Nagpur/New Delhi: Television broadcasters and cable operators are staring at steep losses following their standoff over price hikes as part of New Tariff Order 3.0. Both sides are at a disadvantage here, and business may be hit if the issue remains unresolved, especially with the Indian Premier League (IPL) beginning next month.
While broadcasters lose access to almost 45 million pay-TV homes, and advertising and subscription revenue in turn, cable platforms could see a switch to either free-to-air (FTA), direct-to-home (DTH) or over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms as popular channels remain out of reach for their customers.
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Wednesday 07 Jan. 2025
Last weekend, three top broadcasters– Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony Pictures Networks India– switched off signals to major multi-system-operators (MSO). This came after broadcasters raised their bouquet and popular channels’ prices by 10-15%, under NTO 3.0, something that cable operators feel will pinch their low-income consumers, and they have been unwilling to implement the same. The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF), a lobby of MSOs, had already petitioned the Kerala High Court against NTO 3.0 and asked for interim relief from disconnection notices issued by broadcasters.
Three petitioners, Siti Networks, UCN Cable and KCCL have agreed to implement the amended price.
Broadcasters argue that network capacity fee (NCF), introduced by Trai in 2017 to ensure a steady flow of revenue to distribution platform owners (DPOs), is the reason for the price increase, one that AIDCF should reduce.
Unlike DTH companies, MSOs provide signals to consumers’ houses through local cable operators (LCOs) and thus have to share a part of NCF with them.
Broadcasters increased prices of channels by 280%: Cable operators
Meanwhile, Vidarbha Cable Operator Association said that the broadcasters including Zee, Sony, and Star and others have increased the prices of paid channels by 110 to 280 per cent under the New Tariff Order 3.0. Subhash Bante, President of the association said that the broadcasters have increased the MRP of the paid channels. The broadcasters also announced bundles, in which both popular and unpopular channels are in the same bundle (bouquets). However, the broadcasters effectively killed consumer choice by pricing these bouquets at heavily discounted prices as compared to the a-la-carte prices.
The consumers as well as the cable TV and DTH platforms have effectively no choice but to subscribe to the bouquets. Giving an example, he said that the smallest bouquet of nine channels offered by Sony was for Rs 31. Now, even the a-la-carte price for just two channels – Sony and Sony Sab-at Rs 19 each amounted to more than the bouquet price which included the same two channels. He also claimed that as multiple-system operators (MSO) have stopped broadcasting the channels, the broadcasters are showing old episodes on the channel. As a result, the broadcasters are losing advertising revenues. Various cable associations across India have approached the courts against the decision and the issue would be resolved soon, he claimed.
