New tariff regime will reduce cable TV bills significantly: Trai chief

NEW DELHI: Trai chairman RS Sharma has said that monthly cable TV tariffs will come down significantly in the new broadcasting regime as a ‘MRP-based model’ for channel pricing comes into force from February 1, ensuring wider flexibility, lower content cost, and transparency for viewers. Also, the broadcast regulator has promised that there would be “no immediate black-out” in case a customer fails to log into the new regime.

“The free channels should continue to be beamed, though we expect that the majority of pay TV consumers will migrate to the new set-up within the stipulated deadline to enjoy lower tariffs,” Sharma told TOI. Shooting down apprehensions that the new broadcasting tariff rules will not result in benefits to the consumer, the Trai chairman countered by saying that a-la-carte channel prices have already started crashing as the new regime comes closer to reality.

“Earlier people were being unnecessarily loaded and forced to pay for numerous unwanted channels that he or she never even watched. Through bouquets, the broadcasters and cable distributors such as DTH companies and cable operators were pushing too many channels on the people.” The new exercise, which Trai says is aimed at driving in transparency in the broadcasting sector and giving more power to TV consumers, is aimed at weeding out the unwanted channels.

“Currently, while people pay for more than 200-250 channels on an average as part of various bouquets and packages, studies have shown that an ordinary household does not watch more than 50 channels in reality. By introducing a low-priced MRP regime, we want people to make informed choice about the channels that they want to watch — either from the free channels portfolio or from the paid stack.” Trai’s new regulations stipulate a basic price of Rs 130 for which a customer can receive 100 free-to-air channels (including mandatory carriage of 25 Doordarshan channels).

The customer may either opt to go for the entire set of free channels, or may remove some and replace them with certain paid channels of his choice (by paying their monthly charge). Sharma said that even the Rs 130 ceiling can be revised downwards, if someone wishes so.

“That is just the maximum price for a basic bouquet of channels. If someone wants to go lower, we have no issues with that.” The subscription price of channels that broadcasters submitted to Trai in December are substantially lower than those listed by DTH and cable operators on their website.

In some cases, the proposed prices are 4-5 times cheaper than the listed prices. Trai has also fixed an upper ceiling on an individual channel’s pricing, which is considered to be a big relief as earlier there were channels which were priced as high as Rs 60. Sharma said that the regulator has also come out with a new website — www.channel.trai.gov.in — that will help consumers decide the channels or bouquets of their choice.