Digitisation: Broadcasters to discuss channel pricing with Trai

Broadcasters have recently been complaining about channel pricing

The Telecom regulatory Authority of India is looking to hold discussions with broadcasters regarding concerns about the present mechanism of pricing TV channels. Broadcasters have been complaining about channel pricing in recent times as they felt that the same pricing for channels in a genre was affecting their fortunes.  

 

“We had a discussion last week and we are ready to having a dialogue. I cannot assure any time frame for that, but at least we can have a dialogue” TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar said.

 

Khullar also said that the first phase of digitization in Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai will be completed by October this year. “There are also some issues we as regulator will have to address issues like monopolies in cable sectors in some states”, Khullar said, while addressing the 2 nd  CII big picture summit.

 

Meanwhile, JS Mathur, Additional Secretary in the Information & broadcasting ministry also pointed out that the industry and the government should have more interaction to address some of the key concerns plaguing the media & entertainment industry. 

 

On Friday, in an interview to Business Standard, Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India said that the inability to monetise one’s content is a serious issue. “Look at the principle of pricing. For instance, in a certain genre, you can only price according to the neighborhood (same-genre) channel. Then what’s my incentive to invest in big events. If I have a film channel that buys blockbusters and there is another film channel that shows only reruns but gets the same subscription, what is my incentive to go buy Chennai Express for Rs 55 crore? How do I monetise it?”, Shankar said.

 

The TRAI chairman also also said that the non-availability of spectrum in the broadcast sector will affect broadcaster’ future plans.  “ The constraint of spectrum is going to make a huge problem in terms of bandwidth availability and delivery of broadband. From time to time here, we hear ambitious plans of getting everybody linked and connected in three years and two years. In think we need to  take that more with a pinch of salt. You are not going to get 40 Mbps of 20 mbps or 10 mbps in next two years or so’, Khullar said.