Your DTH bill will get cheaper from March

Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has amended its tariff order for the broadcasting and cable services sector, which was implemented on February 1, last year.The amendments are effective March 1.As per the new amendments, Trai has reduced the cap on the MRP of individual channels, which are part of any bouquet, to Rs 12 per month, from earlier Rs 19. The regulator has also imposed twin conditions for the bouquet formation, which will restrict the discount on channel bouquets to around 33%. 73063398 Firstly, sum of MRP of all the a-la-carte channels in a bouquet cannot be more than 1 ½ times of the price of the bouquet.This means, if a broadcaster is offering a bouquet of 10 channels for Rs 100 per month, the combined MRP of all the 10 channels cannot be more than Rs 150. This will make broadcasters rationalise the channels' price and bouquet price.The other condition states that MRP of any a-la-carte channel cannot be more than three times the average price of any channel in that bouquet. For example, if the average price of the channels in a bouquet is Rs 3 (MRP of bouquet price divided by total number of channels in the bouquet), MRP of any individual channel with-in that bouquet, cannot be more than Rs 9.With the twin conditions in place, it will be difficult for broadcasters to club a Rs 12 channel with Rs 0.50 or Rs 1 channels in the same bouquet, many broadcasters feel.Earlier, broadcasters were offering consumers an average discount of 35-55% on channel bouquets, vis-àvis total a-la-carte price of all the channels in those bouquets. Trai had alleged that broadcasters have misused the flexibility on bouquet discounts to “throttle market discovery of channel prices”.Trai has also limited the total number of bouquets per broadcasters to total number of channels it distributes. So if a broadcaster has 12 channels, it can not form more than 12 different bouquets.The whole issue of discount on bouquets was a major bone of contention with Trai. Initially, in the tariff order draft, Trai had recommended a cap of 15% on bouquet discount, which was set aside by the Madras High Court.“These amendments will make the tariff order more consumer friendly,” said Arvind Kumar, advisor (broadcasting and cable services) at Trai. “The twin conditions will allow broadcasters to give a reasonable discount on bouquets, while also giving true power of choice in the hands of the consumers.”“The regulation is already in place and these amendments will not destabilise the market. Large broadcasters might find it difficult to price their channels freely because of twin conditions, but smaller networks will not have issues. Also, cap on carriage fee and discount on NCF in multi-TV homes is a welcome move. It may see some channels move from pay to FTA. A la carte price cap of ?12 is a consumer friendly move from government’s point of view,” said head of a TV broadcast network.Among other changes, Trai has also made two slabs for the network capacity fee (NCF) – Rs 130 per month for up to 200 channels and Rs 160 for more than 200 channels.Also, the 25 mandatory channels of Prasar Bharati are kept out of the 200 channels. Further, in multiple TV homes, the NCF for second connection is capped at 40% of first connection. “With two slabs for NCF and option for multiple TV homes, now there will be much more ease and transparency for the consumers,” Kumar added.Many broadcasters, who did not wish to be quoted, said new amendments will put the “business model” of smaller channels in “jeopardy”.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/37qO4ON