India's regulator TRAI faces industry backlash over internet TV expansion

This regulatory tension signal a critical juncture for India's connected TV market as officials decide whether to treat internet-based linear channels as digital services or traditional broadcasting. A shift toward broadcast-style licensing could significantly raise entry barriers for FAST providers and introduce rigid pricing or carriage mandates common in legacy TV. The outcome will likely dictate the speed of innovation in ad-supported streaming for the world's most populous market. Watch for upcoming stakeholder counter-comments that will influence TRAI’s final recommendations to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The standoff over internet television coincides with a broader push for 'regulatory parity' within the Indian market. Per Economic Times in June 2026, major telecom operators including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have simultaneously urged TRAI to bring over-the-top (OTT) communication apps under the same oversight as telecommunications services, specifically to combat fraudulent traffic and spam. This multifaceted regulatory drive reflects a growing government effort to modernize India’s legal frameworks, which often pit established distributors against digital-first ecosystem players like the Broadband India Forum.

Simultaneously, the Indian streaming landscape is undergoing rapid commercial consolidation. The newly formed JioStar entity, resulting from the Disney-Reliance merger, has grown to reach approximately 451 million monthly active users, per Reliance’s FY26 annual report. This scale makes JioStar a pivotal voice in the regulatory debate; the company has argued that FAST and ALTD services rely strictly on the application layer of the internet rather than managed license spectrum, making any shift toward traditional broadcast regulation legally inconsistent.

Related legislative activity further complicates the landscape. According to reports from CyberPeace in early 2025, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting previously withdrew a draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill following intense criticism from content creators and tech firms. That bill had proposed categorizing social media influencers and YouTubers as 'digital news broadcasters,' a scope similar to the broad definitions currently proposed by TRAI for ALTD services. The recurring nature of these policy debates suggests that Indian regulators are still searching for a technical definition of 'broadcasting' that can balance traditional cable interests with a rapidly expanding digital advertising market.