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The hospitality industry may save some extra bucks following a recent directive from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Hotels will now have the freedom to choose from different distribution platforms such as direct to home (DTH) broadcasting and cable TV . Earlier, they were dependent only on broadcasters for television channels they could offer their guests.
As per the regulation, commercial subscribers, which include all hotel categories, will have to obtain television services from distribution platforms like DTH (Dish TV, Tata Sky etc), multiple system operator or MSO (DEN Network, Hathway etc) and local cable operator or LCO. Earlier, bouquets of channels were contractually obtained from broadcasters like STAR, Sony, Zee etc and transmitted through a hotel's private distribution system.
Now with the amendment's implementation being fine-tuned for compliance, a potential market is up for grabs.
"There are over 1 lakh hotel rooms in India and so far, only 1% of the total pool has DTH connections. The rest of the market is untapped and hence the potential. With the new government in place we are positive that tourism will increase multifold, giving revenues to allied industries as well," said Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV.
Hotels now allowed to tap DTH, MSO & cable operators directly | Business Standard News