Stakeholders’ counsel says the TRAI Tariff Order not based on rationale

The Stakeholders’ counsel suggests there is no rationale between the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) order to justify the share of multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) under the digital addressable system.

Counsel Rajan Bakshi, who appears on behalf of United Cable Operators Welfare Association and C S Vaidyanathan on behalf of MSO Indusind Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) told TDSAT that the revenue shares of MSOs and LCOs were without any forethought and seemed to be an ad hoc decision.

The TRAI tariff order says that the out of the subscription charges, in the basic service tier of 100 free to air channels for Rs 100, the ratio of 55:45 would be followed and whereas in the paid channels bouquet the charges would be a maximum of Rs 150 and shall be shared in the 65:35 ratio between MSO and the local cable operator.

The counsel said the TRAI argument was the entire work of downloading channels had gone to MSOs under the digital addressable system, hence the revenue share order from it. The argument was erroneous, he said: the LCOs never downloaded these channels, and seeding set-top boxes (STBs), their maintenance and, service to subscribers, bill collection, were still there with LCOs. The share of the work for local cable operators never actually came down.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/cable-news/item/301-stakeholders%E2%80%99-counsel-says-the-trai-tariff-order-not-based-on-rationale.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/cable-news/item/301-stakeholders%E2%80%99-counsel-says-the-trai-tariff-order-not-based-on-rationale.html