The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has expressed confidence that the more than 170 million digital TV customers in India would not face any service disruption on account of the introduction of the new tariff regime in broadcasting from Friday.
As of Wednesday about 62% of the over 100 million cable TV consumers and 30% of the over 70 million DTH subscribers had registered their channel choices under the new tariff guidelines, TRAI Secretary S.K. Gupta told The Hindu. He added that the regulator anticipates there would be no disruption of services or blackout for viewers.
Mr. Gupta pointed out that DTH operators work on a prepaid model, hence they are protected under the new framework under which operators need to honour commitments on ongoing long-duration packs.
“For DTH platform it is not a big issue… For cable TV viewers, we have had discussions with MSOs and they have told us that they are working with various partners on ground and they expect that customers will exercise their option very quickly,” Mr. Gupta said. “However, in the meantime, they are making temporary arrangements to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to subscribers,” he added.
TRAI had a meeting with stakeholders including broadcasters, MSOs and DTH operators on Thursday. “All service providers have confirmed their readiness to migrate to new framework w.e.f. 1st of February,” the regulator said in a statement.
The new regulation makes it mandatory for the service provider to offer every channel on an a-la-carte basis. A consumer will need to pay a network capacity fee of ₹130 for 100 channels. In addition, they will need to pay MRP of the paid channels they have opted for.
A Tata Sky spokesperson said, “All subscribers who have exercised their choices so far will get activated as per their selection. Others will be persuaded to migrate by a specific date.”
