The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex body of broadcasters, is being renamed as Indian Broadcasting & 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 25 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.
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 & 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.
