• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Port Info

• Ships in Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• The Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Nithya Subramanian

New Delhi , March 7

THE relationship between the broadcasters and the cable industry is quite like that between Tom and Jerry.

Just a few months ago, the cable service providers were pampered with high carriage fees paid by certain broadcasters to ensure that their channels are placed at prime bands. Now, pay broadcasters have started asking cable operators to cough up high fees as minimum guarantee.

According to cable industry sources, in parts of West Bengal, Rajasthan and even Andhra Pradesh, the non-payment of minimum guarantees has led to blackouts. "All the large pay channels like Star, Sony and some prominent regional channels are demanding huge minimum guarantees running into crores of rupees and the cable service provider is unable to garner the revenues. The demand is far higher than the connectivity," they said.

Meanwhile, broadcasting industry officials persist with the argument that the cable industry continues to under-report the number of subscribers. "Under-declaration is a major issue as is piracy and broadcasters are losing revenues. So action is being initiated against cable operators," said a top official of a broadcasting company.

This comes at a time when the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) is trying to hammer out disputes between various broadcasters and multi-system operators (MSOs). When the broadcaster regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked Zee-Turner to resume services to Kerala's largest MSO, Asianet, the former approached TDSAT. Similarly, One Alliance, which distributes the Sony-Discovery bouquet of channels, was also directed to resume signals to a UP-based operator. No decision has been taken on these cases, which have now been caught in a legal quagmire.

According to the TRAI regulations, for disconnection of services due to non-payment of dues, broadcasters are required to give a month's notice and advertise in at least two local newspapers. Broadcasters can, however, also switch off services due to piracy of signals with a two-day notice.

Industry analysts said the disputes between the cable industry and the broadcasters are mainly due to the absence of any inter-connection agreement. TRAI recently increased the transition period to 120 days for an inter-connection regulation to come into effect from the 90 days given earlier. Under the new regime, it has been proposed that all content must be made available to all platforms on a non-discriminatory basis and various inter-connection agreements among stakeholders — between an MSO and a broadcaster and between an MSO and a cable operator — would have to be filed with the regulator.

Despite all these disputes with broadcasters, the cable industry has a new source of income in the form of carriage fees. "News channels, niche channels and even some of the religious channels are forking out money to ensure carriage," said a cable industry source.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
ESC to take part in CeBIT 2005

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line