The Hindu Business Line : ESPN told to revise inter-connect offer terms

New Delhi, June 25 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has directed broadcaster ESPN Star Sports to remove the condition that Direct to Home (DTH) operators carry its channels in their entry level, or basic tier bouquet.

It has also directed it to revise its Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO), or the commercial agreement between the broadcaster and the DTH operator, so that the bouquets offered to DTH operators are the same for those offered to cable operators in non-CAS areas. The rates for the channels were also to be offered at 50 per cent of the price offered to cable channels, as per a TRAI mandate. (Prices of channels in CAS areas have been fixed at a maximum of Rs 5; pricing of channels has not been fixed for DTH.) The broadcaster could, in addition to these, offer any other commercial arrangement.

The broadcaster was willing to give its channels at 50 per cent of non-CAS rates, as mandated by TRAI only to those DTH operators who would take all of its channels and had a subscriber base of more than for 2.5 million. It had also insisted that they be carried in the basic package offered to DTH consumers.

ESPN, which owns Star Sports, ESPN and Star Cricket, and Tata Sky are currently involved in a legal wrangle.

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