The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) challenging Prasar Bharati’s move to onboard linear satellite TV channels on its WAVES OTT platform, raising concerns over regulatory violations and an uneven playing field.

According to details outlined in the petition, AIDCF has objected to Prasar Bharati’s notice inviting applications for onboarding channels on the WAVES platform, arguing that OTT platforms currently operate without a defined regulatory framework. The federation contends that this regulatory gap is being leveraged to enable monetisation opportunities that bypass existing norms governing traditional broadcasting distribution.

At the core of the dispute is Clause 11(3)(f) of the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines, 2022, which mandates that broadcasters are permitted to downlink channels only if they provide signal decoders to recognised distribution platform operators such as multi-system operators (MSOs), DTH operators, HITS operators, or IPTV platforms. AIDCF has argued that OTT platforms are not recognised under this framework and therefore cannot legally receive such decoders.

The petition claims that Prasar Bharati’s initiative effectively encourages broadcasters to bypass these guidelines by onboarding their linear channels onto an OTT platform, which is not authorised under the existing policy regime. It further alleges that any broadcaster providing signal decoders to the WAVES platform could be in violation of the conditions under which their downlinking permissions were granted.

AIDCF has maintained that the move undermines the regulatory structure governing the broadcasting sector and creates a compliance imbalance between traditional distribution platforms and digital services. The matter is now under consideration before TDSAT, with broader implications for the evolving intersection of broadcasting and OTT ecosystems in India.