TRAI releases amendment to draft tariff order and interconnect regulations for DAS

TRAI has issued two draft amendments for the Digital Addressable Systems on 4thJune 2013 inviting comments from stakeholders before these amendments are notified. One of them is titled the "Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection (Digital Addressable Cable Television Systems) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2013" and the second is titled draft "Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Fourth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff (Second Amendment) Order 2013”). They seek to amend the Interconnection Regulations for DAS dated 30 April 2012 as amended on 14 May last year and the Tariff Order applicable for the Addressable Systems dated 21 July 2010 as amended on 30 April last year.

TRAI has come up with these draft amendments to the said Interconnection Regulations and the Tariff Order in view of the Hon’ble TDSAT judgment dated 19 October 2012 and comments received from stakeholders on its consultation paper on the subject issued on 20th December 2012.

  

The key amendments proposed are as given below:-

1. Multi system operators (MSOs) cannot seeks signals of a particular TV channel from a broadcaster under 'must provide' clause while at the same time demanding carriage fee for carrying that channel on its distribution platform.
   
2. No minimum channel carrying capacity has been prescribed for the MSOs. However, the MSOs are mandated to carry the channels of broadcasters on non-discriminatory basis under the 'must carry' provision.
   
3. The service providers of the addressable systems are allowed to price and package their offering of channels, however, they are required to comply with the modified twin conditions, as proposed in the draft amendment to the tariff order. These twin conditions are
   
   a)   the a-la-carte rate of a pay channel forming part of a bouquet shall not exceed two times the a-la carte rate of the channel offered by the broadcaster at wholesale rates for addressable systems
   b)    the a-la-carte rate of a pay channel forming part of a bouquet shall not exceed three times the ascribed value of the pay channel in the bouquet.
   The TRAI says it is doing this to ensure that the a-la-carte rates offered to the subscribers are reasonable vis-Ã -vis the bouquet/package rates.
   
4. As in the case of pay channels, operators can specify a minimum subscription period, not exceeding three months, for Free-to-Air (FTA) channels subscribed on a-la-carte basis by the subscribers.
   
5. Subscribers are free to choose channels on a-la-carte basis or bouquet/package basis or any combination of a-la-carte and bouquet/package.
   
6. Channels, such as HD or 3D, requiring special type of set top boxes are to be offered on a-la-carte basis and if such channels are also offered as a part of a bouquet(s), corresponding to each such bouquet, the operator would be required to offer bouquet(s) excluding the HD and 3D channels, at a reduced price, commensurate to the rates of these HD and 3D channels.   

Full text of these draft amendments is available on TRAI websitewww.trai.gov.in

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2554-trai-%20releases-amendment-to-%20draft-tariff-order-and-interconnect-regulations-for-das.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2554-trai-%20releases-amendment-to-%20draft-tariff-order-and-interconnect-regulations-for-das.html