Mumbai: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), which is soon going to be renamed as Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), the apex body of broadcasters and OTT operators, has today announced the appointment of Justice (Retd.) Vikramjit Sen as the Chairman, along with six other eminent industry members for the newly formed Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC). The Council constitutes prominent personalities from the Media & Entertainment industry and Online Curated Content Providers (OCCPs), with experience in IPR, programming and content creation.
The Council includes national award-winning filmmaker Nikkhil Advani; Deepak Dhar, CEO and founder, Banijay Group; prominent artist, filmmaker and writer Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari; and creative writer and innovative director,Tigmanshu Dhulia. The other two members from the OCCPs include Ashok Nambisan, General Counsel, Sony Pictures Pvt. Ltd, and Mihir Rale, Chief Regional Counsel, Star and Disney India.
The self-regulatory body which is formed as per the mandate of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021with active consultation amongst the creative industry fraternity is expected to create a credible, robust and practical code for content, with an inclusive and fair governance structure under the experienced chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Vikramjit Sen.
Speaking on the appointment of the committee, K. Madhavan, President, IBF said, “I am delighted that so many experts from the media and entertainment industry have come forward and accepted the invitation of IBDF to be part of the proposed self-regulatory body.I look forward to working with the Council whose mandate is to ensure freedom of expression of the Indian creative industry as well as help the discerning audience of the OTT platforms to have unhindered access to world-class and differentiated content. This is a historical and win-win moment for all the stakeholders i.e. the M&E industry, the policymakers and the subscribers of the OTT platforms.”
IBF is being renamed as Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), as it expands its purview to cover digital platforms to bring all digital (OTT) players under one roof. This industry-led Self-Regulatory Body (SRB) called Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC) for digital OTT platforms is a second-tier mechanism at the appellate level, similar to Broadcast Content Complaint Council (BCCC).
