The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), the umbrella organization of India’s top broadcasters, including Disney Star, Sony Pictures Networks India, Zee Entertainment, and Viacom18, has advocated for the elimination of all monetary restrictions, including price caps, ceilings, discount caps, and limitations on the creation of bouquets for both broadcasters and distribution platforms.
The IBDF, in its submission to the Trai, also stated that service providers should be permitted to set the prices for their TV channels and distribution services and to negotiate the terms and conditions of their interconnection based on market forces.
Under the Trai’s new tariff order (NTO) regime introduced in 2017, broadcasters have to offer channels at the same price to all distribution platforms. Prior to the enforcement of the new regime, broadcasters and distributors used to sign content deals based on negotiations.
The All India Digital Cable Federation, which is the apex body of cable TV distribution companies like Hathway Digital and DEN Networks, has urged the Trai to go back to the pre-NTO regime when broadcasters were declaring wholesale rates of TV channels while distribution platforms determined the retail pricing. The federation wants Trai to reinstate the autonomy that distribution platforms enjoyed to set retail prices and design bouquet compositions. Under the present regulation, distributors are not allowed to change either the retail pricing or the bouquet composition, which are set by the broadcasters.
