The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday issued tariff orders and regulations to reduce the regulatory burden on distribution platform operators (DPOs) amid the migration of pay-TV customers to other platforms.
Price ceilings removed
The notified amendments said that ceilings of Rs 130 for 200 channels and Rs 160 for more than 200 channels have been removed from the Network Capacity Fee (NCF) and "are kept under forbearance to make it market-driven as well as equitable."
A service provider may now charge different NCF based on the number of channels, different regions, different customer classes, or any combination thereof. "DPOs have now been permitted to offer discounts up to 45 per cent while forming their bouquets to enable flexibility for them in forming bouquets and to offer attractive deals to consumers. Earlier, this discount was permitted only up to 15 per cent," said TRAI.
With the proliferation of HD television sets and to encourage transmission of high-definition content, "distinction between HD and SD channels has been removed for the purpose of carriage fees."
According to TRAI, a pay channel available at no subscription fee on the DTH platform of the public service broadcaster has to be declared free-to-air by the broadcaster of the channel for all the addressable distribution platforms as well, so as to have a level playing field. "DPOs have been mandated to declare tariffs on their platform services," the regulatory body said.
New clauses w.e.f
The key objectives of these amendments are to facilitate the growth of the broadcasting sector by reducing regulatory mandates and compliance requirements and providing flexibility to service providers to adopt a market-driven approach while safeguarding the interests of consumers and small players through transparency, accountability, and equitability. These amendments, except for a few clauses, will come into force after 90 days from the date of their publication in the official gazette, said TRAI. In 2017, TRAI notified the Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable Services.
The framework was further tuned to meet the need of the broadcasting ecosystem and to address the concerns of stakeholders through amendments issued in 2020 and 2022. The stakeholders - broadcasters, MSOs, DTH operators and LCOs - had taken up further issues for the consideration of the Authority from time to time. To address such issues, the Authority issued a consultation paper in 2023 for seeking stakeholders' comments.
