AIDCF goes to court against TRAI tariff amendment
The Kerala High Court is likely to hear the petition this week
The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has petitioned the Kerala High Court against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's tariff amendment - NTO 3.0. The case is still pending and will most likely be heard this week.
AIDCF has requested HC to issue directions to TRAI to examine and fix the maximum retail price for television channels genre-wise and with a maximum cap on the price of any channel in order to ensure the orderly growth of the digital cable television sector as mandated by the TRAI Act, 1997.
AIDCF is India's apex body for Digital Multi System Operators (MSOs). AIDCF works towards the overall growth of the sector and creates an environment for not only complete digitization of cable TV under regulatory guidelines but also delivers the benefits of digital services to the people of India thus fulfilling the dream of 'True Digital India.'
The federation has told the court that TRAI has failed to consider and address the foremost challenge faced by the entire broadcasting and cable services industry, and that there is a trend of constant decline in subscribers base for MSOs and DTH operators. TRAI’s own data shows that in the last eight quarters the total active number of DTH subscribers has decreased from 70.99 million to 68.89 million. Similarly, the number of total active subscribers of major MSOs/HITS operators having more than a million subscribers has decreased from 47.58 million to 45.55 million.
The cable federation also stated that TRAI failed to consider that this trend of decline is disturbing for the authority and all stakeholders in the broadcasting and cable industry, except the large broadcasters, who have a presence in the alternative space of OTT services.
AIDCF in its petition said TRAI has taken no steps to address that the MRP of driver channels of premiere broadcasters have increased between 200- 400% in a period of around two years of time, i.e. from 2019 to 2021. While the MRPs of such channels were already increased between 150-200% during the implementation of New Telecom Regulatory Framework/the Principal Regulations in 2019, the prices have yet again been increased by the broadcasters by further 20-30% in 2021. This has Ied to consumers to shell out over approximately 200-400% of additional costs on the MRPs of the premiere channels since 2019, the body said.
In the new amended tariff order and regulation, TRAI has gone back to the maximum retail price (MRP) cap of Rs 19 for a channel to become a part of the bouquet while replacing the twin conditions with a new clause that caps bouquet pricing at 45% of the sum of a la carte rates of all the channels in a bouquet.
