Most media houses have strongly opposed any kind of restriction on cross media ownership, with a few even raising doubts whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) even has the jurisdiction to deliberate and recommend over the issue. However, Trai had invited comments on the subject following a reference from the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B).
The Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd (BCCL), that has presence across the print, electronic and radio has cited the scope of Trai Act, to establish that the broadcast regulator doesn?t have the jurisdiction to cover the print media. It further says that countries with cross-media restrictions generally have few newspapers and broadcasters unlike India. The Indian Newspaper Society has also questioned Trai?s rights over mulling over an issue that includes the ?print sector? in it.
BCCL has favoured distinguishing between commercial media and news media. ?where FM radio licences and commercial content broadcasting licences pertain to commercial space while TV news channels and newspapers are in the news space. Regulations for these two categories can never be the same?.
Bharti Airtel, primarily a telecom player that recently ventured into DTH, and has plans to enter IPTV sector said ?Convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications has allowed to deliver one service using broadcasting technologies and through telecommunication networks? World-wide, all telecom companies are entering into the broadcasting sector and providing world-class carriage services to its customers?.
Bharti has said there should not be any restriction of cross-holding between telecom companies and broadcasting carriage services like cable, HITS, DTH, Mobile TV. Consumer organisations have suggested a 20% market share in at least two of the three verticals as a threshold for determining market control.
Indian Broadcasting Foundation, the apex broadcasters? representative body holds that print and electronic media have already evolved in countries where such media ownership restrictions exist while here the electronic media is still evolving. ?In such early phase?.television and print media have come together both for news content and economies of scale. There is a sound logic for a well-established newspaper enterprise to diversify in the electronic media to insulate it from the financial risk of dealing with the excessive volatility in the market of newsprint?.
TV today group maintains that in India, with the availability of unlimited choice in TV, Print, Radio, Internet, developments in technology opening new avenues, no one would be able to monopolise or dominate even any particular medium. ?Even in the print media, the leading English newspaper perhaps does not command even 5 % of the market share? said the TV today .
Zee on Thursday echoed the feeling ?Indian scenario where highly competitive environment exists in each segment of Media – whether it is TV (about 350 channels with 72-80 broadcasters) or print media (62,000 registered newspapers across 24 languages, 9,000 in English alone or Radio (338 licenses across 87 cities, around 37 companies with no single player having more than 40 stations), DTH (5 already operational and 2 are in the pipeline), cable sector (approx 5,000 MSOs & 55,000 – 60,000 LCOs), there is absolutely no danger whatsoever by any stretch of imagination of any one player dominating the media landscape?.