TRAI Issues Draft DRM Audit Manual for Cable and IPTV Services

The correct answer is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. TRAI is the regulator for telecom as well as for broadcasting and cable services, and it is TRAI that has placed the draft manual for DRM-based digital addressable systems in the public domain for comments. The paper gives auditors a clause-wise method for checking platforms that fall under Schedule X of the Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations of 2017. The Securities and Exchange Board of India, in option A, regulates the securities market and has no role in television distribution audits. Prasar Bharati, in option C, is the public service broadcaster that runs Doordarshan and All India Radio; it is a broadcaster, not the authority that frames audit procedures for private distribution platforms. The Central Board of Film Certification, in option D, certifies films for public exhibition and is likewise unconnected with the audit of addressable systems. Only TRAI frames and issues such manuals under the interconnection rules.

The correct answer is DRM-based systems used for IPTV distribution. Schedule X of the interconnection rules carries the requirements for systems built on Digital Rights Management, and these are used chiefly where television channels are delivered over internet protocol. It was precisely because no audit manual existed for this schedule that IPTV operators, broadcasters and auditors asked the regulator for one, leading to the present draft. Option B names conditional access systems and set-top boxes, which belong to Schedule III; the manual covering them was brought out separately in March 2026. Option C, FM radio transmission equipment, and option D, community radio stations, concern sound broadcasting and are not part of the addressable television distribution framework at all, so no schedule of these interconnection regulations deals with them in this manner.

The correct answer is 30 October 2026. The regulator has asked for written inputs, comments and suggestions by that date, and has said that each one should be supported by detailed reasons, justification and relevant data. Comments are to be sent preferably in electronic form to the Broadcasting and Cable Services wing. Option B, 30 November 2026, and option C, 19 November 2026, are later dates that find no place in the consultation notice. Option D, 10 March 2026, is a date in the past and is the kind of distractor built from the earlier Schedule III manual rather than from this draft; a comment period cannot close before the paper itself was issued. Candidates should therefore link the draft DRM manual with the deadline falling at the end of October, and remember that the draft has also been hosted on the regulator’s website for public reading.