India considers new broadcasting bill

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India is examining the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill aimed to regulate digital content, reports The Hindu Business Line.

If the bill is passed, the Indian government can direct a service provider to stop broadcasting or ask it to transmit in a manner that it suggests.

The proposed bill also allows the government to restrict monopolies across media segments at national or state level.

Following Japan's decision to switch to digital broadcasting, the country is deciding on whether to use some of the spectrum freed up by the switch to use for mobile TV, says Rapid TV News.

Frequencies throughout the VHF band and UHF band (90-108MHz, 170-222MHz and 710-770MHz) will be freed up when Japan switches to digital, slated for 24 July 2011.

Japan's mobile digital TV service, OneSeg, simulcasts the free-to-air programming available on the fixed digital terrestrial TV platform which is available to 20 million handsets.

The European Union says changes from analogue to digital TV (DTV) will free up spectrum across Europe that can be used to take a unified approach to mobile broadband.

It suggested that doing so could help to facilitate access to quicker mobile broadband, as well as improving competition between Internet service providers.

EU Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding says: "The digital dividend comes at a critical moment when we want to connect all parts of Europe to high-speed broadband, ensure high-quality broadcasting, and expand consumer choice in future wireless services.