The draft Telecommunications (Television, Radio and Associated Services) Rules, 2026, made public by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday, state that while TV channels “shall” broadcast content on these themes for a minimum of 30 minutes daily between 6 am and 11 pm, radio stations will have to dedicate one hour for the same purpose every day.
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While airing of such content was made obligatory for TV four years ago under the ‘Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India, 2022’, no time slot was specified in the rules. The draft seeks to address that gap.
Also, under the FM Policy Phase-III, private radio stations were so far required to broadcast “public interest announcements” for one hour every day “as may be required by the Central government/state government”.
The draft rules, however, state that every authorised private radio service shall “broadcast programmes focusing on themes of national importance and social relevance, in such manner as the Central government may specify, for a minimum duration of one hour per day”, making the nature of the public interest announcements that they will be expected to make clearer.
Moreover, while the current guidelines state that TV channels “may undertake public service broadcasting”, the draft seeks to change it to “shall”, making the obligation more airtight.The suggested themes of content – education and spread of literacy; agriculture and rural development; health and family welfare; science and technology; women’s welfare; welfare of weaker sections of society; protection of environmental and cultural heritage; and national integration – in the existing rules have been retained in the draft.
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The obligation will exempt certain categories where compliance may not be feasible, the draft says.
Channels uplinked from India exclusively for foreign audiences will not be covered, subject to government clearances and ensuring that content does not affect India’s sovereignty, integrity, national security or foreign relations, it says.
Incidentally, a clause in the existing guidelines for television that the Centre may issue a general advisory to channels for telecast of “content in national interest, and the channel shall comply with the same” finds no mention in the draft rules.
“The draft rules have been framed to consolidate the various guidelines issued for television and radio services under the erstwhile Telegraph Act, 1885, within the framework of the Telecommunications Act, 2023,” the ministry said in a statement.
“With this set of rules, the industry will now have a unified and significantly simplified rule book. These rules are designed to simplify and harmonise the existing regime while promoting ease of doing business in the television and radio broadcasting sector,” it added, inviting comments and suggestions till July 27.
A long-standing demand of the FM industry to allow it to air news would remain unmet if the draft rules are approved.
The draft retains the existing policy that private radio players can only broadcast the “unaltered news bulletins of Akashwani”, other than certain other “non-news” subjects, including sports events, information related to traffic and weather, examinations, and results.