TRAI is Now Open to Making Changes to Cable TV Tariff Order, And Bring Subscription Costs in Control

India’s broadcasting regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is initiating a process to ‘fine-tune’ the new cable TV tariff regime which came into effect earlier this year, to take care of any ‘aberrations’. This is as per TRAI chairman RS Sharma’s statement to the Economic Times. This step comes into consideration after consumers have shown their dissatisfaction with the new cable TV pricing regime that was issued last December, and implemented earlier this year.

The regime made it mandatory for subscribers to only pay for the channels they want to see, leading to all channels getting priced individually and increasing the monthly TV bills of the customers. The Network Capacity Fee (NCF) was a new component added to the subscription bills depending on the number of channels they selected, increasing the cost of TV subscription for users. After the implementation of the new tariff guidelines, more and more DTH and Cable TV customers are looking to phase out their connections, making things tougher for TRAI and operators alike. As a wake call, TRAI has admitted the tariffs to be increased under the new mandate, and also said that it’s looking to make some changes to the new regime.

TRAI chairman R S Sharma also said, “When an unusual factor is built aside in negate, you incessantly admire that in some areas, things are no longer understanding the ability you had imagined, or in some areas some finetuning is required.”

The figures provided by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, it was also informed that the cases of price increase have been reported wherein a household has more than one TV connection. In such case, Sharma clarified that subscribers will have the freedom to select separate channels on their second set-top box, and added that the industry had agreed to offer discounts on the second set-top box.