recommended.