NEW DELHI: India’s television distribution platforms will have to race against the clock. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has fired a warning shot at cable, DTH and IPTV operators who haven’t completed their mandatory annual audits for 2025—and the deadline is looming.
In a notice dated 31 October, joint adviser Sapna Sharma laid down the law: get audited by 31 December or face financial penalties. The warning follows a regulatory review that found many distribution platform operators have simply skipped their legally required system audits this year.
The interconnection regulations, first notified in March 2017 and amended six times since, are crystal clear. Every TV distributor must audit their systems once per calendar year using an empanelled auditor or the state-run Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. Miss that deadline and the financial disincentives kick in automatically.
The regulator’s patience appears to be wearing thin. Multi-system operators, IPTV platforms, direct-to-home services and headend-in-the-sky operators have just two months to sort themselves out. The audit process isn’t quick either—it must include a final report from the auditor, meaning operators who dawdle now risk running out of time altogether.
The message from TRAI is unambiguous: comply or pay up. With 2025 ticking away, India’s TV distributors have nowhere left to hide.
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