Discussion [POLL]Do you support the new tariff order of TRAI

[Maheswar]

A True Tragic Incident of Life
My Paternal Uncle and Aunt used to reside in Howrah (West Bengal) since 1992 when there is no Cable Service Provider in that area so DD was only medium for entertainment and my uncle & aunt was very much happy. In around 1996 there came first Cable Analogue Service and they gave 60 odd channels in around 90 bucks at that time. Then when CAS implemented in 2007 in that area the LCO shifted to new MSO namely DIGI CableComm who provided STB @2000/- and my uncle and Aunt was happy to take package of Rs.175/- with almost all Bengali Channels.Time passed away and in 2018 that package price increased to Rs.275/- per month and now also my uncle and Aunt are very happy with the service.
But here came the Twist......
The representative of MSO came to my uncle and Aunt on 2nd January and said that the New Regime of TRAI will be implemented from 26th Jan by that MSO and the existing package will cost Rs.565/-.When asked about the break up of the package slab my uncle and Aunt found that the above said MSO charging Rs.210/- as NCF of 100 FTA Channels and thereof Rs.40/- for every next 15 channels. My uncle and Aunt was shocked to know that extra money will be taken for Maintenance of Cable Line, Salary of the Linesman, processing of Bill etc and so on.
When my uncle and Aunt protested about it then the representative of LCO and MSO came with 2 Hooligans and started torturing mentally to provide that money or hence they also threatened that other alternatives (other Cable or DTH ) will not be allowed in that premises as when my Aunt refused to retain the Cable Line. My Aunt called Me ( as We are also a leading LCO with MSO in Kolkata ) and we both after having a Conversation on 4th-5th-6th with that MSO but they threatened us with Fire Arms in their pocket.We reported the whole situation under Law but my Aunt advised to adjust with those Hooligans.After spending sleepless nights my Aunt decided to surrender the Cable Line and declares that she will not watch TV in her life anymore.I also felt helpless because my MSO have no footprint in that area of Howrah. On 8th Jan onwards my Aunt decided to sale her 32" LG LCD TV and started hunting buyers through News Paper AD and finally Today morning my uncle and Aunt abled to find a genuine buyer and sold their only TV @10000/- and finally get rid of this TV systems as no other alternatives will be allowed. At the age of 85 my uncle and Aunt now have no other alternatives for entertainment other than FM Radio and Caravan as they are not used to with Internet,Smartphone and Apps.
After knowing about DDF from me they asked me to Share this true Life Incident to all DDF members.

As a mainstream LCO & MSO in Kolkata we are also feeling tremendous heat and pressure for this TRAI Rule but that's the other issue.

Now any guesses for the answer(no prize for that) to support TRAI - whether it is "Yes" or "No" my DDF Friends.......?

Very unfortunate. An elderly couple are deprived of entertainment because of hooliganism and failure of law enforcing authorities.
It happens only in India.

 

[bappaditya]

Without the 15% ruling, this TRAI order is a huge huge mess. And every broadcaster and media house is trying their level best to manipulate people and spread wrong info. If folks in this forum, which is pretty much the most updated trove on knowledge on DTH affairs, are confused, I can only think of what happens in small towns.

I think TRAI's initial intention was novel. But they have not factored in the infinite capacity of Indian businesses to do fraud. This will be a waterloo for Modi Govt. just before the elections.

 

[Iffy54]

Without the 15% ruling, this TRAI order is a huge huge mess. And every broadcaster and media house is trying their level best to manipulate people and spread wrong info. If folks in this forum, which is pretty much the most updated trove on knowledge on DTH affairs, are confused, I can only think of what happens in small towns.

I think TRAI's initial intention was novel. But they have not factored in the infinite capacity of Indian businesses to do fraud. This will be a waterloo for Modi Govt. just before the elections.

I dont know about the intentions of TRAI but the results are very bad for 90% of consumers

 

[zep]

It's a terrible order. Transparency is a good thing but forcing every DTH provider to basically keep the same plans is a moronic decision. It's completely against the principle of free market and will kill competition. DTH operators now can't compete against each other on price and that ultimately hurts the consumer. I had dish tv because I could get almost every HD channel for just 225 rupees on the top of a base pack which started at as low as Rs-100. So at Rs-325 one could get more HD channels than one really needs. Now I will have to spend a fortune to get that many HD channels. Not only that, all DTH operators will have the same plans, what is this? Soviet Union? TRAI should have found a way to force DTH operators to reveal individual channel prices at a reasonable rate and made the process of getting an individual channel easier than to disrupt the whole system. Now it's chaos.

 

[Maheswar]

It's a terrible order. Transparency is a good thing but forcing every DTH provider to basically keep the same plans is a moronic decision. It's completely against the principle of free market and will kill competition. DTH operators now can't compete against each other on price and that ultimately hurts the consumer. I had dish tv because I could get almost every HD channel for just 225 rupees on the top of a base pack which started at as low as Rs-100. So at Rs-325 one could get more HD channels than one really needs. Now I will have to spend a fortune to get that many HD channels. Not only that, all DTH operators will have the same plans, what is this? Soviet Union? TRAI should have found a way to force DTH operators to reveal individual channel prices at a reasonable rate and made the process of getting an individual channel easier than to disrupt the whole system. Now it's chaos.

DTH operators can still compete in offering discounts in NCF, because 130+Tax is the cap imposed by TRAI. DTH operators can reduce this amount to attract more customers.

 

[zep]

DTH operators can still compete in offering discounts in NCF, because 130+Tax is the cap imposed by TRAI. DTH operators can reduce this amount to attract more customers.

That maybe true but the scope of competition has definitely decreased. Earlier there was huge variations across the board, now it will be more or less same with every operator.

 

[ramesh skyPLAY]

Now the package is enough for me. I get all sports, knowledge, music. The TRAI rule is confusing one. Now I pay 519. It's worth for all channels I watching. I watching min 30 hd channels. As per trai rules I pay for this 30 hd channels, 600.

 

[Abhishekjoshi84]

I see in several threads people suggesting NCF should be lowered or should be discounted. You need to look at the cost involved by different players in the industry.
Broadcasters are spending money on creating or licensing content, uplink infrastructure and earning money from consumers as well as advertisers. They are getting biggest benefit from new rules as a larger chunk of what customer is paying will come in their pocket in new system. Long term impact could be loss in advertising revenue if people stop watching their channels.
DTH operators invest in the satellite infrastructure and earn their revenue using only the NCF in new model, as against earlier when they used to set prices and get a cut on channels priced higher by giving only partial amount to broadcasters. Less revenue/profit for them will result in them not investing in additional satellite bandwidth and proving less number of channels. On the other hand they might actually start getting some revenue from FTA channel broadcasters when capacity reduces.
MSOs/LCOs are pretty much in same boat as DTH operators, except they spend on the on ground infrastructure.

One of the benefit of earlier/older model was that DTH operators and MSOs were able to negotiate much better deals with broadcasters because of bull volume involved. Now that is not an option.

With the new rules it seems like India is going towards same situation as US where cable has become very costly and people are leaning towards online content because of cost reasons in addition to the content itself.

The only way this plan would have had a glimmer of hope for customers was the 15% discount rule, which also would have helped only with GEC/Movie channels which are kind of optional as you can start watching other programs or movies on only a few channels. Sports would still not have been impacted because rights for events are only with single broadcasters hence no alternative.

 

[Abhishekjoshi84]

TRAI is publicising this model as pay for only what you watch. A true implentation of that would be to make every channel available to everyone all the time and billed for watching specific channels by the hour in addition to a fixed fee for the operator(DTH or MSO/LCO).
I.e. if I don't watch TV for a month, I only pay infra fee to operator. If I watch only one channel for 100 hours in a month, then I only pay for those 100 hours only to that boradcaster for that channel apart from the infrastructure fee to operator. This would be a model which would be real "pay for what you watch" and will benefit consumers.

 

[ramesh skyPLAY]

A example I give. A person like 150 cc bike. It gives max 40 kmp litre. U suggest him to buy a 100 cc bike. He don't like. If he buy 100 cc he save 40 % cost. Nowadays who watching DD channels?. So it impossible , we watch free channels. And in sports my favourite event not telecast in a broadcast side. Time to time it impossible to change the channels also. It's not for me only. For all. I managing a pharmacy. Before GST an insulin injection cost ₹120. Now it's ₹143. Patients are buying. In most field like this. If the cost reduce, I welcome. And one, we can't watch for hours. If we selected a channel, it valid for one month. And now in my DTH , I select a channel. In a day I disconnect that.eg. I select star movie hd in ₹2/day.