NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has announced an Open House on media ownership on 2 December at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

TRAI has meanwhile, extending the last date for receipt of comments on its consultation paper on media ownership to 25 November.

The deadline was originally set for 24 October and had been extended to 10 November following requests from some stakeholders and keeping in view the importance of the issue and the need for wider participation of stakeholders in the consultation process. While giving this final extension, Trai has invited all stakeholders to participate in the Open House.

In the paper issued on 23 September, Trai had, while noting that there is no general policy on ownership and cross media restrictions in the country as far as restrictions between print and electronic media are concerned, stressed the need to lay down a holistic and clear cut approach towards cross-media and ownership restrictions for the future growth of these sectors.

The Consultation Paper, which can been seen on www.trai.gov.in, has been released at the instance of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which had on May 22 asked TRAI to give its recommendations on the need for cross media and ownership restrictions for radio, broadcasting and print medias. These recommendations have been sought under Section 11(1)(a) (ii)and (iv) of the Trai Act.

The regulator also reiterated its recommendations given to the government at different points in time with regard to different media. Trai has been recommending similar restrictions in its various recommendations on Private Terrestrial TV, Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) and Mobile TV.

At present, there are restrictions in ownership of companies seeking licenses/permissions or registrations under various Policy Guidelines issued from time to time for electronic media. As such, restrictions are in place only with respect to DTH services and Private FM radio.

A Trai press release said media ownership was a subject of intense debate and Government review in both developed and developing countries around the world. Almost all of the developed democratic countries like USA, UK, Canada, Australia, France etc. have restrictions on common and cross media ownership. Many of these countries have recently reviewed the media ownership rules. The main concern is regarding having effective control/ownership of radio, TV and print media. A prevalent practice is to restrict the control to two out of the three media. Also there are restrictions in the broadcaster controlling the delivery services. The control is measured in terms of equity participation, geographical area (coverage), viewership/circulation, number of licenses etc.

The objective of the Consultation Paper is to provide for competition, diversity and plurality of players, news and views. The issues under consideration are cross media ownership across different segments of media such as print/ television/ radio (horizontal integration); cross holding restrictions to prevent consolidation including ?vertical integration' within a media segment such as television or radio; market share in the city/state/country within each media segment; and cross control/ownership across telecom and media segments.