Cost Defective

Subscribers and cable operators are miffed by the new cable TV tariff rules.

- Vijaya Pushkarna

Static. That is the effect the new regulatory framework for broadcasting and cable services has had on Shahina Khan’s business. Khan, 52, is the director of Kaushambi Cables, a last-mile provider for DEN and Hathway cable networks. She got into the cable service sector in 1996, and got her business organised in 2000. She operates from one of the fastest growing areas in the National Capital Region. Today, as her linemen go around giving out and collecting the package selection forms, her business has halved, and the future of her company is uncertain, she said. Neither subscribers nor people in the cable business, she said, are happy with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s new tariff rules.

The idea behind TRAI’s new regulatory framework was to give subscribers the option to pick and pay for channels they prefer to watch rather than pay for packs decided by cable operators and direct-to-home (DTH) companies. Till the revised deadline of March 31, consumers have the freedom to choose 100 standard definition channels within the network capacity fee of 130 (exclusive of the 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax). If the channels exceed 100, they will have to pay 20 extra for every additional 25 channels. Consumers can choose from à la carte free-to-air or pay channels or bouquets (several channels bunched together by the broadcaster), but the maximum retail price of pay channels will be added to the bill. TRAI, while reining in cable operators and channel distributors, wanted to bring down the cost per month for households. So, customers, especially families from middle income group and pensioners, rejoiced, thinking the monthly bill would come down. However, even those who selected less than 50 channels found that their bills had more than doubled.