Telcos vs TV in 5G spectrum allocation

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Editor's note: It seems like the television industry cannot catch a break.  It has been over a year now that Indian broadcasting companies—from Star India and Sony to Viacom18 and Zee—have been fighting for survival and relevance. A new tariff regime that came into the picture last year and the pandemic that followed have kept the sector on its toes throughout. And before things could have gotten any better, the threat of yet another interruption is looming—the 5G spectrum allocation. The recent weeks have seen some chatter about broadcasting executives losing their sleep over the long-awaited 5G deployment in India. To pave way for the fifth generation of cellular networks, the government has been working on a frequency allocation plan and according to four industry executives who we spoke with, it is actively considering going for frequencies that could mess with the way broadcasting works in India. The Economic Times touched upon this the last month: TV broadcasters have raised serious concerns regarding interference, disruption of signals and deterioration of broadcast quality due to 5G services even as telcos are awaiting clarity …