I don’t think this is good news for content companies. India’s telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, is now rooting for regulating content that goes through mobile, broadband and other converged platforms.  TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra is even calling for a separate regulator for content or creating a new licence category for content providers, according to a report in The Economic Times. According to him, the regulation of content remains an area of concern with the advent of convergence of communications and entertainment services, fixed and mobile telephony, broadband internet access and television.
“Lots of data and entertainment material will be available through seamlessly connected networks. The challenge is to ensure that there is no infringement of copy rights, intellectual property rights and no security or social threat,” the ex-bureaucrat told ET.
In new media, self regulation has worked. So why licencing? Maybe the government wants to ban a company at the drop of a hat. The latest is that FTV has been banned for two months for “showing programming that goes against good taste and decency, denigrate women and are likely to adversely affect public morality”.