ITV

Tag: COWF

  • Trai to form committee for smooth rollout of NTO 2.0

    Trai to form committee for smooth rollout of NTO 2.0

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to form a committee with representation from leading pay TV industry associations to ensure the smooth implementation of the New Regulatory Framework 2020 and identify impediments with counter-measures for the overall growth of the broadcast sector.

    In a letter dated 22 December, accessed by Indiantelevision.com, Trai had asked the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF), and the DTH association to nominate a maximum of two representatives to be part of the implementation committee.

    Early this November, the regulator had notified stakeholders that implementation of the new tariff order (NTO 2.0) would be delayed until 1 April 2022. This decision was taken after various stakeholders expressed concerns to the regulator with respect to the timeframe for migration of 150 million pay TV consumers and sufficient time for service providers to upgrade their IT systems and incorporate various channels/bouquets before offering the same to consumers.

    In the latest development, Delhi-based Cable Operators Welfare Federation (COWF) has written to Trai to be a part of the implementation committee and include two local cable operator (LCO) representatives from four zones or four representatives from the All India Federation. “LCOs deserve to be treated as frontline workers who touch base with each subscriber at least once a month. During the implementation of the regulatory framework the best way to reach the subscriber is to communicate in person, in their language, using printed handouts to evaluate options and help subscribers make a well-informed decision,” the letter reads.

    The LCOs also argue that market discovery of prices of pay-TV channels and consumption pattern evolution cannot be back-end driven, rather the front-end instructions should drive the backend. “The DPOs manage the back-end that would implement the service requests coming in from the front-end and therefore should not impose any packages and choices on subscribers,” it added.

    COWF has now also written to prime minister Narendra Modi to halt the implementation of new tariff framework, discard NTO 2.0, and consider making “cable-operator friendly amendments” in Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) law. The operators also suggest that linear TV channels no longer be distributed on OTT platforms. They lettered dated 29 November, also says that the NTO 2.0 regulation will increase unemployment and result in the downturn of lakhs of people employed by the cable TV industry.

  • Cable Operators Welfare Federation counters IBF’s comments regarding NCF and NTO 2.0

    Cable Operators Welfare Federation counters IBF’s comments regarding NCF and NTO 2.0

    MUMBAI: The Cable Operators Welfare Federation (COWF) has countered the IBF’s claims regarding NCF. The IBF had said that by keeping NCF at Rs 160, distributors could charge for something that DD Free Dish is giving out free.

    COWF said that DD Free Dish is run on taxpayers’ money and channels pay a hefty sum to get a slot on it which they recover through ad rev.

    In a letter, the COWF has said that since the advent of the TV business, broadcasters have been portraying the LCO community in poor light as “cheaters/goons who never declared proper numbers”.

    The letter states, “This is perhaps a rare industry where a major stakeholder blames its distributors whenever things do not go their way. Once commercial terms are achieved, things go back to normal.” It goes on to say that broadcasters are also guilty of showing inflated declarations such as reach in order to gain advertisement tariff.

    Over the years, cable operators have constantly kept abreast of all the latest technologies. MSOs and LCOs also run a business and need to recover costs, just as broadcasters, the letter goes on to mention.

    “On the NCF, our observation in the past year is that its calculation is cumbersome and many customers still do not understand it and it takes a lot of our time explaining to customers how we have billed them. Hence we had suggested that a higher limit be set up for a fixed NCF for SD channels and HD channels, just as broadcasters were permitted a higher cap of Rs 19 per month, which will give us the freedom to charge as per different market scenarios and as per our ROW needs,” the letter states.

    It even mentions that LCOs have tried to limit the rate increase by passing on benefits to customers. Some smaller MSOs have passed on the benefits to LCOs. Many MSOs have several channels in the FTA pack because they earn from carriage, marketing and placement fees, the letter adds.

    In the end, the COWF requests the broadcaster community to work together. “We are open to discuss all means by which we can reduce NCF on a mutual basis as long as you can find ways to ensure that our revenues are protected,” it says.