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| TDSAT gives no relief to Dish TV on interconnect rates |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Sep 30, 2011, 19:34 IST |
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The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today refused interim relief to DTH operator Dish TV, which had requested for direction to sports broadcaster ESPN to raise bills in accordance with the reference interconnect offer (RIO) of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
The TDSAT Bench headed by its Chairman, Justice SB Sinha, said in an interim order that keeping in view of the matter at the current stage, it would not give any interim relief to Direct-to-Home player Dish TV.
The TDSAT said however that it would expedite the hearing over Dish TV's main prayer - of making ESPN sign an agreement with it on the basis of tariff recommended in RIO.
TDSAT directed ESPN to file reply over the main petition by October 14, and to Dish TV for rejoinder within a week after that. It listed the next hearing for November 1.
The tribunal also said that regarding the other dispute over renewal of their agreement, Dish TV and ESPN may approach the Supreme Court.
During the proceedings, Dish TV had submitted before the tribunal that as per the recent Supreme Court order, ESPN should enter into an agreement based on the new prices of channel. However, ESPN submitted that the apex court order did not apply to exisiting agreements.
Passing an order on April 18, the apex court had said that broadcasters charge from DTH operators only up to 35% of rates paid by cable operators for their channels.
RIO specifies commercial terms for DTH operators to get signals from broadcasters as per norms laid down by the Trai.
Dish TV and ESPN had entered into an agreement for three channels ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket in March 12, 2009, but it was not based on RIO.
According to Dish TV, ESPN refused to sign a new agreement to provide signals on the basis of RIO, and was attempting to force it to pay on the basis of earlier MoU.
Counsel for the ESPN rejected the allegations of Dish TV and said that the RIO was not applicable as the agreement between the two was before the RIO regime.
ESPN further contended that the Supreme Court, which had on April 18 fixed the price of a channel for a DTH operator at 42% of the cable rates, was not applicable on Dish TV as it has an old agreement.
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