General News: TRAI asks broadcasters to comply with tariff orders for CPS deals

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MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked broadcasters to comply with tariff orders for cost-per-subscriber (CPS) deals with distribution platform operators such as multi-system operators (MSOs). Noting that the CPS deals are nothing but channel bouquets sold at a particular rate, TRAI has asked broadcasters to strictly comply with the provisions of Clause 3C of Tariff Order, 2004 and Clause 4 of Tariff Order, 2010 when entering into deals including CPS deals with distribution platform operators (DPOs). Clause 3C of Tariff Order, 2014 requires broadcasters to offer their pay channels non-discriminatorily on a la carte basis to MSOs or cable operators. As per the clause, in case a broadcaster is offering channels in a bouquet to an MSO, then it has to abide by the twin conditions that: (a) the sum of the a la carte rates of the pay channels forming part of such a bouquet shall in no case exceed one and a half times the rate of that bouquet, and (b) the a la carte rates of each pay channel forming part of such a bouquet shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of that bouquet. On the other hand, Clause 4 of Tariff Order, 2010 states that in case a broadcaster offers channels as part of a bouquet, then the broadcaster will have to specify the rate for each such bouquet of channels. It further states that the composition of the bouquets offered by the broadcaster should be the same for addressable as well as non-addressable systems. The rate for a bouquet of channels for addressable systems should not be more than 35% of the rate for such bouquet as specified by the broadcaster for non-addressable systems.

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