Trai Chairman Reaffirms TV Subscription Bill Reduced by Up to 15% Under New Pricing Framework

The new pricing framework introduced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has made headlines in the last few months along with the chairman of the body, RS Sharma. After a lot of hurdles and delays, Trai has finally managed to bring the new rule to effect thus instilling transparency and new pricing techniques into the broadcast and TV industry in general. However, there has been a debate going on in the sector regarding the usefulness and the effects of the new framework. In a conversation with Indian Television, Trai Chairman shared his thoughts about the new tariff regime and also revealed some statistics to support his claim. Since the rollout of the new framework, RS Sharma kept on saying that the new framework has reduced the TV subscription bill by at least 25%, and he again says that most of the users are witnessing 5-15% drop in their monthly bill.

• Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
• 
• 

New Pricing Framework Aimed at Bringing Transparency

The Trai chairman firstly said that the new pricing regime was aimed at extending the benefits of the digitisation of Broadcasting and Cable Services sector in India, the work for which had started in 2012. He also added that the new pricing regime, enabled the choice to the consumers, brought transparency in the sector, ensured level playing field among stakeholders, equal opportunities to all, opened growth opportunities and initiated market dynamics to take auto-corrective actions. Further, he added that to see the transformations in the broadcasting industry, we would have to wait a bit more and then measure the long term effects.

On being asked about the rising subscription cost of DTH operators post the new tariff regime, RS Sharma said that the studies that indicate these figures are considering the analysis of subscribing to 250 channels or more. Emphasising on this point, he said, that the new mandate is aimed at “paying for what you watch”, meaning that when subscribers choose only the channels that they watch and don’t add additional channels, then they will end up paying lesser than their previous subscription. He also added that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) study highlights that more than 90% of TV homes view or flip 50 channels or fewer. In case of a higher number of channel selections, he said that the marginal increase in price could not be denied. Sharma also said that as per the preliminary data collected by some of the large DPOs, the subscribers are saving around 10-15% in the metro regions whereas, in the non-metro areas, subscribers are saving around 5-10%.