India’s broadcast regulator TRAI on Friday issued a consultation paper to address issues related to digital rights management (DRM) and piracy impacting the broadcast and cable distribution sector.

It said that during dialogues with stakeholders numerous comments were received on DRM.

“It was felt that specifications for DRM systems require extensive deliberations with industry stakeholders. Hence, it was decided that requirements for DRM systems shall be dealt separately,” TRAI said while releasing the consultation paper on ‘Draft Telecommunication (Broadcasting And Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2022’.

Digital rights management is the management of legal access to digital content.

The regulator said that an earlier set of rules proposed to amend Schedule III of the interconnection regulations on issues relating to DRM systems transactional capacity of CAS and subscriber management system, including support for visible and covert fingerprinting in STBs and watermarking network logo for all pay channels.

“Accordingly, based on the report of the stakeholders’ committee, this Consultation Paper has been prepared, which proposes to include ‘System Requirement for Digital Right Management (DRM)’ as a new Schedule i.e. Schedule X in the Interconnection Regulations,” TRAI said.

The full text of the TRAI consultation paper could be accessed at https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/CP_09092022_0.pdf.