The I&B ministry is working on a “light touch regulatory regime” that will bring all the segments in the media and entertainment industry under one umbrella.
At the annual media conclave ‘FICCI FRAMES 2020’, held through video link, Amit Khare, secretary in the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry, said the government wants to facilitate all the sectors in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry — print, television, radio, films and digital media.
He also said that the government is “seriously thinking” of bringing digital news aggregators under the foreign direct investment (FDI) purview, similar to print media. “The level playing field should be there between print media and the digital platforms…the feeling is that 26% FDI should be applicable to the aggregators as well as the print media,” Khare said.
“For five different media — print, radio, television, films and the OTT platforms — four are governed by different types of regulatory practices; some are self-regulated, some are pre-regulated or post-regulated, and one of them is unregulated,” Khare said.
