Trai pulls up Set Max, AXN for overcharging cable operators

Trai has issued a directive to these channels to correct their genre and subsequently their a-la-carte cable rates within the next seven days.

Trai has made a formula for the pricing of all pay channels according to their genre classifications. Channels that fall in genres such as general entertainment (Hindi) and movies can price themselves higher than others.

But, Trai says Set Max, Discovery, AXN, MTV and NDTV 24x7 - that are distributed by MSM Discovery - did not conform to this formula.

Both Set Max and Discovery have priced themselves at Rs 20 each under general enterainment channels while the Trai formula says that Set Max should have an a-la-carte pricing of Rs 17 and Discovery Rs 15 as it comes under the movie and infotainment genres.

AXN has priced itself at Rs 17 in line with the pricing of the movie genre but Trai said it should have priced only Rs 14.5 as it falls under the genre of English general entertainment. Both NDTV 24x7 and MTV have to make minor price adjustments according to the December 1, 2007 pricing announced by Trai.

As a result of the Trai directive, the subscription revenue of these channels may fall by 15-25 per cent on the direct-to-home (DTH) and digital platforms once these channels undertake the price corrections, cable experts said.

This directive gains significance in the light of an earlier Trai advisory that says that broadcasters have to make available all their channels to cable operators on a-la-carte basis so that consumers are not forced to watch bouquets of channels.

When contacted, a senior executive of NDTV said that as it was a Trai directive, neccessary adjustments in pricing would be made through MSM Discovery. Sources in MSM maintained that all directions would be addressed within the stipulated time period.

In its directive, Trai said: "...that by merely showing some cricket content for a few hours in a day and that too for a limited period of only eight to ten weeks in a year, a channel cannot be classified under the genre of