The Indian Broadcasting Foundation to bring OTT players under its purview; to be renamed as Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation

• The Indian Broadcasting Foundation renamed to Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation.
• IBDF will also form a Self-Regulatory Body soon.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex body of broadcasters, is being renamed as Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), as it expands its purview to cover digital platforms to bring all digital (OTT) players under one roof. IBDF is in the process of forming a new wholly-owned subsidiary to handle all matters pertaining to digital media.

IBDF will also form a Self-Regulatory Body (SRB), as per the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 as notified by the Government of India on 25th February 2021.

This industry-led SRB called Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC) for digital OTT platforms, which is a second-tier mechanism at the appellate level is similar to Broadcast Content Complaint Council (BCCC), which IBF had successfully implemented for the linear broadcasting sector way back in 2011.

Speaking on the development, K. Madhavan, President – IBF said, “We are pleased to extend our commitment of fostering an environment that is culturally adept, socially responsible and governance-bound to the fast-growing digital medium. The diversification will empower the Foundation to pursue growth opportunities for its members who run OTT services in the country, while ensuring they present a strong collective voice, both in the broadcast and digital sector under the combined body. We will continue to work arduously to create new benchmarks in line with the industry’s growth aspirations.”

Over the years, IBF has played a key role in providing research-based policy and regulatory advocacy to the government to build a strong broadcasting sector which is the backbone of the Indian M&E sector. Today, with the emergence of new digital technical technologies, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is not only going to rechristen itself as Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) but will continue to proactively engage all the relevant stakeholders to introduce policy and regulatory certainties and strengthen self-regulatory mechanisms to help the Indian creative industry to produce world-class content which has received an overwhelming response from the global audience.