The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI has revamped the entire regulatory structure of the broadcasting, cable TV and DTH industry in India, dealing with issues such as carriage fee, channel prices and channel availability.

Once digitized, all channels (pay and free-to air) have to be offered on a-la-carte, or individual, basis to subscribers, TRAI said.

There will be a Basic Service Tier (BST) consisting of a minimum of 100 free-to air (FTA) channels for Rs 100.

It is up to the consumer to pick and choose which 100 free channels he wants to watch for Rs 100 per month. In other words, he can make his own ‘basic package.’

He can also ask the cable operator to provide a pre-designed ‘basic tier’ with 5 channels of each genre — news and current affairs, infotainment, sports, kids, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment in Hindi, English and regional language of the concerned region.

However, if he or she wants pay channels, the minimum is Rs 150, TRAI added.

“In case subscriber chooses Pay channel(s) with or without FTA channel(s) the MSO can fix a minimum monthly subscription not exceeding Rs. 150/-. If the total value of the channels/ bouquets opted by the subscriber exceeds Rs. 150/- then actual subscription charges have to be paid,” TRAI said.

For consumers, the new regulations mean that soon, their cable networks will support a minimum of 500 channels — and they will more or less be able to pay only for the channels they watch.

In its new regulations, coming two months before the first phase of cable digitization kicks in in the cities, TRAI mandated a minimum capacity of 500 channels in the new system.

Currently, most cable networks have about 300 channels. Digitization is expected to increase their capacity to about 1000-1500.

There is more good news in the new regulations for the broadcasters (channel owners) than for owners of cable TV and DTH networks.

Primarily, the TRAI has ‘legalized’ carriage fee — a hitherto secretive practice in which cable and DTH operators used to take money from channel owners to carry particular channels, or to place a channel near another etc.. However, carriage fee can only be demanded from a channel owner if he is trying to ‘push’ his channel onto a cable network, not otherwise.

While many channel owners have been urging the regulator to simply ban carriage fee — which they consider a bribe — cable and DTH operators have pointed out that carrying a channel involves expenses, some of which has to borne by the channel owner.

Carriage fee was also the only way in which new channels could ensure their presence on large networks, which otherwise saw no reason to carry unknown channels without a customer base.

As a result, carriage fee comprises as much as 70% of the running expenses of certain channels.

To ensure that carriage fee does not stifle growth among channels, TRAI has removed the element of secrecy and discretion from the payment.

From now on, all channels will have to pay the same amount as carriage fee, and the amount shall be declared in a publicly available document. Each cable and DTH operator is free to decide its carriage fee, but must apply it to all the channels uniformly.

The other big change is designed to prevent the frequent fights between channel owners and cable networks. Channel owners have been told to supply channels to all operators who wish to transmit it.

Conversely, all cable operators much provide space for all the channels from all companies — unless they can prove that less than 5% of their subscribers are subscribing to the channel.

The excerpts of the TRAI new regulations are as follows:

CARRIAGE FEE:

Every multi system operator shall publish in its Reference Interconnect Offer the carriage fee for carrying a channel of a broadcaster for which no request has been made bythe multi system operator.

Provided that the carriage fee shall be uniform for all the broadcasters and the same shall not be revised upwards for a minimum period of two years from the date of publication in the Reference Interconnect Offer.

A multi system operator, who seeks signals of a particular TV channel from a broadcaster, shall not demand carriage fee for carrying that channel on its distribution platform.

CHANNEL CAPACITY:

A multi system(cable) operator operating in the Municipal boundary of Greater Mumbai, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Kolkata Metropolitan area and Chennai Metropolitan area shall have a capacity to carry a minimum of two hundred channels as on the 30th June, 2012 and such capacity shall be enhanced to a minimum of 500 channels by 1st January, 2013:

Provided further that all multi system operators operating in the area referred to in the first proviso and having subscriber base of less than twenty five thousand shall have the capacity to carry a minimum of 500 channels by the 1st April, 2013.

BROADCASTERS MUST PROVIDE CHANNELS WITHOUT CONDITIONS:

No broadcaster of TV channels shall engage in any practice or activity or enter into any understanding or arrangement, including exclusive contract with any multi system operator for distribution of its channel which may prevent any other multi system operator from obtaining such TV channels for distribution.

Every broadcaster shall provide signals of its TV channels on non-discriminatory basis to every multi system operator having the prescribed channel capacity making request for the same within sixty days from the date of receipt of the request.

If a broadcaster before providing signals to a multi system operator insist for placement of its channel in a particular slot as a pre-condition for providing signals, such precondition shall amount to imposition of unreasonable terms.

NETWORKS MUST CARRY CHANNELS WITHOUT CONDITIONS:

No multi system operator shall enter into any understanding or arrangement with any broadcaster that may prevent any other broadcaster from obtaining access to the cable network of such multi system operator.

Every multi system operator shall, within sixty days of receipt of request from the broadcaster or its authorised agent or intermediary, provide on non-discriminatory basis, access to its network or convey the reasons for rejection of request if the access is denied to such broadcaster.

It shall not be mandatory for a multi system operator to carry the channel of a broadcaster if the channel is not in regional language of the region in which the multi system operator is operating or in Hindi or in English language OR if the broadcaster is not willing to pay the uniform carriage fee published by the multi system operator in its Reference Interconnect Offer.

It shall not be mandatory for the multi system operator to carry a channel for a period of next one year from the date of discontinuation of the channel, if the subscription for that particular channel, in the last preceding six months is less than or equal to five per cent of the subscriber base of that multi system operator taken as an average of subscriber base of the preceding six months.

Source: RTN Asia

New Delhi: In what would be a first for a public service broadcaster anywhere in the world, Prasar Bharati is set to outsource the operational and technical management of its free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) service DD Direct+ to private DTH operators like Dish TV, Tata Sky and others based on a tendering process.

Sources said Doordarshan will float a request for proposal (RFP) this week which will invite eligible private DTH and teleport operators to take over the operational command and control of DD Direct+ for the next five years for a fixed monthly fee.

The move, according to DD officials, is aimed at cutting costs and maximising the revenue of DD Direct+, especially when it is gearing up to boost its channel capacity from 59 to 200 and beyond in 6-8 months. “Why should government officials manage DTH services at a higher cost when private agencies can do it more efficiently,” an official said, justifying the need to involve private agencies to run DD Direct+.

Doordarshan spends R35-40 crore every year to operate 59 channels on DD Direct+ (including 22 DD channels) whereas private operators manage over 230 channels on their respective DTH platforms at nearly half the cost (on a per channel basis), sources said. Under the proposed arrangement, private operators will manage the entire technical back-end of DD Direct+ including uplink and downlink of channels, quality control, expansion and subscriber management, among others.

In order to attract only serious private players, Doordarshan will keep the networth requirement for bidders at R200 crore, which means only DTH firms like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Digital TV, Sun Direct and others can qualify. Among teleport operators, Essel Shyam and HFCL, among others, are said to have a net worth above R200 crore.

Private firms can bid as a company or a consortium, DD officials told FE. “Any DTH or teleport operator which has an experience of operating a minimum of 30 channels on MPEG-2 technology and having a net worth of R200 crore will be eligible. It will be a two-stage closed tender process and the RFP will be issued within the week,” a senior Prasar Bharati official told FE.

This is not the first time private firms have associated with DD Direct+, which recently adopted electronic auctions as the mode for allocating space to private channels. Two rounds of e-auctions have successfully been conducted by a Mumbai-based private auctioning agency.

The e-auctions for 26 slots generated record revenues of R63 crore from private broadcasters. This is more than thrice what it used to generate before migrating to e-auction mechanism two months ago, charging Rs 80 lakh/slot.

Source: The Financial Express

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) has said Prasar Bharati is ‘best equipped’ to decide which channel should form part of its DTH bouquet so as to attract viewers and at the same time discharge its duties under Section 12 of the Prasar Bharati Act.

This right of Prasar Bharati cannot be defeated for the petty commercial gains of any channels, Tdsat said, disposing off two similar petitions.

Justice SB Sinha, Chairperson, and members GD Gaiha and PK Rastogi also said that it was for Prasar Bharati to take a decision as to which channel is to be carried on its DD Direct Plus platform in accordance with its guidelines.

“We had already directed Prasar Bharati in our judgment of 16 December 2010 to take a policy decision at the highest level with regard to allotment or refusal of new channel.” This judgment was passed by the Tribunal on petitions filed by certain channels, which were removed/sought to be removed in October 2010.

Tdsat, thus, rejected a petition by Music India channel, owned by Media Worldwide, challenging its removal from Doordarshan’s DTH platform DD Direct Plus on 18 October last year.

However in the other petition relating to the Pragya lifestyle channel run by Pragya Vision, the Tdsat said after considering the arguments that “we are of the opinion that Prasar Bharati should take a decision as early as possible about the request of Pragya in accordance with its own guidelines”.

Music World had been applying to be on the free-to-air DD Direct Plus since 2006 but it was only from 3 October 2007 that it got a placement on the channel on payment of a carriage fee of Rs 2.5 million. Later on 1 August 2008, Prasar Bharati reminded the channel that its agreement was coming to an end and sought an increased fee of Rs 6 million plus service tax at 12.36 per cent and this extension was given. Prasar Bharati also agreed on 21.January 2010 to continue the agreement for 2009-10.

The channel has claimed that even as it was awaiting a letter from Prasar Bharati for continuing the agreement for 2010-11, the pubcaster without any intimation disconnected the channel from 18 October 2010.

The Tribunal said Music India can’t claim right of renewal when he did not show any interest or willingness to continue their relationship by executing a fresh agreement with Prasar Bharati.

Prasar Bharati is not obliged to follow clause 8.1 of the Interconnect Regulation without the channel fulfilling its own obligation, it added.

Under Clause 4.2 relating to disconnection of TV signals by the distributors, the Tribunal held that this notice is necessary during the currency of the agreement and not after the completion of the period of the agreement. At the most, consumers may approach this Tribunal and agitate about their rights and obligations but the channel cannot claim right of renewal when he has not shown any interest or willingness to continue their relationship by executing a fresh agreement with the respondent.

During the arguments, Prasar Bharati submitted that it had limited transponder capacity and as on date also there were more than 97 pending applications from various channels for being carried on the DTH platform. The media industry is a highly dynamic industry where change is the order and Prasar Bharati had to come with the channels mix up of various genres catering to various state of society, regions etc.

After the removal of the channel “Music India” from the DTH platform, another channel by name of India Newswas taken on the DD Direct Plus with effect from 22 October 2010 and this was on DD Direct Plus till June 2010. However, in view of the Commonwealth Games and the starting of HDTV transmission, additional bandwidth was required and for that purpose “India News” and another channel “News 24” were removed from DD Direct Plus.

On discontinuation of two channels “Music India” and “Care World”, two other channels “India News” and “Pragya” were taken on DD Direct Plus.

Prasar Bharati submitted before the Tribunal that there is no slot available on which “Music India” can be accommodated. For accommodating “Music India” one of the existing channels has to be removed from the DTH platform.

The pubcaster also argued that in the judgment of 16 December 2010 passed by the Tribunal, there was specific direction to restore the channel “Care World”, and so “Pragya” was removed.

The DTH Core Committee of Prasar Bharati, which met on 20 October 2010, decided to remove Music India and other channels from DD platform on completion of their present term and bring two channels, India News and Pragya on their platform.

In its petition, Pragya had challenged the termination of lease granted to it. Pragya had been on the wait-list for allotment since 2009 and it was only in November 2010 that Prasar Bharati agreed to carry Pragya on DD Direct Plus. The Petitioner paid Rs. 8 million as carriage fee and
Rs 8,24,000 on account of service tax.

Prasar Bharati in its letter on 1 December 2010 informed Pragya for the first time that one Seven Star (Care World) TV Channel had been removed from DD Direct Plus after expiry of its Agreement with the Corporation but that Seven Star had appealed in Tdsat to retain its channel on DD Direct Plus. Prasar Bharati also told Pragya that its continuation was subject to the outcome of this case.

Pragya was finally told on 29 December 2010 that it had been discontinued on DD Direct Plus by replacing Care World pursuant to the Judgment of 16 December 2010.

The Tribunal said it had been ‘fully conscious’ of this and had taken care to protect the interest of Pragya and specifically recorded that it did not think it necessary to implead Pragya as a party in those proceedings because there were vacant slots available on DTH Platform of DD Direct Plus.

Therefore, the Tribunal felt that the act of Prasar Bharati of terminating the Lease is in direct violation of this Tribunal’s judgment of December 2010.

The Tribunal has also noted that one of the channels, “Lokmat”, has fallen vacant but sought restoration within a week. “‘We would not like to go into details of these aspects. It is for the respondent to take a decision as to which channel is to be carried on its platform in accordance with its guidelines,” Tdsat said.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is reviewing the tariff for cable TV service in Cas (conditional access system) notified areas.

The areas under review are: tariff for basic service tier, retail price for a pay channel, tariff options for supply of set-top boxes (STBs) and revenue share arrangement between service providers.

Trai had earlier fixed the current cap on maximum retail price of pay channels at Rs 5.35 (excluding taxes). Two rental schemes on STBs were also mandated by the sector regulator for cable TV operators to offer to their subscribers – Rs 34 a month (on a security deposit of Rs 200) and Rs 22 (on a deposit of Rs 750).

The review is significant as broadcasters have complained that the price freeze on their pay channels is too low for them to recover their high-cost programming investments due to stiff competition in the sector.

The freeing of prices will also help the multi-system operators to up their revenues, industry observers said.

Trai has asked comments from the stakeholders on whether the use of STBs should be mandated on Cas notified areas for viewing both free-to-air (FTA) and pay channels.

Currently, cable TV subscribers do not have to use a STB if they only want the FTA channels.

Trai has also sought the views of stakeholders on whether there should be only two broad tariff regulatory frameworks, one for analogue non-addressable (non-Cas) and another for digital addressable systems, and whether such a framework should be the same for wholesale and retail.

In a consultation paper released today on ‘Tariff for Cable TV services in Cas notified Areas’, Trai has also asked what method should be used to regulate the tariff ceilings for basic service tier in Cas notified areas.

Trai has asked the stakeholders to submit their views by 5 May. Counter comments, if any, to the comments received may be sent to Trai by 12 May.

Trai also wants to know which method should be used to regulate the retail tariff for pay channels in Cas notified areas: providing periodic inflation linked adjustment in the present ceiling of Rs 5.35 (excluding taxes) per pay channel per subscriber per month, single or different ceilings across all genres, or forbearance.

Should a relation between a-la-carte and bouquet price be prescribed to prevent perverse pricing, Trai asks, wanting to know whether it should be different for broadcaster and MSO.

It has also sought views on how the retail tariff for advertisement free channels should be regulated in Cas notified areas and whether it should be different from other pay channels.

Trai asks how the retail tariff should be regulated in Cas notified areas for niche channels which require specialised STBs.

Should the tariff for supply of STB be regulated, left to market forces, or should the present system continue, asks Trai.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

National broadcaster Doordarshan is seeking to strengthen its direct-to-home (DTH) platform – DD Direct Plus – and expects to have some 200 channels on its platform by end of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan or 2012.

At present, DD Direct Plus has a bouquet of 57 Free-to-Air (FTA) channels.

In the first phase by the end of 2010, DD Direct Plus aims to have about 100 FTA channels. In second phase, it is targeting 200 channels of which many will be FTA channels.

Currently, 31 of the 57 channels are from the DD stable.

Strong response

“We have an overwhelming response from private channels to get on to the DD Direct Plus platform. Even some of the pay channels are willing to go free,” said Ms Aruna Sharma, Director-General, Doordarshan.

“There’s a waitlist of 74 private channels seeking an entry to the DD Direct platform,” Ms Sharma said without disclosing their names. Some of the private channels such as Zee Smile, B4U Music and 9X are already on the DD Direct platform.

Subscription charge

Hinting at the possibility of DD Direct Plus starting to charge subscribers once it has over 100 channels, Ms Sharma said “pricing will depend on the policy at that point of time.” In the Fifth Plan, DD is investing about Rs 85 crore in strengthening the DD Direct platform.

The reach

Currently, DD Direct Plus reaches over six million homes, while the total subscriber base of private-sector players is expected to be around 18 million. An estimated two million DTH households were added in the October-December quarter.

DTH subscribers constitute a small portion of the overall television viewers in the country at present.

Analysts expect the DTH industry to grow at a compounded annual rate of 30 per cent by 2012. The overall television viewership in India is expected to grow to 132 million by 2012, up form 115 million.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

If you’re happy watching just the free to air (FTA) channels, you can indeed get them entirely free of cost by the end of the year. All you need do is install a set top box.

Currently, the various direct to home (DTH) service providers — Tata Sky, Dish TV, Reliance Big TV among others — offer various ‘bouquets’ of free and paid channels, which cost between Rs 80 to Rs 1,200 per month. With the new option Doordarshan is planning, you won’t have to pay anything at all.

Doordarshan has its own DTH service already, called DD Direct, and it is free, but it provides only 59 FTA channels, most of which are Doordarshan’s own. Now the government has told Prasar Bharati to prepare a proposal by which the number of FTA channels DD Direct provides increases to 200.

Doordarshan officials believe the move will be a game changer. “It will bring about the kind of change that occurred when the government decided incoming mobile phone calls should be free,” said a senior official.

At present DD Direct reaches 6 million homes, while private DTH operators cater to 14-16 million homes. Officials expect its reach to expand to 30 million homes within months of launching the new product.

The moot question is whether some pay channels will be willing to turn free to take advantage of the huge viewership DD Direct expects to offer, making up in advertising rates what they lose from subscriptions. Officials said they offered another incentive: the carriage fee — annual price of beaming a channel — Doordarshan charges is lower than private operators.

“If DD Direct can put together a good combination, it will have a good market,” said Uday Shankar, CEO Star India. “But I doubt pay channels will shift.”

Source: Hindustan Times