"A regulator, we need a regulator on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)," they kept tooting. So why the rather mixed response from the industry to the government issuing a notification yesterday entrusting TRAI with the additional responsibility of overseeing broadcasting and cable services as a regulator?

The possible implications of this latest attempt by the government to bring some order into the workings of the broadcast sector require closer examination.

The most obvious fallout of this move is of course that redesignating cable and broadcast services as a telecom service to facilitate TRAI to act as the regulator diminishes considerably the ambit of governance of the information and broadcasting ministry. But that need not necessarily be such a bad thing for beleaguered I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who would welcome the deflection of the spotlight on vexed issues like CAS from his ministry onto the regulator.

Since the I&B ministry would continue to be the nodal ministry for all broadcasting issues despite TRAI technically coming under the department of telecommunication, what it means, at one level, is that Prasad can continue to be part of the policy making process, but it would be the regulator that would face the flak if something goes wrong.

Mandating TRAI to regulate the broadcast sector would also mean that the government has neatly dumped the contentious issue of CAS rollout on the regulator, which has said it would come out with a working paper on the issue in about 10 days time. And, knowing the TRAI's way of functioning, it is likely to first prepare a consultation paper on CAS, circulate it amongst the stakeholders, collate views, come up with some suggestions and only then take a final view on CAS.

This process is obviously a time-consuming affair. So even if TRAI may not come out and say that the CAS rollout would have to stop till it arrives at some clarity on the matter, the time taken in this process is likely to ensure that the end result is the same. From this vantage, it looks highly likely that by the time TRAI completes its confabulations, elections either would have been over (this is based on the assumption that polls will take place in April), or it would be too close to election time for major initiatives to be rolled out.

Keeping all that aside, the biggest impact that the entry of TRAI into the equation would be that it will prove a windfall for the telecom majors, with the Big Daddy of them all - the Reliance group - having the most to gain from it. Reliance has made no bones about its intentions to have multiple services, including cable and telecom, flowing through the fibre optic network it has been laying across the country (a whopping 60,000 km worth of OFC lines).

There is no denying that a major beneficiary of redesignating cable and broadcast services as telecom services would be Reliance. Imagine a scenario where Reliance tells consumers that if they take the company's fixed line and/or WLL telecom services, a set-top-box and cable service would be given free. As an introductory offer, this is likely to attract thousands of customers and with Reliance's loss-absorbing capabilities in the initial stages, such a move may just take the wind out of even the most aggressive cable company's plans.

As Reliance sources point out, since the STB project has got delayed a bit, the company's mega plans for usage of its fibre optic network too would be delayed. But it would happen, sooner or later.

According to senior industry executives, Reliance has already made pay broadcasters an "offer they can't refuse": Re 1 per channel they have in their bouquet and a guarantee of a 50:50 revenue share. The offer to broadcasters is reportedly a take-it-or-leave-it one that allows for future revisions once it has achieved sufficient nationwide penetration

Coming back to the Notification itself, the key areas where the TRAI will directly have a say in industry functioning include:

* Regulate arrangements amongst service providers of sharing their revenue derived from providing broadcasting and cable services;
* Fix the terms and conditions on which the "addressable systems such as set top boxes" are to be provided to customers;
* Decide the parameters for regulating maximum time for advertisements in pay channels as well as other channels;
* Prescribe standard norms for and periodicity of revision of rates of pay channels, including interim measures.

There can be no arguing really against the intent of the Notification. But one area where it has still to provide answers for is on content matters. As an industry executive put it., "The Notification is essentially distributor oriented, it is not content sensitive." That is an area which will require some looking into by TRAI.

What all this also signifies is that the super-regulator - the Communications Commission of India - which a certain section of the government was insisting would be junked, may get revived as would the Communications Convergence Bill.

In conclusion, it can be said that the days of the "free-for-all" in the broadcast sector are numbered. And whether the industry will be able to swallow this potentially bitter pill remains to be seen.

And if truth be told, and without exonerating the government from charges of messing up issues like CAS, it would have to be stated that the industry failed to manage itself. Which is why it has now left itself with no choice but to live with potentially damaging outside control.