Buddy infact u said a much larger point which is that no one watches Sony Channels and even if these r shutdown it does not matter bcoz as per ur statement no one around u watches Sony Network channels.....again this is a flawed argument to make and made in connection with the topic being discussed which is Tata Play removing Sony Channels from their DPO Bouquets.
Now i will tell underline 2 points which will prove why the comment u make is not right assessment to make -
1stly there may be many people around u who do not watch Sony Network Channels but there r plenty who watch and love their content so any operator has obligation to provide these channels in their DPO Bouquets
2ndly and most importantly even if as some members have highlighted that Tata Play is dropping these channels from DPO Bouquets of 10 million customers who have subscribed to these channels, it again shows that out of total subscriber base of Tata Play which is around 20 million nearly 50% have opted for Sony Channels which again proves that these channels r popular....Remember Sony largely has presence in Hindi Speaking Reagions barring Sony Aath which ain't that widely watched or some viewership from other regions which they may get for Sony BBC Earth ,Sony Yay which provide multi audio feeds but this figure again would be quite low and Sony Ten 4 which will be subscribed only when major sporting events r aired on it
Now as per data from TRAI almost 85 to 90 % people opt for DPO Bouquets of operators and in this too mid level and starter packs which contain mass audience oriented channels are opted for the most so if Sony largely being a broadcaster having strong presence in Hindi Speaking Market has reach of 10 Milion Customers on Tata Play platform which means it is almost reaching all the HSM households like its rival broadcaster channels and as per BARC Data itself Sony Sab has been receiving great ratings , Sony TV is largely urban centric channel which again is in Top 5 list in Delhi and until few weeks back regularly featured in this list, Hindi Movie Channels of Sony also have good to decent viewership and so does their Kids/Infotainment Channels..... As far as Sony Sports Channels r concerned barring Sony Sports Ten 3 which comes as part of Basic Hindi Channels Bouquet other Sony Sports Channels would be subscribed by customers as per their viewing requirements but still i would say they will be getting decent viewership in both ROI and South India Regions...... Sony Ten 1/ 3 used to feature in Top 5 sports channels list on regular basis until we had access to genre based BARC viewership data
Again so this all proves that Sony indeed has good reach + viewership for their channels, yes it may be lagging behind their competitors but certainly these channels cannot be termed unpopular or less popular.
Now coming to ur point of why Sony as a broadcaster faces issues with multiple operators.....reason is simple that being a relatively smaller broadcaster as compared to its rivals and its flagship Hindi GEC channel not airing usual saas bahu daily bahus to attract viewership thereby not having mass viewership in this key genre hence there r situations where such broadcasters face difficulty in making broadcasters agree to their terms while bigger broadcasters find it lot easier as even operators know if these channels r dropped from their bouquet or Platform then there will huge hue and cry.....secondly there r instances where there is a conflict of interest on operator side where their parent company also has a broadcast business so we have seen on such platforms manier times rival network channels face difficulties to launch a channel or when they sign RIO agreements so this also does effect broadcasters and we see blackouts of channels.
Lastly i find it very confusing that Tata Play decided to replace Sony Sports channels with Sports18 channels in DPO Bouquets which i believe will be having even lower viewership ......... Sony needs to 1stly inform public about this issue and secondly in near future build a comprehensive portfolio of channels and content to reduce occurrence of such issues , Tata Play or any other operator should also not take such decisions which cause inconvenience to customers