TRAI may review regulations to ensure level playing field between TV & OTT: PD Vaghela
The TRAI chairman said the pandemic has proved to be a boon for digital media and there has been a high growth in SVOD subscriber base
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman PD Vaghela has said that the regulator might review the regulations to ensure level playing field between TV broadcasting and over the top (OTT).
Distribution platform operators (DPOs) across cable and DTH segments have been demanding parity between pay TV and OTT. Broadcast tariff comes under the purview of TRAI, while OTT tariff is unregulated.
“Coming to digital media, it owes its growth to technological innovations. 5G will further enhance the same. For me, the level playing field remains important. We would want the TV industry to compete with the digital media by reviewing the regulation to enable a level playing field,” Vaghela said during his address at the 10th edition of the CII Big Picture Summit on Wednesday.
TRAI, he said, promotes consumer choice and therefore promotes healthy competition among the service providers. He added that the pandemic has proved to be a boon for digital media and there has been a high growth in SVOD subscriber base.
“It is noteworthy that TV broadcast sector is still expected to remain at the top, as per estimates. It is projected that TV would continue to account for 40% of Indian M&E market in next 3-4 years,” he noted.
Vaghela said that the Pay TV industry in India has a huge headroom for growth. “With 55% penetration, the pay TV sector still has a lot of potential to expand. I call upon our industry stakeholders to work together and strive to ensure 100% television household penetration.”
The TRAI chairman also stated that he personally believes in light touch regulation while talking about other issues like content piracy and channel pricing parity between pay platforms and DD Free Dish.
“Industry knows what is best for it, and we should not be prescriptive if it does not impinge on interests of consumers and other stakeholders. This is all the more required as technological convergence of network platforms, services, and devices is now fast evolving. Technological disruption in the form of AI, AR, VR, and M2M communications present exciting opportunities,” Vaghela averred.
On piracy, he urged the government to either create a legal enforcement structure or provide special powers to the TRAI. “While we endeavour to control piracy, I ask government to enforce a legal enforcement structure further or empower TRAI with special powers to penalise offenders. Piracy damages the service providers, the consumers as well as government revenues.”
Regarding the DD Free Dish issue, he said, “There are other issues like parity in channel prices across different mediums including DD Free Dish, I assure that we will put in our best efforts to address this concern.”
Pay DTH operators have complained to TRAI that the broadcasters are resorting to differential treatment by offering pay channels for free on DD Free Dish while charging for the same channels from their consumers. The DTH operators want the broadcasters to ensure pricing parity between their platforms and DD Free Dish.
The TRAI chairman asserted that consumers remain a core objective for the regulator. He added that the fact that telecom and broadcast tariff are among the lowest in the world exemplifies that TRAI's interventions have helped the consumers. “While consumers remain the focus of TRAI, viability and growth of every stakeholder remains very important. TRAI's main motto is to create a level playing field for all the stakeholders,” he added.
Vaghela also advocated the availability of pay-per-view facility to Indian consumers. “As prevalent in other countries, Indian consumers should also get facilities that pay per view or pay per programme. Industry must invest to adopt this,” he stated.
He TRAI also said that TRAI’s consultation process is regarded among the most transparent procedure.
In terms of ease of doing business of telecom and broadcasting sector, the chairman said that the regulator will identify various bottlenecks and process requirements, if any, and suggest measures for reforms required in policy and processes.
“Our regulations provide for must provide (for broadcasters), must carry (for DPOs) and establish a trust-based system by third-party auditors. Our decisions reflect TRAI's objective in maintaining balance among disparate interests of various service providers like broadcasters and operators,” Vaghela said.
According to Vaghela, the Conditional Access System (CAS) and Subscriber Management System (SMS) certification and trust-based system established by audit will reduce disputes amongst stakeholders.
TRAI, he said, is committed to creating a simplified and time-bound procedures for applications and approvals thereby creating end-to-end solutions for all the stakeholders of the industry. It is also working on a scheme to promote local manufacturing of equipment in telecom and broadcasting sectors.
He also pointed out that TRAI’s recommendations to introduce infra sharing between cable TV service providers and Headend in the Sky (HITS) operators have been accepted by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB). This, he added, will help stakeholders to save costs and become more competitive.
