Broadcasters may move court against Trai ruling on pay channels
TV broadcasters are planning to mount a legal challenge to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) directive on making pay channels that are available on DD Free Dish free to other distributors, sources privy to the development said.
The broadcasters are likely to move court against the Trai notification through industry bodies like Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation and News Broadcasters and Digital Association, they added.
Trai had on Monday directed that a TV channel permitted by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB), which is available for free on DD Free Dish platform, cannot be declared a pay channel for addressable distribution platforms.
A senior TV broadcast executive said the broadcasters have a strong case against Trai since the regulator doesn't have jurisdiction over DD Free Dish, which is a free direct-to-home (DTH) platform owned by Prasar Bharati.
«Broadcasters don't charge subscription fees from DD Free Dish since it doesn't charge any subscription fee from customers, whereas pay DTH and cable platforms charge customers for all the pay channels that they offer,» the executive said, adding that the pay distribution platforms charge network capacity fees from customers whereas DD Free Dish doesn't.
However, a cable TV executive said Trai's direction is to broadcasters and not to DD Free Dish; therefore, the regulator is well within its right to issue this directive. «A channel should be paid or FTA (free-to-air) uniformly across all platforms, including DD Free
