Trai Says New DTH Rules Are Good For Both Consumers and Broadcasters

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released new amendments to the National Tariff Order which went into effect last year in February. The National Tariff Order (NTO) or the Trai Tariff Regime brought some reeling changes into the industry, made the pricing of channels and DTH connections fairer and gave more choices to the consumers as well. However, it also increased the prices of the DTH and cable TV connections as well. To patch this up, Trai has again released changes to the NTO which it is now referring to as NTO 2.0. But, the problem is that many broadcasters, big and small, are opposed to the NTO 2.0 saying that it is constricting their business and is likely to put many channels and broadcasters out of business. To this, Trai has issued a long answer in its latest press release thus highlighting the positives of the NTO 2.0 and emphasising the good changes which the new order will bring for the consumers and the broadcasters alike. These are some of the points that Trai has addressed.

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Trai Ensures Pricing Freedom for Broadcasters

Firstly, Trai noted that although the Trai tariff regime has been capable of bringing transparency into the pricing of channels and the DTH industry, in general, it has not been entirely successful in availing the full interest of the consumers because of the misuse of pricing flexibility given to the broadcasters and other service providers. Trai also noted that it has set up explicit revenue streams for the DPOs by means of NCF and for the broadcasters by means of pay channels.

New Rules on Trai Tariff Regime

Trai added to its words saying, “It is important to mention here that after implementation of NTO, some broadcasters enhanced their channel prices drastically, which in large number of cases were more than 100%.” This is the reason why Trai has considered some of the moves by the broadcasters to be anti consumers and has decided to bring the new rules into the picture. As per the new DTH rules given by Trai, the channel packs which are priced above Rs 12 cannot be part of a channel pack. This limit was earlier set at Rs 19. Other rules mandated by Trai say that the individual pricing of the channel cannot be more than 1.5 times that of the price which is in the channel pack. This is likely to curb the misuse of the pricing freedom provided to the broadcasters. Trai has taken the stance that the new rule changes still allow the broadcasters to price their channels according to them while also giving consumer interest a priority.