IBF expresses shock and disappointment on the amended Tariff Order and Interconnection Regulations issued by TRAI

[The Lonelier Island]

In our city, Siti cable and Hathway collects NCF of Rs.130+GST for 200+ channels

Oh! That was a limited time offer from Cable Federation.

 

[Ashok Varma]

Oh! That was a limited time offer from Cable Federation.

No. They are giving from inception of NTO due to completion from local MSOs.

 

[Siva]

But tell me in which other country customers buy tv channels broadcasters' wise? Bouquets are set to be on genre wise by service providers. We are now forced to buy useless channels from a broadcaster to get discounts. Don't know if broadcasters' are crying foul but TRAI's existing tariff is ridiculously flawed which favours government with ridiculous high GST and service providers by setting high NCF.

Does YouTube have 9 different trending lists anywhere else in the World? India is a diverse country, you can't compare us with any other country. There was no transparency in the previous system and no choice for the consumers! After the NTO, Star India had conveniently ignored creating genre-wise bouquets. The first version of NTO, although brought transparency and choice into the system, due to the absolute selfishness and greed of the broadcasters, Consumers got frustrated to the core! TV bills which were supposed to decrease increased instead! You are right in saying that the existing NTO had flaws. That's why TRAI had worked on it and released the amendments to correct those flaws. So why the IBF, that you are supporting, is opposing the amendments? Because the new terms will no longer allow them to continue the loot. TRAI had realized the flaws in the previous version and hit the nail on their head with these changes. These new terms are almost fair to everyone i.e. to the consumers in terms of choice and pricing, to the broadcasters in terms of freedom to set the price based on their content and create bouquets in the proper way instead of taking advantage of the system, to the DPOs in terms of NCF and create LDPs with discounts. It might have some more flaws, but this is much much better than the previous one! It is by no means disadvantageous to the broadcasters, like being projected by the IBF unless they feel handcuffed for being unable to continue their money-sucking tactics!

GST is not set by TRAI, nobody is stopping the Govt. from reducing the GST to 5 percent, it's not in TRAI's hand. With respect to the base NCF, it was answered numerous times on the forum, as to why the NCF is set that way. You should read the thread Breaking News - TRAI's analysis behind the base NCF, amendments to the Initial capacity and Multi TV NCF

 

[The Lonelier Island]

If government decides GST. Than its good news that MIB minister Prakash Javadekar promised decreased of cable/dth bills. Hopefully, he was talking about GST not changes in NTO.

Coming to the flaws in the system. Transparency should be on deals made by DPO and broadcaster. Not making deals access to customers wasting their time in buying logic less packages. Biggest flaw in the system is DPO not providing discounts and offers until we buy useless channels or invest in a longer term which has become most expensive now.

 

[Rajat Basak]

My opinion is, i used to get all the channels just paying Rs 380 per month. Although i didn't watch all channels on regular basis But after the new rules i can't even take those channels which i watch or want to keep.. I don't like to unsubscribe and resubscribe again and again to save money but it's a fact that i am paying same amount of money for lesser channels.. That's why i can't support this system.. Also I had read so many opinions on TRAI's twitter account but most of them are unhappy after the nto.. and i am also one of them..

 

[The Lonelier Island]

My opinion is, i used to get all the channels just paying Rs 380 per month. Although i didn't watch all channels on regular basis But after the new rules i can't even take those channels which i watch or want to keep.. I don't like to unsubscribe and resubscribe again and again to save money but it's a fact that i am paying same amount of money for lesser channels.. That's why i can't support this system.. Also I had read so many opinions on TRAI's twitter account but most of them are unhappy after the nto.. and i am also one of them..

I am still wondering who were unhappy with the old tariff. At smaller towns people were enjoying services for as low as ₹80 for most popular channels. Even I myself enjoyed all pay channels for ₹250. If there were unfair deals done by broadcaster. TRAI had freedom to take action against such broadcaster. NTO was an anti customer friendly precautionary steps to prevent wrongdoings.

 

[Rajat Basak]

I am still wondering who were unhappy with the old tariff. At smaller towns people were enjoying services for as low as ₹80 for most popular channels. Even I myself enjoyed all pay channels for ₹250. If there were unfair deals done by broadcaster. TRAI had freedom to take action against such broadcaster. NTO was an anti customer friendly precautionary steps to prevent wrongdoings.

I am loving your comments because we are on the same boat. Actually previously broadcasters used to give discounts in rural areas and selected MSOs who had large subscribers base. People were getting all channels at a discounted price. But there also had some problems like unsuccessful deal with broadcasters like Star, Times Channels etc which are used to unavailable for a week but comes backs later after agreement. But to overcome this problem Trai now made the channel price are uniform. Same price for all india and gave an option to select channel. That's the beginning of the problems. I think you know about it, i am just saying..