IndianMascot
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The battle between India’s news channels and its big cable operators looks set to intensify over the next few weeks and months. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA), the lobby group for the main national news channels, plans to move the Supreme Court against a tribunal ruling that removed restrictions on fees charged by multi-system operators (MSOs), or large cable networks.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had in two orders earlier this year said the MSOs could not charge a so-called placement fee from broadcasters while they could levy carriage fees that were reasonable. The latter fee is what channels pay the MSO for being carried on the network. The placement fee refers to the channel’s positioning in a preferred band or package.
Trai had abolished the placement fee as it wasn’t applicable in a digitized environment, towards which India is shifting over the next few years. However, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal struck down these orders in a 19 October judgement.
News broadcasters say the carriage fee, put at a cumulative Rs.1,000 crore per year, has hit their balance sheets hard.
“Some news channels are known to have paid Rs.50 crore a year, that is 50% of the total cost of operations annually. Obviously, news channels have not been able to make money,” said a news channel executive.
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