Parliamentary Acts on Broadcasting and Telecommunications

by DR JANAKA RATNASIRI

The Cabinet of Ministers (COM) has recently decided to update the Parliamentary Acts on Broadcasting, Rupavahini and Telecommunications and introduce a Bill on establishing a Broadcasting Regulatory Commission. Since, all these are interlinked, it is necessary to take a holistic view of them, taking into consideration new developments such as digital broadcasting. Before that, it would be pertinent to consider the historical development of these services.

USE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES FOR COMMUNICATION

The Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum comprising EM waves, extends from high energetic gamma rays, X-Rays and ultra-violet rays on one extreme to low energetic visible, infra-red, microwaves and radio waves on the other extreme. All these are generated naturally by the sun, but almost all of the high energetic radiations get absorbed in the upper atmosphere and only the low energetic radiations are received at ground level. They are also generated by man for various applications like X-Rays, microwaves and radio waves. Out of these, microwaves and radio waves are used for telecommunication purposes, commonly referred to as wireless communication.

EM waves comprise oscillating electric and magnetic fields generated when electrons oscillate either in a plasma or in a conductor. These two fields have their directions perpendicular to each other. They cause radiation of energy in the form of a wave travelling in a direction perpendicular to directions of both electric and magnetic fields. They are characterized by the fact their frequency in Hertz (Hz) and wavelength in metres (m) are inversely proportional to each other with their product equal to the speed of light in vacuum which is 299.8 million m/s. It was James Maxwell who presented the theory of EM waves around 1865 while Gustav Hertz demonstrated their existence in 1887 which earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1925.

Hertz’s discovery led to Guglielmo Marconi demonstrating in 1901 that high frequency (HF) waves could be used to send signals across the Atlantic. This caused the birth of the telecommunication industry, for which he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909. Though HF radio waves were used for long distance communication, the mechanism of their propagation over several thousands of kilo-metres was not understood at that time. Theories of propagation available at that time considered only ground wave propagation which has limited range and line-of-sight propagation which also has limited range along the Earth’s surface. Hence, coverage across the Atlantic was a puzzle at that time.

It was left to Edward Appleton to explain this phenomenon when he discovered in 1927 the existence of the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles lying about 100 km above the ground, which bounces off these radio waves back to the Earth when they are incident on it. Appleton received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947 for this discovery. It was soon found that radio waves could be used not only for telecommunication purposes, but also for providing voice broadcasting services, known as radio, both within and across countries. HF radio waves remained the only means of long-distance telecommunication as well as broadcasting until the mid-sixties when satellite-based communication took over which came into being, thanks to the vision of Sir Arthur C. Clarke announced in 1945 in the Wireless World Magazine.

DEVELOPMENT OF RADIO BROADCASTING SERVICES

Public broadcasting in Sri Lanka commenced in 1925 as Radio Colombo with limited coverage around the city using only MF transmissions. It expanded to a wider coverage about 10 years later and continued till 1949 when its identity was changed to Radio Ceylon. The services were also extended to provide short wave transmissions to provide island-wide coverage though the service was of poor quality due to inherent ionospheric disturbances. Radio Ceylon had one advertisement-free service in each language for many years and added separate commercial services later. Though Radio Ceylon functioned for many years as a semi-government organization under different Ministries from time to time, it lacked a proper legal framework.

To remedy this situation, the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Act No. 37 of 1966 was passed in Parliament and the CBC was established in 1967 which brought Radio Ceylon to function under it. The Act was amended thrice, to make SLBC both a regulator and a service provider. One amendment was to change its name to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). Another was for the issue of licenses by the Minister to other persons for the establishment of private broadcasting stations. The amended Act also required an owner of a radio receiver to obtain a licence annually through the Post Office. The Act also requires any person selling, assembling, repairing or renting radio equipment to obtain an annual licence from SLBC to perform that function. Thus, the SLBC performed a dual role of being a service provider and a regulator.

The evolution of radio technology from vacuum tube-based home radio receivers available up to sixties to transistor and integrated circuit based portable radio receivers currently available in the market made it impossible to implement the licensing provision. Hence, this requirement was abolished subsequently, but the provision still remains in the Act. Today, every motor car has a built-in radio receiver and every smart mobile telephone has a built-in radio receiver. Hence, there is a need to amend the SLBC Act to remove this outdated provision.

From the inception, radio broadcasting in Sri Lanka was confined to transmission of amplitude modulated (AM) signals which had limited band-width causing high frequencies in the audio signal getting clipped. This affected the quality of musical programmes severely. These transmissions were in the medium frequency (MF) (or medium waves) for short range coverage and high frequencies (HF) (or short waves) for covering the entire island. The short waves reach the listener after getting reflected from the ionosphere which is a dynamical entity and hence the signals received were not steady and of poor quality. In the sixties, SLBC built several MF transmitters in outstations enabling outstation listeners to have the benefit of receiving quality programmes free of ionospheric disturbances.

In the seventies, the SLBC commenced limited transmissions of signals with frequency modulation (FM) on the very high frequency (VHF) band. These transmissions have higher bandwidth and hence the audio programmes received are of high quality, and also require much less power to transmit. They are also not affected by atmospheric or ionospheric disturbances. The only problem is that their coverage is limited to line-of-sight range. Later the service was extended to provide an island-wide coverage through the installation of several transmitters, most of which are installed on hill-tops to extend the coverage.

Up to the end of the 1980s, the SLBC had the monopoly of operating radio services, but in the nineties and twenties, several private parties, exceeding 20, were issued licences to operate radio services in the FM band. Each service was given two frequencies enabling them to cover the entire island. Most of them, except a few who offered religious programmes, came up with only low quality musical programmes providing requests on payment devoting a major share of air time on advertisements which brought the revenue for their survival. The lack of a suitable mechanism to monitor the quality and content of the programmes aired is a serious shortcoming in the present system.

DEVELOPMENT OF TELEVISION BROADCASTING SERVICES

Television (TV) service was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1979 when a private party launched a service voluntarily. Later, it was taken over by the Government. At that time, there was no policy or regulations on establishing TV services in the country. The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) Act, No. 06 of 1982 was passed under which the SLRC was established with functions of the Corporation to carry on a television broadcasting service within Sri Lanka and to promote and develop that service and maintain high standards in programming in the public interest. The Rupavahini TV service was launched by SLRC using a package gifted by Japan, with the main antenna erected on Mt. Pidurutalagala.

The Act is required to register persons engaged in the production of television programmes for broadcasting; to register persons who carry on the business of importing, selling, manufacturing or assembling television receiving sets; to exercise supervision and control over television programmes broadcast by the Corporation; and to exercise supervision and control over foreign and other television crews, producing television programmes for export, among others.

Thus, the SLRC also has a dual role similar to that of SLBC, of being a service provider and a regulator. However, it lacked the powers to implement the provisions to exercise supervision and control on other TV services as described in the last two items given in the previous section. The SLRC Act has provision to issue licences to qualified parties to establish and operate TV stations. Accordingly, 54 private television licenses have been issued licences so far, whereas only 28 telecasting licensees are in operation at present (Cabinet Decision of 04.03.2020).

The Cabinet of Ministers (COM) at its meeting held on 04.01.2021 has decided to amend the SLRC Act to provide for the expansion of its Board of Directors to empower it to implement decisions taken with a view to face the competitive scenario prevailing in the field. No further amendments have been identified even though the Act is totally out of date considering the developments in the field during the last 19 years. There is a need to bring SLRC under the proposed Broadcasting Regulatory Commission to remove the regulatory functions from it and also to remove the provision to possess a licence by a user.

ESTABLISHING A TELECOMMUNICATION REGULATORY COMMISSION

In early days, the telecommunication services were provided by the Posts and Telecommunication Department, which was later bifurcated into two departments. The government passed the Sri Lanka Telecommunication (SLT) Act No. 25 in 1991 which provided for the establishment of the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Authority (SLTA) which took over the functions of the Telecommunication Department. Among the objectives of the SLTA are to ensure the conservation and proper utilization of the radio frequency spectrum by operators and other organizations and individuals who need to use radio frequencies and to make and enforce compliance with rules to minimize electro-magnetic disturbances produced by electrical apparatus and all unauthorized radio frequency emissions, among others.

The SLT Act was amended by Act No. 27 of 1996 whereby the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) was established in place of SLTA. The amended Act made provisions for receiving complaints from the public and holding public hearings on them and retained all the functions assigned to the SLTA. Its regulatory functions were limited to telecommunication service providers and did not cover the broadcasting of radio or TV services, other than assigning frequencies for them. This is unlike in India where the Telecommunication Authority covered regulation of Broadcasting of Radio and TV services both in terms of technical aspects and quality of programmes.

PROPOSAL FOR ESTABLISHING A BROADCASTING REGULATORY COMMISSION

The COM at its meeting held on 04.03.2020 having considered the necessity of having a separate institution to regulate the activities of the broadcasting and telecasting media based on a Committee recommendation approved a draft for setting up a ”Broadcasting Regulatory Commission” (BRC), and decided to explore the possibility of amending the SLTRC Act, to enable it to perform the task of the process of issuing Broadcasting and Telecasting Licenses, which were hitherto issued by the SLBC and SLRC, respectively. The objective is to remove the regulatory functions from these two organizations and transfer them to the new Commission.

As early as 1997, a Broadcasting Authority Bill was presented to the Parliament for the same purpose but it was held unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court because it did not give adequate independence to the Authority. Thereafter, a Select Committee of Parliament with representation of all parties was appointed to consider the problem and met on multiple occasions but the matter was left in abeyance. Now, it has resurfaced under a new heading – Broadcasting Regulatory Commission. However, its contents are not available in the public domain, not even in the Govt Printer’s website.

Unlike in early days when broadcasted programmes whether radio or TV were available only as free-to-air services, today with advances in technology, particularly TV programmes, are brought to residences using either physical cables or UHF links or satellite links or through the internet. Since free-to-air services are not available island-wide with acceptable quality, people opt for these services upon payment of a monthly fee. But some satellite links do not provide a satisfactory service when it rains, though the service provider claims it provides tomorrow’s technology today.

There is also an urgent need to exercise some control on the utilizing of TV medium for advertising purposes. While there is a positive aspect whereby a viewer receives information on a new product or service, the repetitive display of the same commercial of well-known consumer products is nothing but an annoyance. The writer believes that during prime time, between almost 50% of air time is devoted for commercials and promotional clips. This is in contrast to India where only 10 min of commercials are allowed for every 60 min of air-time. Hence, there is a need to have a regulatory body to ensure that satisfactory services are provided to subscribers, both in terms of the quality of signal received and the quality of programmes aired.

A notable characteristic of Sri Lanka’s TV service providers is that they seem to be very prudish when it comes to airing cinematographic material intended for adult audience, but of high quality which have received accolades at international events. The operator loses no time in blanking even a momentary kissing scene in them. The proposed BRC could lay some guidelines on presenting quality adult programmes which have already been cleared by the National Censor Board enabling the adult audience to enjoy them without subjecting them to additional censorship by TV operators. Perhaps, such programmes could be limited for airing during late hours of the day when children have gone to bed.

TRANSITION FROM ANALOG TV TO DIGITAL TV SYSTEMS

There is a global trend to switch from analogue to digital system for television broadcasting as it offers many advantages among which are better spectrum utilization, higher picture and sound quality, accessibility via mobile devices and new business opportunities. Under the sponsorship of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a Roadmap for Transition from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) in Sri Lanka was jointly developed in 2012 by a team of ITU experts from Korea and the National Roadmap Team (NRT) chaired by TRCSL.

Digital TV transmission, though will provide a high-quality service, will result in added expenditure both for the service provider and the viewer. In order to reduce the financial burden for the service provider, NRT proposed to establish a set of 8 common digital transmitters at sites already being used for TV transmission, for sharing by all service providers. They are expected to provide initially simultaneous transmissions both on analog and digital systems, so that a viewer will be able to receive programmes uninterruptedly when switching from analog to digital system.

As a follow up to the above proposal, the GoSL assigned a “Feasibility Study on Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Network Project” in 2014, to Japan International Cooperation Agency. (). This study recommended setting up of 16 digital transmitters to be managed by a separate body, with the principal tower at Lotus Tower in Colombo. Individual TV services are expected to send their high definition programmes to Lotus Tower by microwave or other links who will in turn broadcast them from the common set of transmitters. By this means, all the TV channels will be received at the same signal strength anywhere in the country.

It was proposed to establish a body to be known as “Digital Broadcast Network Operator” (DBNO) to organize, manage and administer the new system. DBNO is expected to operate and maintain the entire system with the revenue from the operation fees collected from broadcasting stations. The transition to DTTB will result in incurring heavy expenditure by both DBNO and individual service providers, including installing new antenna systems, purchasing digital studio equipment such as cameras, animators, programme mixers etc. all of which could run into Billions of Rupees.

In addition, viewers will have to purchase either set-top-boxes for use with analog receivers or new digital receivers. It may be recalled that with the new development in TV technology, the earlier Cathode-Ray-Tube (CRT) type TV receivers were replaced by slim type LCD/LED TV receivers during the last couple of years. Today, CRT receivers are no longer available in the market. Hence, changing receivers will not be an issue for our viewers, as long as it carries benefits.

In the event the Government decides to adopt the DTTB system, it will be necessary to introduce new laws and regulations to regulate the new DTTB industry, and considering the complexities involved, it is best if a total new Parliament Act is passed, with appropriate amendments to both the SLRC Act and SLT Act. The COM has already decided to amend both these Acts as mentioned above. It is therefore appropriate if the Committee to be appointed for this purpose also be given the mandate to study the desirability of introducing DTTB in Sri Lanka considering costs and benefits as well as viewer preferences and service provider views.

Though the GoSL entered into an agreement with JICA to pursue the matter in 2014, with the change of Government in 2015, the matter was left in abeyance. Under the new Government, the matter is being considered, but no decision has been made as to when it will be implemented and which DTTB standard to adopt, as learned by the writer when he started writing this piece. However, according to a news item telecast in the evening of 19.01.2021, the Japanese Government has offered assistance to Sri Lanka to switch over to DTTB as described in JICA Report issued in 2014, and the Cabinet Spokesman Minister said that Sri Lanka would soon adopt the new system.

CONCLUSION

Sri Lanka will be completing 100 years of public radio broadcasting in four years hence, and has come a long way going through various stages of development. Initially, there were no separate laws to regulate the industry, and the state-owned service provider used to do that function. This position remains unchanged to date and only recently that the Government has considered establishing separate organizations to provide regulatory function. Only the amendment of SLRC Act and SLT Act are being considered along with setting up a new Commission for regulating broadcasting of radio and television services. Hence, there is a need to consider amending these two Acts together with amending the SLBC Act.

With the proposed introduction of digital television transmission in Sri Lanka as reported by the Cabinet spokesman, the Writer suggests that the amendment of the above three Acts should be taken up along with formulating a new Act to cover Digital Transmission Broadcasting since all four are interlinked, before the actual transition takes place. It is hoped that with the introduction of digital TV transmissions the quality of programme content will also improve concurrently.