All Entries in the "General News" Category
TRAI chief JS Sarma specifies moderate carriage fees
New Delhi: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman JS Sarma explains the digitization of cable. He said that carriage fees should be moderate, between 50 paise to Re. 1 per subscriber per year. “Anything beyond that level would be unreasonable,” he said, adding that there can be no placement fee in post digitization world. Here is the full transcript of the interview. Vikram Chandra: Hello and welcome, we have with us the person who has been the man of the moment of recent days, Mr JS Sarma, head of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. So you have been in the news »»»
MSOs, broadcasters plan to move court over carriage fee
New Delhi: Not satisfied with the ‘must carry’ diktat and regulation of carriage fee outlined in the latest regulations by the broadcast regulator, both multi-service operators (MSOs) and news broadcasters may soon take legal recourse. MSOs and broadcasters are studying the order before approaching the courts, sources said. On Monday night, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) issued the tariff order and regulations for digital addressable system (DAS) roll out mandating every MSO to upgrade its delivery platform so as to carry 500 channels in DAS areas, starting with the four metros. »»»
TRAI’s new tariff order to fuel the DTH-cable war
If the onset of digitisation is sure to wage a war between the DTH players and local digital operators, the new tariff order from TRAI is sure to add the requisite fuel to this much talked-about battle. According to TRAI’s latest amendment, all channels including pay and free-to air will be offered on a-la-carte basis to subscribers. Not to forget, there will be a Basic Service Tier (BST) that will consist of a minimum of 100 free-to air (FTA) channels. Of the 100, 18 channels will belong to the public broadcaster DD along with Lok Sabha TV, while the remaining will belong to other popular »»»
DTH cos welcome digitisation as MSOs, TV channels fume
As the deadline for the digitisation of the cable-TV sector nears, CNBC-TV18 spoke to representatives of all the three parties concerned- multi-system operators (MSOs), broadcasters and the DTH community. Ashok Mansukhani, president, MSO Alliance, calls the TRAI order “completely baseless and unfair”. He explains that MSOs will have to spend heavily on encryption and increasing capacity. “Unlike overseas, boadcasters don’t share ad revenues with MSOs. Providing 500 channels is a tough call for small and independent operators,” he retorted. Presenting the broacasters’ »»»
DTH operators smell blood in cable digitization move
If cable operators thought they would have a smooth transition from analog-digital services to digital-only services by June 30, satellite-based DTH operators seem to have other ideas. According to the rules, cable operators must switch off the analog signals on their lines in big cities by June 30. Once the analog service is switched off, people who are watching cable TV without any set-top-boxes will essentially be left in the dark. They will have to spend about Rs 1,000 to buy a set-top-box to convert digital signals back into analog, before they can see their favorite soaps or movies again. The »»»
India has 44.2 mn DTH subs, 825 channels: Trai
MUMBAI: India has 44.21 million private DTH subscribers as of 31 December 2011, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its quarterly report. The total number of registered subscribers is from the six private direct-to-home operators – Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct. Digital cable TV, however, is growing slowly in the Cas (conditional access system) notified areas. Cable TV operators have marginally increased the seeding of set-top boxes (STBs) in the Cas areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai during this period. According »»»
DTH and digital cable will co-exist
Most viewers seem to be preferring direct-to-home (DTH) to view television. However, cable (digital) will still be an important broadcast mode. This observation has been made by a FICCI-KPMG report on media and entertainment. The number of DTH households in the country is set to go up from 37 million in 2011 to 86 million by 2016. Digital cable, on the other hand, would see its subscriber base explode from 6 million to 75 million over the same period. Not surprisingly, analog cable, which connects most households currently, would shrink from 68 million in 2011 to just 4 million by 2016. A major »»»
