The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has approached the government for power to regulate content. Presently, TRAI’s regulatory powers are limited to carriage related issues in the broadcast segment.

This was conveyed in its recommendations to the information and broadcasting ministry on the television rating point (TRP) business. TRAI stated that considering the influence that the content has on the society, it is important that the powers to regulate content be transferred to TRAI.

Boundaries between carriage and content have become increasingly blurred. TRAI argued that encouraging competition and maintaining it in the telecom sector, which includes broadcasting, was within its domain. Thus, there is a natural link between promoting competition and regulating content, which supports TRAI’s argument.

According to TRAI, the functional efficiency aspect should be given due importance. Aclear mandate is necessary on content regulation by providing more powers to TRAI. TRAI states that global practice prevalent in other countries also supports this view.

The Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2006, has proposed an independent broadcast regulatory authority of India (BRAI) to control individual features of carriage and content. TRAI cited the example of Italy, and argued that wherever a regulator played a major role in the audience measurement system, it was also authorised for content regulation.  X