Indian Broadcasting Foundation to be renamed as Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation

In a bid to expand its purview to the OTT segment, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex industry body of broadcasters is being renamed the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF). IBDF is also in the process of forming a new wholly-owned subsidiary to handle all matters pertaining to digital media, it said on Thursday.

“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 February 25, 2021,” it added.

The new IT rules have prescribed a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism for complaints relating to content streamed on OTT platforms.

Modelled on the Broadcast Content Complaints Council (BCCC), the body that looks into content complaints of TV channels, the Digital Media Content Regulatory Council, will also act as the second-tier mechanism for the complaint mechanism process for OTT platforms.

In a statement, 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 sectors under the combined body. We will continue to work arduously to create new benchmarks in line with the industry’s growth aspirations.”

The industry body said that not only is it going to rechristen itself as Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) but will also continue to proactively engage all relevant stakeholders to introduce policy and regulatory certainties and strengthen self-regulatory mechanisms to help the Indian creative industry to produce world-class content. The Hindu Business Line