The News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), India’s largest industry association of news TV broadcasters officially announced the launch of a sub-committee on digital news media to cater to the regulatory challenges faced by the traditional news channels.

The launch of the sub-committee on digital news media is to give special attention to online platforms, as news consumers increasingly prefer to consume news and information through digital media outlets. Any complaints on content, which is broadcasted and also available online of the same broadcasting channels, will also be addressed by NBF’s strong and robust self-regulatory framework, an official statement from NBF stated.

“Digital media revolution has brought a paradigm shift in the consumption of news from larger screens to handheld devices; Digital also has the ability to reach larger audiences. NBF’s digital media sub-committee with strong self-regulatory structure will strive to bring clarity on regulatory compliance of news by traditional news broadcasters who have digital presence and level playing field for linear TV and digital platforms broadcasting news. This will also bring out responsible news broadcasting for the digital audience,” R. Jai Krishna, Secretary-General, NBF, said in statement.

The sub-committee comes in the wake of new regulatory-fuelled business challenges posed after the notification of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 [IT Rules 2021], on February 25, 2021, with its implementation beginning on May 25, 2021.

NBF will strongly advocate with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to grant exemption to TV news broadcasters, broadcasting the same content on their digital platform, since there is no variation in content in two platforms.

Also, TV news broadcasters already abide by the Programme Code under the Cable and Television Network Act, Uplinking/Downlinking Policy, and other relevant legislation. The new digital media ethics code will act as an additional compliance for the same content for digital platforms, which will cause a hurdle in the Ease of Doing Business of TV news broadcasters.

NBF had also requested the MIB as well as the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to provide a clarification for the compliance of news broadcasters having TV news channels, and modified and varied content on the digital platform.