With the Supreme Court upholding the new tariff regime proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), consumer viewers can now select the television channels they want to watch and pay the maximum retail price (MRP) set by the respective broadcasters for the channel or channels. At present viewers are provided a bouquet of TV channels, many of which are never watched by the customer.
Under the new tariff regime, TV viewers will get 100 free to air (FTA) channels for Rs130 plus taxes and can then select and pay only for those channels that they want to watch regularly. What this tariff order had done is to discard the practice adopted by broadcasters of clubbing a bunch of channels into a bouquet and making viewer pay for channels, which either are either free or ones that she does not want to watch.
Mumbai Grahak Panchayat believes if a consumer viewer opts for a few a la carte channels coupled with 100 FTA channels, the monthly bill, including taxes, should not go beyond Rs300.
Experts are divided on the new tariff regime with some feel that it would increase the cost for viewers if they continue to subscribe for all channels available at present on their cable or DTH. Those who watch select channels, can either chose particular channels or opt for bouquet offered by major broadcasters, like Sony Picture Network, Zee Entertainment, and Star India, which will result in lower cost.
Zee Entertainment has introduced about 68 packs starting from Rs45. Named as ‘Zee family pack’, it offers 24 channels from the group. Star India’s packs start at Rs49 for Hindi and Rs25 for Tamil. Sony Picture Network, which has broadcasting rights of 32 channels in India, is offering standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) versions of its most popular channels at Rs90.
Estimated Cost:
Free to Air Channels Rs130 (100 Channels)
Considering price of a la carte channels
This is just an example, of which total comes to Rs179 excluding taxes.
On the base tariff of Rs130, the viewer can chose any bouquet from the broadcasters. If the viewer choses all three packs mentioned above from Zee, Sony and Star, the monthly bill, excluding taxes, would be about Rs314. (These calculations are based on rates available at this point of time).
Network capacity fee of Rs130 (excluding taxes) for 100 channels includes FTA channels or pay channel or combination thereof. Taking FTA channels is the choice of subscriber but not mandatory except the mandatory channels of ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) (read Doordarshan channels). If the subscriber chooses pay channels, applicable MRP is payable in addition to the network capacity fee of Rs130, excluding taxes.
Let us understand what the TRAI regulations mandate to broadcasters, distributors and last mile operators (LMO)…
Whether Broadcaster, Distributor, Last Mile Operator (LMO)…
- All channels should be offered on a-la carte basis.
- Free to air channels cannot be part of bouquet.
- The prices of bouquets and a la carte channels will be uniform on all the distribution platforms.
- Distributor has to offer a basic service tier pack (BST) consisting of FTA channels.
- This BST pack will have minimum 100 FTA channels.
- In this 100 FTA channels 26 channels from Doordarshan are mandatory.
- BST should contain minimum five channels of each genre like general entertainment channel (GEC), movies, kids, music, sports, news, infotainment, devotional, miscellaneous.
Broadcaster’s Role
- Every broadcaster must declare each channel as a pay channel or FTA channels.
- The MRP must be more than Zero and shall be the same on all the platforms (MSO, DTH, HITS & IPTV)
- Price of every pay channel shall be same throughout India, which effectively does not permit regional pricing of channels.
- If MRP exceeds Rs19, the channel cannot be offered in any bouquet but will be stand alone on a la carte basis.
- A broadcaster’s pay channel bouquet cannot include FTA channels.
- Broadcaster shall offer maximum of 15% of MRP as incentive.
- Broadcaster can give promotion offer for maximum 90 days at a time.
- Promotional offer can be offered twice in a calendar year.
Distributor and last mile operator (LMO)
- All bouquets offered by broadcasters must also be offered without modification, at the price declared by each broadcaster.
- Distributor can create bouquets by combining pay channels from different broadcasters.
- Distributor cannot create a bouquet of pay channels plus FTA channels.
- Package of 100 FTA channels is different. Distributor can form bouquet with a combination of FTA channels from different broadcasters.
- All channels must also be offered a la carte basis.
- Both of them has to sign interconnect agreement for revenue sharing on mutually agreeable percentage share.
- If they both do not reach an agreement then recommended revenue share will be distributor at 55% and LMO at 45%.
Network Capacity Fee (NCF)
Distributor has to declare NCF per month for customer, conditions are-
- Network capacity fee for first 100 channels should not exceed Rs130.
- After these 100 channels the NCF will be Rs20 for a slot of every 25 channels.
- For calculation of one standard definition (SD) channel is counted as one & one HD channel is counted as two SD channels.
- Distributor cannot charge subscriber any amount other than NCF for subscribing to FTA channels or bouquet of FTA Channels.
Quality of Service Regulation
- Every Distributor must have a website and toll free customer care number.
- Each consumer’s unique identification number must be mentioned in the bill.
- Consumer must be informed about MRP, NCF, customer premised equipment (CPE), security deposit, rentals, warranty and ownership of premised equipment.
- Must obtain a completed consumer application form.
- Onetime installation charges for new subscribers cannot exceed Rs350.
- Onetime activation charge cannot exceed Rs100.
- Consumer to be refunded on a pro-rata basis in case a channel is withdrawn by the broadcaster.
- Consumers can request temporary suspension of service up to three months, every year. Only CPE rental is applicable during this period.
- Reactivation fee cannot exceed Rs25 for active and Rs100 for inactive subscribers.
- Consumer must receive three days prior notice for preventive maintenance.
BACKGROUND
- The Regulations and the Tariff Order were notified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 3 March 2017.
What were these Regulations? To quote a few,
- It prevented the mixing of pay channels and free to air channels in a single bouquet.
- The Regulations restricted placing high definition (HD) format and ordinary (SD) format of the same channel in the same bouquet.
- Another restriction was that bouquet of pay channels should not contain any pay channel where the MRP is more than Rs19.
- There are some other caps, which say that discounts of MRP of a bouquet should not exceed 15%.
These Regulations were immediately challenged before the Madras High Court by Star India and Vijay Television. The primary basis for the challenge was the lack of authority of the TRAI to issue such regulations or orders under the TRAI Act, 1996.
The case was that the TRAI Regulations amounted to regulation of contents of the channels. The TRAI, in exercise of powers under Sections 11 and 36 of TRAI Act, can regulate only carriage or means of transmission, but cannot regulate content. The content of their programmes/broadcast is covered and controlled solely by the Copyright Act 1957, which recognised two distinct rights, one being copyright and the other being broadcast reproduction right (BRR).
A division bench of the Madras High Court delivered a split verdict, with one judge striking down a majority of the clauses in the Regulations and the Tariff Order under challenge, while the other judge upheld them as being in line with the TRAI Act. The case was referred to a third judge of the Madras High Court, who arrived at the same conclusion as the latter judge and held the Regulations and the Tariff Order to be valid. Aggrieved by the judgment of the Madras High Court, Star India preferred an appeal before the Supreme Court.
The legal basis for this submission was that programmes aired/beamed in their television channels have content which is either created by appellants themselves or procured from third parties at a huge cost and such content is governed solely by the Copyright Act.
After hearing a battery of Senior Advocates – Dr A M Singhvi and P Chidambaram for broadcasters, Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh for TRAI, KV Vishwanathan for Multi System Operators (MSOs), Shyam Divan for direct-to-home (DTH) operators and Krishnan Venugopal for consumers, the bench dismissed the Appeals.
The Supreme Court adjudicated the issue in the light of the objective of the TRAI Act, which was to harmonise interests of service providers and consumers. It was held that no constricted meaning can be given to the provisions of this Act and that the power to regulate has to be construed widely to advance the objectives of the Act.
It was also noted that one of the functions of the Authority, though recommendatory, is to “facilitate competition and promote efficiency in the operation of telecommunication services (which includes broadcasting services) so as to facilitate growth in such services”. It was also notice from Section 11(1)(b) that terms and conditions of interconnectivity between different service providers have to be fixed, which necessarily included terms that relate not only to carriage simpliciter but also to all terms and conditions of interconnectivity between broadcaster, MSO, Cable TV operator and the ultimate consumer.
The Court expressed the view that TRAI will prevail over Copy Right Act to the extent royalties/compensation payable to the broadcasters under the Copyright Act are regulated in public interest by TRAI under the TRAI Act.
(Varsha Raut, a consumer activist, heads the advocacy & campaigning at Mumbai Grahak Panchayat)
Kindly help whether these are payable or not?
I am sure no customer will be happy.
1 universaldisneny pack-Rs 10/
2 zee pack Hindi. Rs 45/
3Hindi value star pack. Rs49
4Tv in news bouquet. Rs 1.5
5 Times now. Rs3.0
6 News 18 India. Rs 1/ Total cost.inc fta.will be 239.5
Plus GST. 43.0
Hence total will be Rs283.5
But Siti cable operator asking me pay Rs 322.5 since u r seeing total 150 channel pay 40/- extra while I am paying for pack even though I am not interested in many of them with in the pack
I think it is totally loot by trai which benefiting to cable operator however I have not paid so far clarify if I am chosen in pack why should I pay for channel wise. Let me guide should I go for consumer court or otherwise
Please let me know whether this Rs. 50 is really an amount I have to pay or the operator is cheating us?
Cable operator cannot ask separate money for the package.
Customer must be given free hand to select each channel either in FREE (in 100 Options) or Pay channel with same rates as in Banquet. Lets leave it completely to Customers.