Regulating broadcasting in the digital age: A critical comparative analysis of India’s framework against global democratic approaches

Abstract

Background: India’s broadcasting regulatory landscape has undergone significant transformation, yet the Draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill of 2023 reveals persistent structural challenges that echo earlier frameworks rather than addressing contemporary digital governance needs.
Objectives: This study traces India’s regulatory evolution from the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995 through the Information Technology Rules of 2021, examining how colonial legacies and institutional choices continue to shape media governance.
Method: Employing a Qualitative Comparative Policy Analysis (QCPA) framework, the research evaluates five jurisdictions: India, the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Australia, across six variables, including governance models, regulatory independence and transparency.
Results: The analysis reveals how mature democracies have developed alternative approaches to platform responsibility that India’s current draft conspicuously lacks.
Conclusion: The Draft Bill centralises authority within the executive branch, applies broadcasting-era standards to algorithmically driven platforms, and relies heavily on delegated legislation while offering limited independent oversight. International frameworks, particularly Australia’s co-regulatory model and the EU’s Digital Services Act (2022), suggest more nuanced approaches balancing state oversight with participatory governance.
Contribution: Rather than representing a meaningful departure, the current draft reflects a pattern of regulatory continuity rooted in a ‘democratic imagination deficit’, where successive Indian frameworks conceive of the regulator as an instrument of state authority rather than a guardian of the public sphere. Effective regulation demands a fundamental reconsideration of institutional design, procedural transparency and stakeholder engagement.