News channels face difficulties as TRAI reduce the role of content aggregators

The big news broadcasters who were earlier working with content aggregators, which have given them greater ability to wring, pay TV revenues for their channels from the multi-system operators (MSOs). But this comfort zone seems to have come under threat now, as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has disallowed the aggregators to bundle channels of more than one broadcaster. 

News Broadcasters such as NDTV, TV Today and Times Television Network need to find their independent identity in Cable TV world. They can still go with the content aggregators but their channels cannot be sold on the back of bigger and more popular entertainment networks.  

Alok Agarwal, CEO of Zee Media Corporation Ltd (ZMCL) has raised concerns about the impact of new regulation can have on news broadcasters. “Carriage may see an upward trend for the genre as a whole. But as a network, we are concerned more about the downward pressure on subscription revenues,” he said while speaking with media.    

A senior executive of a leading Hindi news channels, on condition of anonymity said that the FTA news channels will be hard put to go pay without the support of the content aggregators. If we had decided to go pay, we would have aligned with a content aggregator.  

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4391-news-channels-face-difficulties-as-trai-reduce-the-role-of-content-aggregators.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4391-news-channels-face-difficulties-as-trai-reduce-the-role-of-content-aggregators.html