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The switchover to the new tariff regime for television channels prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is going smoothly, it said. Not everyone seems to agree.
The regulator has not received many complaints, said Arvind Kumar, advisor on broadcasting at TRAI.
“There must be some issues on the ground, but TRAI has not received many complaints,” he told ET. “MSOs (multi-system operators) have told us that 100% of their subscribers have been migrated to either the best-fit plans (BFPs) or the selected plans. DTH (direct-to-home) players have achieved about 60%, but Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV are now migrating almost five lakh consumers each, daily.”
Manoj Mathur is still waiting for that to happen. The 64-year-old retiree, who lives in Mumbai’s western suburbs, loves music reality shows and sports. For the past two weeks, he’s not been able to get the channels of his choice, despite calling the local cable operator (LCO) and making his selections on the cable company’s website. He’s been driven to shouting at the unresponsive operator to little effect.
Sameer Shukla, a 48-year-old software professional based in Gurugram, has the channels he wants but his monthly DTH bill has risen 30%. Gwalior-based businessman Ravinder Singh isn’t having a happy time—his mother complains that she hasn’t been able to watch the devotional channels she likes. The cable operator hasn’t been of much help.
TRAI envisioned a transparent regime, where consumers pay only for the channels they want to watch and weren’t forced to subscribe to those they didn’t as part of package deals, lowering bills. The regulator gave viewers until February 1 to submit their choice. When that didn’t work, the deadline was extended to March 31 with distribution platforms told to move consumers to a “best-fit pack” (BFP) that approximated the existing package.
“TRAI, in all fairness, had good intentions,” said a TV broadcaster. But implementation has been a different story, he said. “While there could be debates over the results, the inconvenience it is causing to the general public is humongous.”
Some said there doesn’t seem to be a price advantage under the new system, quite the opposite in fact. TRAI’s new tariff order is good for an individual but it doesn’t account for the fact that four members of a typical Indian family will have different entertainment needs, said the business head of a TV channel.
“My mother wants the cookery channel, I want news and sports, whereas my wife wants all Hindi general entertainment channels. My teenage daughter wants English movies and music channels, and my younger son wants kids’ channels. So, I ended up selecting 51 channels. My bill is up by 70-80%,” he added.
Many consumers feel helpless, finding themselves at the mercy of their service providers’ whims.
ET
The regulator has not received many complaints, said Arvind Kumar, advisor on broadcasting at TRAI.
“There must be some issues on the ground, but TRAI has not received many complaints,” he told ET. “MSOs (multi-system operators) have told us that 100% of their subscribers have been migrated to either the best-fit plans (BFPs) or the selected plans. DTH (direct-to-home) players have achieved about 60%, but Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV are now migrating almost five lakh consumers each, daily.”
Manoj Mathur is still waiting for that to happen. The 64-year-old retiree, who lives in Mumbai’s western suburbs, loves music reality shows and sports. For the past two weeks, he’s not been able to get the channels of his choice, despite calling the local cable operator (LCO) and making his selections on the cable company’s website. He’s been driven to shouting at the unresponsive operator to little effect.
Sameer Shukla, a 48-year-old software professional based in Gurugram, has the channels he wants but his monthly DTH bill has risen 30%. Gwalior-based businessman Ravinder Singh isn’t having a happy time—his mother complains that she hasn’t been able to watch the devotional channels she likes. The cable operator hasn’t been of much help.
TRAI envisioned a transparent regime, where consumers pay only for the channels they want to watch and weren’t forced to subscribe to those they didn’t as part of package deals, lowering bills. The regulator gave viewers until February 1 to submit their choice. When that didn’t work, the deadline was extended to March 31 with distribution platforms told to move consumers to a “best-fit pack” (BFP) that approximated the existing package.
“TRAI, in all fairness, had good intentions,” said a TV broadcaster. But implementation has been a different story, he said. “While there could be debates over the results, the inconvenience it is causing to the general public is humongous.”
Some said there doesn’t seem to be a price advantage under the new system, quite the opposite in fact. TRAI’s new tariff order is good for an individual but it doesn’t account for the fact that four members of a typical Indian family will have different entertainment needs, said the business head of a TV channel.
“My mother wants the cookery channel, I want news and sports, whereas my wife wants all Hindi general entertainment channels. My teenage daughter wants English movies and music channels, and my younger son wants kids’ channels. So, I ended up selecting 51 channels. My bill is up by 70-80%,” he added.
Many consumers feel helpless, finding themselves at the mercy of their service providers’ whims.
ET
