IB secretary calls for policies to regulate media and entertainment industry

Information & broadcasting secretary Amit Khare Tuesday said the media and entertainment industry has multiple regulators and the government needs to draft policies to create a level playing field. "Historically, our policies and regulations have not developed content-wise and developed platform-wise. There are separate regulations for the print, a different set of regulations for the broadcast, and the third set for films. For newspapers, it is the Press Council, and if it is online, the PCI cannot intervene on that," Khare said at the annual industry event Ficci Frames that began here Tuesday.

"We need to realign and draft some policies at least for providing a level playing field," he said. The top ministry official said the idea is not to have one more regulator like Trai for the broadcast sector, CBFC for films or the Press Council for the print media but to have a self-regulating mechanism where all platforms would be supporting each other.

"It should be cooperative competition," he said. Khare noted that there should be certainty in the policies in the media and entertainment sector else it will deter companies to make huge investments.

"The type of tariffs permitted to a broadcast channel, there should be a certainty. What Trai has done, I favour consumers should have a choice as to which channel they want to see. But at the same time there should be some certainty with the operator otherwise the entire system that we have will become unviable," he said. Noting that the media and entertainment sector is largely driven by private players, he said certainty of policies is important.

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman Bibek Debroy said, "ideally, regulation should be entirely self-driven." Khare also informed that a film and entertainment industry strategy paper 2025 is also being prepared that would take into account the incentives that are to be given by Central or state government, the type of regulatory changes that would be required to improve the screen density. Noting the big opportunity is animation, gaming, virtual reality, he said the government is in the process of setting up a centre for excellence in this subject in the suburban Goregaon.

To enable single-window clearance for filming in the country, he said a film facilitation office has already been set up and by April 1, there will be a system in place for online film facilitation where a single window clearance would be given to various applicants for shooting permission whether it is for railways or historical monuments.