India’s TRAI releases recommendations for IPTV services

November 29, 2007 – The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released draft recommendations on the provision of IPTV services in the country, providing conditions under which operators would not need to obtain new licences to offer the services.

Under the recommendations, telcos with a licence to provide triple play services, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with a net worth of over Rs 100 crore (US$25.14mn) and registered cable TV operators will not need to apply for a separate licence to offer IPTV services.  IPTV operators would also be able to transmit channels in the same unaltered form which broadcasters have received permission for via uplinking/downlinking.

“In such cases, the responsibility to ensure that content is in accordance with the extant laws, rules and regulations shall be that of the broadcaster and telecom licencee will not be responsible,” the TRAI said in its draft recommendations.

The operators will only be allowed to transmit news channels that have been approved by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry, the TRAI added.  For content other than TV channels from broadcasters, IPTV operators would be responsible for observing the programme code and advertisement code provided in Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act 1995.

The TRAI has also recommended that the I&B and IT ministry regulate the content provided using IPTV, suggesting that uplinking/downlinking guidelines be amended to enable the broadcasters to provide signals to all distributors of TV channels such as cable operators, multi-system operators, DTH operators, headend in the sky (HITS) operators and IPTV service providers.

The IPTV recommendations are to be submitted to the government following feedback from various stakeholders.