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Our Bureau

New Delhi, April 18 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said that it was mandatory for broadcasters to publish their Reference Interconnect Offers (RIO) specifying the technical and commercial terms and conditions of their agreements with Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators.

Broadcasters would also have to now offer their pay channels on a-la-carte or individual basis, in addition to their bouquets and offer them at 50 per cent of their rates for non-addressable systems.

TRAI, which has been mediating the standoff over the price at which DTH buy content from broadcasters, said in a statement on Friday that according to provisions in the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection Regulation, 2004, it was mandatory for broadcasters of pay channels to publish their RIO and to offer their channels on an a-la-carte basis.

Broadcasters will have to offer their pay channels, in a-la-carte form or as bouquets, at half the price at which they are offered to analogue cable operators.

(Prices of channels in Conditional Access System (CAS) notified areas are capped at Rs 5 per channel. The TRAI has also introduced an a-la-carte option for non-CAS areas earlier)

The obligations of fixing the price at no more than 50 per cent of the rates of channels in non-addressable environments, was “in consonance” with two earlier TDSAT’s judgments, said TRAI.

The Regulator, on Friday, also put up the a-la-carte rates and bouquet rates of pay channels from leading distributors on its Web site.

More Stories on : Radio/TV | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

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