Pay channels become cheaper for DTH operators

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said that it was mandatory for broadcasters to publish their Reference Interconnect Offers (RIO) specifying the technical and commercial terms and conditions of their agreements with Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators. A-la-carte basis Broadcasters would also have to now offer their pay channels on a-la-carte or individual basis, in addition to their bouquets and offer them at 50 per cent of their rates for non-addressable systems.
TRAI, which has been mediating the standoff over the price at which DTH buy content from broadcasters, said in a statement on Friday that according to provisions in the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection Regulation, 2004, it was mandatory for broadcasters of pay channels to publish their RIO and to offer their channels on an a-la-carte basis.
Broadcasters will have to offer their pay channels, in a-la-carte form or as bouquets, at half the price at which they are offered to analogue cable operators.
(Prices of channels in Conditional Access System (CAS) notified areas are capped at Rs 5 per channel. The TRAI has also introduced an a-la-carte option for non-CAS areas earlier)
The obligations of fixing the price at no more than 50 per cent of the rates of channels in non-addressable environments, was “in consonance” with two earlier TDSAT’s judgments, said TRAI.
The Regulator, on Friday, also put up the a-la-carte rates and bouquet rates of pay channels from leading distributors on its Web site.

The Hindu Business Line : Pay channels become cheaper for DTH operators
 
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Direct-to-home (DTH) subscribers in the country are all set to get more choice in terms of channel bouquets and pricing.

Broadcasters will be offering the same channel bouquets to DTH players that are available in the non-CAS (condition access service) cable homes.


They can also offer additional bouquets, according to an announcement made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday.
The rates of bouquets and a la carte (standalone) pay channels, on any DTH platform, should not exceed 50% of the rates charged in the non-CAS or non-addressable TV homes.
This tariff stipulation is as per the recent Telecom Dispute Redressal Tribunal judgement.
So far, DTH players could not offer channel bouquets to its subscribers because members of the industry failed to agree on interconnection terms.
Now, with the number of DTH players going up, Trai and broadcasters have been able to resolve the issue of offering bouquets to the direct-to-home platform.
A bouquet refers to a group of channels offered by a broadcaster or a distribution platform, to provide more choice to the subscriber and also enable flexi-pricing. Currently, several channel bouquets at various price points are offered across cable TV networks in the country.
For instance, Zee-Turner offers as many as six bouquets; Discovery two; Sun group’s Channel Plus eight; Star Den Media Services two; Raj Television two; and one each from Ushodaya, BBC World, ESPN and Neo Sports.
In a statement issued on Friday, Trai said that a roadmap had been finalised for speedy conclusion of interconnect agreement between the broadcasters and DTH licencees. “A general consensus has emerged on the composition of bouquets and pricing of a la carte channels and bouquets,” Trai said.
DTH operators have been in talks with Trai to fix the price that they have to pay to the broadcasters. DTH players are keen on a system like the one for cable operators in the CAS notified areas in the metros, where Trai has frozen the rates at Rs 5 per pay channel per subscriber.
Currently, Dish TV (of the Essel group) and Tata Sky (joint venture between the Tatas and Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV) are the two main DTH players in India.
Tamil Nadu-based Sun TV, too, launched its direct-to-home broadcasting service recently. Prasar Bharati also has been running its DTH service (DD Direct Plus), but it is a free-to-air platform.
In all, there are between 5 million and 6 million DTH users in the country. Two more players-Big TV and Bharti-are likely to launch their DTH service soon. And, the Videocon group has also got a DTH licence.
DTH is a satellite broadcasting system through a extra-large pizza-sized dish and a set-top box, which eliminates the neighbourhood cablewallah.
CAS, on the other hand, is a service delivered through a cable operator with the help of a set-top box.
Both CAS and DTH are supposed to help consumers pay for the channels that they want to watch. Currently, CAS is effective only in select areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and whole of Chennai.

A larger bouquet for DTH subscribers - Sify.com
 

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