Breaking TRAI revised the tariff order again, lifts the limits on NCF and increases the maximum discount on channels to 45%

[Siva]

Now the court will put a stay on the new NTO and broadcasters will be able to complete their DD free dish period till 31 March 2025. But they are thinking of going to court a little early, there are still 90 days left, they should go after at least 60 days.

They would probably challenge only that particular clause. I don't expect the court to stay the entire order for that, as most changes are on the DPO side.

 

[Deep Mody]

 

[Shark]

 

[dino29]

As I earlier said long time back, their should be a fixed charge that a customer have to give for maintaining his stb active whether he watches 1 channel or 100 channels (paid or free). There should be a criteria something like : NCF is, say, 150, then till 150, total cost of channels that a customer choose he have to give only 150. Just like our electricity bills, there is a fixed charge.
For ex, if a customer buy channels worth rs. 150 he have to give only 150.
If the customer buy channels worth even rs. 1 above 150, he have to give next additional charge with 150.
Just make it simple & easy for customers.

Earlier too Operators were free to charge even Zero NCF, price ceiling was for upper limit... Also in Pre NTO era too operators kept huge profit margins which were included in DPO bouquet prices, they entered long term agreements with broadcasters which were heavily discounted and provided channels in bouquets adding that cost + own margins and A La Carte prices were kept absurdly high which made it a non attractive option and more people opted for bouquets.

As i have stated earlier too, NTO implementation was a great move but broadcasters did not adopt it in right manner thereby inflating channel prices which contributed to downfall of Linear TV subscriber base, had they had confidence in the content they provided then they should have continued with affordable pricing (monthly charges as were applicable in Pre NTO era) but unfortunately they hiked prices fearing downfall in revenue/ viewership which escalated the issue of dip in TV subscriber base...... Both operators and broadcasters somehow wanted Pre NTO system back which benefited them but customers got no freedom to opt for channels of their choice rather we were left with only option to take bouquets which contained mix of channels as A La Carte channel prices were so high that it did not make sense to opt for few channels at Rs. 200 or 300 rather subscribing to bouquets was far better option.

Also as reported in various articles too in the past there was a huge difference in discounts offered to small vs big operators thus we saw smaller operators finding it difficult to compete with big ones and there were frequent blackouts of channels as operators failed to reach agreements with various broadcasters.

There was issue with smaller broadcasters too which had to pay different carriage fee to small and big operators thereby again causing problems for them to launch channels on major platforms


NTO addressed all the issues and was a great move and until Mr. R N Sharma was the head of TRAI he stood up against broadcasters which were always telling how rules are not good for the industry as a whole but in actual these were good if implemented in proper manner and we saw long drawn legal cases being fought in honorable courts pertaining to this matter. Post Mr Sharma's tenure ended TRAI became somewhat lenient and agreed to hear out what stakeholders had to say and make required changes being sought so as to resolve the matter but as we can see that now NTO is not as beneficial to customers

 

[react]

As the license fees of HD Channels decreased from 8lac to 5lac for both SD or HD, will this encourage FTA channels to launch HD only channels for better quality in coming days? Or will they stuck at SD only because of availability of HD content?

 

[stiwari]

As the license fees of HD Channels decreased from 8lac to 5lac for both SD or HD, will this encourage FTA channels to launch HD only channels for better quality in coming days? Or will they stuck at SD only because of availability of HD content?

HD channels takes a big transponder bandwidth so it's sattelite rent is high so chances of this happening is less

 

[dino29]

HD channels takes a big transponder bandwidth so it's sattelite rent is high so chances of this happening is less

Right. Running a HD channel involves high expenditure and returns r far less....even big broadcasters r struggling to get ads on their HD channels barring few exceptions and even if they get ads then pricing still remains low so again Return Of Investment is an issue.

Largely FTA channels get their majority audience from DD Free Dish and all of their boxes would be only compatible with only receiving SD channels as such boxes cost less so even from consumer point of view SD is best suited for FTA channels barring exceptions where a channel designs a strategy to cater to wider audience base which includes niche segment but until now such channels have not garnered success more so for the HD feed