Govt declares 477 MSOs non-compliant for not conducting audit
Also, these MSOs did not submit a list of their subscribers as required by the rule
MIB said that one of the terms and conditions of the MSO registration was that MSOs shall comply with the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act. 1995, and the Rules made thereunder, as amended and adhere to all the terms and conditions of the registration. Failing to do so, the permission granted is liable to be cancelled or suspended. “MSOs were also required to submit a list of their subscribers and other details as per the requests made by the Ministry from time to time,” read the order.
Also, MIB said that according to the Interconnection Regulations, 2017, it is mandatory for every distributor of channels to conduct an audit of their system once in a calendar year.
“However, as per the information shared by TRAI, the scheduled MSOs have not conducted audits of their systems for the calendar years 2021 and 2022. Also, Scheduled MSOs were requested to furnish information like seeding date etc. under Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Act, 1995. Taking into account noncompliance, this Ministry marked the status of these MSOs as "Non-Compliant,” MIB stated in the order.
In the order, MIB said that it has granted MSO registration from time to time. Some of these MSOs, along with their registration details, have been tabulated and enclosed as Schedule to this order. These MSOs listed in schedule are hereafter referred to as Scheduled MSOs.
Through the Ministry's advisory dated March 23, 2023, all broadcasters were advised not to enter into interconnection agreements with non-compliant MSOs and to notify the non-compliant MSOs with whom they already have interconnection agreements.
However, despite being classified as "Non-Compliant", the scheduled MSOs have not made any references to the Ministry of the alteration of their status to "Compliant". Therefore, a Show Cause Notice dated July 25, 2023 was sent to these MSOs, seeking an explanation for the contraventions mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.The MSOs were given 15 days to furnish their replies.
It was observed that the scheduled MSOs did not provide the requisite clarification within the stipulated period, therefore a communication was issued to these MSOs in which they were asked to furnish the requisite information within a period of 15 days. However, the scheduled MSOs did not provide the requisite details within the stipulated period, therefore, as a last opportunity, communication dated September 20, 2023 was again sent to all the Scheduled MSOs
According to the order, it has been observed that despite lapse of the given period, the scheduled MSOs have failed to provide the requisite information or make any real-currency to this Ministry regarding their compliance status. These MSOs have continued to remain in contraventions outlined in preceding paras. Therefore, the MSO registrations of the scheduled MSOs are hereby cancelled with immediate effect.
