The batter between Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and broadcasters is still going. Due to the spread of COVID-19, there has been no outcome of the ongoing battle. Let’s take a more in-depth look at what the conflict is about and how long will it go on. Earlier this year, Trai came out with its New Tariff Order (NTO) 2.0 and asked the broadcasters to comply with the changes. The changes were taken into consideration. However, the broadcasting companies couldn’t manage to digest one particular change. In its effort to bring transparency, Trai has made some changes to the way channel bouquets are offered. From now onwards, none of the channels in a bouquet can be priced beyond the Rs 12 mark.
General Entertainment Channels Priced at Rs 19 to Convert to Rs 12
The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) which represents some of the nations top service providers didn’t like this ask from Trai. Hence, it has taken on the battle against Trai for going against the rule. The changes were to be brought entirely to the market by March 1, 2020.
However, that didn’t happen because of the ongoing battle between the Trai and the broadcasters. Some of the major General Entertainment Channels (GEC’s) are offered for Rs 19 in the channels bouquet which is inclusive of all the taxes. Now that price has been asked to be dropped to Rs 12 per channel by Trai.
Broadcasters Might Offer Separate Individual Channels
Broadcasters have two directions in front of them. One is that they can drop the prices of the channels in the channel bouquets and attract more viewers to be able to make more money from the ads. Or they can go with the option of not bundling them into a bouquet and offer them individually to earn more money from the subscriptions, but this would bring in fewer viewers. For the broadcasting companies, how much they receive from the subscriptions is of high importance. Hence, the companies might go with the second option of offering the most popular GEC’s individually.
