Wednesday, February 16 2005 20:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Government would bring a comprehensive Legislation either in the coming Budget session of Parliament or in monsoon session to set up an autonomous regulator for the Broadcasting sector.

Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy announced this after a day-long meeting with various stakeholders including content providers, broadcasters, cable operators and media watch-groups.

The Minister said a down-linking policy was under consideration of the Government and "we will have to go to Cabinet on it."

Among other things, there was also a "general agreement" on the need for a telecom-like Universal Service Obligation to be imposed on all channels in the broadcasting sector, Reddy said.

"Like in telecom, same can be applied on broad terms on TV channels as well, so that the regulatory authority can be funded, social cause of broadcasting can be funded, social messages for health, education can be funded and money can be used for measuring audience management system."

Elaborating on the issue of measuring the viewership of channels, he said they proposed to have a "more comprehensive and sophisticated system."