The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has been met with silence after multiple attempts to gather input from stakeholders for the National Broadcasting Policy (NBP) 2024. Despite sending out three reminders—on July 22, August 18, and September 30—the ministry has yet to receive any substantial feedback, further delaying the policy’s formulation, the Story Board18 reported yesterday.

One key area of contention is the inclusion of OTT platforms in the broadcasting policy.

Industry organizations, including the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), The Media Foundation (TMF) and NASSCOM, have expressed concerns over this, arguing that OTT platforms do not fall under the traditional broadcasting umbrella and should not be regulated under broadcast policy framework.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) initiated a pre-consultation last year and launched a second consultation on April 2, 2024, to gather insights for the upcoming broadcasting policy.

However, broadcasters believe that TRAI’s draft oversteps its regulatory bounds, particularly with its inclusion of OTT platforms in the consultation paper, the Storyboard18 report stated.