IANS | 09 Jul, 2024
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.
The notified amendments said that ceilings of Rs 130 for 200 channels
and Rs 160 on more than 200 channels have been removed on Network Capacity Fee
(NCF) and “is kept under forbearance to make it market driven as well as
equitable”.
Service provider may now charge different NCF based on number of
channels, different regions, different customer classes or any combination
thereof.
“DPOs have now been permitted to offer discount up to 45 per cent while
forming their bouquets to enable flexibility for them in forming bouquets and
to offer attractive deals to the 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 fee”.
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 also so as to have a level-playing field.
“DPOs have been mandated to declare tariff of their platform services,”
the regulatory body said.
The key objectives of these amendments is to facilitate growth of the
broadcasting sector by reducing regulatory mandates and compliance requirements
and provide flexibility to the service providers to adopt a market-driven
approach while safeguarding the interest of the consumers and small players
through transparency, accountability and equitability.
These amendments, except for few clauses, will come into force after 90
days from the date of its publication in the official gazette, said TRAI.
In 2017, TRAI had notified the Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and
Cable services.
The framework was further tuned to 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.
--IANS