The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on Tuesday, notified amendments to the new tariff order (NTO 2.0) for the broadcast sector, which will come into effect for consumers from February 1. The regulator has decided to restore the cap on the MRP of TV channels, which can be part of a bouquet, to ₹19, instead of ₹12 earlier. It has now capped channel bundle discount to 45 per cent while continuing with forbearance on MRP of TV channels.

Last week, TRAI Chairman PD Vaghela had indicated that the Authority would soon issue amendments to the tariff order and interconnection regulations, in line with its stated policy of light touch regulation. “We expect the industry to respond with tariffs and prices that do not put undue burden on consumers,” he had stated.

On Tuesday, TRAI said it has notified these amendments to protect consumer interests. “TRAI, in the present amendments, addressed only those critical issues, which were suggested by the Stakeholders’ Committee to avoid inconvenience to consumers while implementing the Tariff Amendment Order 2020,” it said, adding that other issues raised will be subsequently considered.

“A broadcaster can offer a maximum discount of 45 per cent while pricing its bouquet of pay channels over the sum of MRPs of all the of pay channels in that bouquet. Discount offered as an incentive by a broadcaster on the maximum retail price of a pay channel shall be based on combined subscription of that channel both in a-la-carte as well as in bouquets,” it added.

The implementation of NTO 2.0 was earlier put on hold after it was met with stiff opposition from industry players. There were also concerns regarding burden of higher subscription fees on consumers as broadcasters raised prices of their popular channels.

Now, broadcasters will need to submit details of changes in MRP of their pay channels, bouquets and composition of bouquets among others to TRAI by December 16. Similarly, DTH players and MSOs will need to submit amended DRPs by January 1. “All the distributors of television channels shall ensure that services to the subscribers, with effect from February 1 2023, are provided as per the bouquets of channels opted by them,” it added.

“NTO 2.0 is the outcome of the strong collaboration between industry and TRAI. Rather than pursue a litigative approach to address pending demands, our approach of engaging in constructive dialogue has allowed us to make strong progress in creating a more conducive environment for the industry on the pricing front. We remain confident of moving to an environment of regulatory forbearance,” said K Madhavan, President, Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation and Country Manager and President of Disney Star.

Certain provisions related to Network Capacity Fee and long-terms subscriptions have already been implemented. “ Every consumer now can get 228 TV channels instead of 100 channels earlier, in a maximum NCF of Rs. 130. It has enabled consumers to reduce their NCF for availing similar number of channels as per 2017 framework, by an estimated cost varying Rs. 40/- to 50/-. Additionally, the amended NCF for multi-TV homes have enabled further savings to the consumers to the tune of 60% on second (and more) television sets,” TRAI added.

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