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Tag: Trai

  • TRAI releases amended interconnection regulations aimed at fully-compliant audit regime

    TRAI releases amended interconnection regulations aimed at fully-compliant audit regime

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday released the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) (Amendment) Regulations, 2019. The authority said during the consultation undertaken to prepare the Audit Manual certain comments and observations reflect some issues in the Schedule III of the Interconnection Regulations 2017.

    Earlier, a Draft Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) (Amendment) Regulations, 2019 was issued in August. TRAI received comments of the stakeholders and held an Open House Discussion (OHD) which was attended by a large number of stakeholders. The regulations have been revised based on the comments received and analysis of the developments in the market. Regulations the authority has amended Schedule III of the Interconnection

    The authority has amended Schedule III of the Interconnection Regulations 2017, mainly on the following:

    ·  Scheduling and Scope of Audit

    ·  Transactional capacity of Conditional Access System (CAS) and Subscriber Management System (SMS)system

    ·  Support for Overt and Covert fingerprinting in Set-Top-Boxes

    ·  Watermarking network logo for all pay channels

    TRAI said in a release that the scheduling has been so amended that the distributor of Pay TV broadcasting services will keep a minimum gap of six months between the two annual audits and the maximum time gap is eighteen months. Similarly, the minimum transactional capacity required for CAS and SMS systems has been revised to five per cent instead of earlier ten per cent.

    The authority is of the view that amended regulations will help in establishing a fully compliant trust-based audit regime conducted as per extant regulations by the empanelled auditors.

  • BARC week 42: Three Zeel channels in across genres on all platforms list once more

    BARC week 42: Three Zeel channels in across genres on all platforms list once more

    BENGALURU: Three channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Star India, and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, the Sun Tv Network and Viacom18 were present in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 42 of 2019 (Saturday, 12 October 2019 to Friday, 18 October 2019). Over the past few weeks, only one channel from the Zeel stable was present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms. Zeel’s Kannada GEC Zee Kannada and Telugu GEC Zee Telugu joined its flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV at the cost of Star India’s Star Vijay and Viacom18’s Kids channel Nick.

    Six of the channels were Hindi GECs, two were from the Telugu genre and there was one channel each from the Kannada and Tamil genres in the list.

    Of the 10 channels in the list, nine were on the pay platform, while the lone FTA entrant was from the Hindi GEC genre from Enterr 10 Television Network’s Dangal that managed to retain its numero uno rank in week 42 of 2019, as it has over the past few weeks.

    Two channels – Enterr 10 Television’s free to air (Free or FTA) Hindi GEC Dangal and the Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV having been vying for the top slot in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists of Top 10 Channels across genres as mentioned by us earlier. Ultimately, Dangal retook the numero uno mantle in BARC’s Across Genres on all platforms weekly list. In general, Dangal has been the most-watched channel across genres on all platforms also as mentioned by us earlier.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Channels Across Genres on Pay Platform

    BARC’s weekly list of Top Channels Across Genres on Pay Platform had three channels from Zeel, two channels each from SPN, Star India and Viacom18 and one channel from the Sun Tv Network in week 42 of 2019. There were five channels from the Hindi GEC genre, two channels from the Telugu genre and one channel each from the Kannada, Kids and Tamil genres which made up BARC’s weekly list of Top Channels Across Genres on the Pay Platform in week 42 of 2019

    Two channels were replaced in BARC’s weekly list of Top Channels Across Genres on Pay Platform in week 42 of 2019. Zee Kannada and Zee Telugu re-entered the list at the cost of Star Vijay and SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max.

    As was the case in the past few weeks, the most watched pay channels were not Hindi GEC – they were Tamil and Telugu GECs at ranks one and two respectively in the list.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

    Four channels from the B4U Network, three channels from Enterr 10 Television, two channels from Zeel and one channel from SkyStar made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres for week 42 of 2019. Four of the channels were from the Hindi Movies genre, three were from the Bhojpuri genre, two were Hindi GECs and one channel was from the Marathi genre in week 42 of 2019. One Sports channel – Star India’s FTA Star Sports First exited BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 42 of 2019, while Enterr 10 Television’s Hindi Movies channel Enterr 10 re-entered the list in week 42 of 2019.

    Please refer to the figure below:

  • TRAI comes out with recommendations for KYC of DTH set top boxes

    TRAI comes out with recommendations for KYC of DTH set top boxes

    MUMBAI: After issuing a consultation paper and holding open-house discussion on KYC of DTH set top boxes, the Telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has finally come out with a set of recommendations on the issue. The authority has recommended the DTH operators to install DTH connections at the address mentioned in the Customer Application Form(CAF) only and verify the address.

    “DTH operator should install the DTH connection at the address mentioned in the Customer Application Form(CAF) only and the address of such installed set top box must be verified by the representative of the DTH operator and record of such installation shall be maintained by the DTH operator,” TRAI said.

    The recommendation also stated that the DTH operator should ensure identity of the subscriber by sending the one-time password (OTP) to his registered mobile number. In cases where registered mobile number is not provided by the subscriber/corporate body, DTH operator should collect Proof of Identity or any other similar document which can establish the identity of the user either in physical or electronic form before provisioning of DTH connection.

    “There is no need to mandate physical verification at regular intervals as it will incur huge cost burden to the DTH operators and inconvenience to the consumers. However, for existing set top boxes, which are not attached to any mobile number of the subscribers, efforts should be made by the DTH operator to associate such set top boxes issued by them to link with a mobile number within a period of two years,” TRAI added.

    However, DTH companies including Dish TV, Tata Sky, Bharti Telemedia were not in favour of changing KYC process for set-top-boxes as they though current process is well-equipped to meet the requirements of the industry, as per their submission on the CP.

  • DTH operators against imposition of further regulation on platform services

    DTH operators against imposition of further regulation on platform services

    MUMBAI: Major direct-to-home (DTH) operators spoke against the imposition of any registration fee or annual fee for the platform services (PS) offered by them. Tata Sky, Dish TV, Bharti Telemedia the holding company of Airtel Digital TV are of the view that as DTH operators already pay license fee and furnish bank guarantee, there should not be any requirement of any additional payment for PS. The companies have also delivered their views against capping the number of PS channels.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a consultation paper (CP) on issues related to PS aimed at a proper regulatory framework for the services in late August. Before the CP was floated, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), in a letter dated 2 July  2019, sought the recommendations of TRAI on various issues related to PS with reference to DTH guidelines. TRAI also mentioned in the consultation paper that unlike private satellite TV channels which are permitted and regulated under the uplinking and downlinking guidelines of MIB, PS is not subject to any specific regulations or guidelines as of now.

    As TRAI invited comments on the consultation paper from the stakeholders Tata Sky, Dish TV, Bharti Telemedia submitted their comments on the issue:

    “Platform Services (PS) are programs transmitted by distribution platform operators (DPOs) exclusively to their own subscribers and does not include Doordarshan channels and registered TV channels. PS shall not include foreign TV channels that are not registered in India,” TRAI defined PS in its Recommendations on Regulatory Framework for Platform Services dated 19 November 2014.

    Here are the important questions raised in the CP and the comments by the mentioned companies:

    What should be the Registration fee/Annual fee for PS per channel? And how it is to be estimated?

    All three players have commented that there should not be any requirement of any additional payment by DTH operators applicable for a PS channel as the DTH operators are required to pay entry fee, license fee and also furnish bank guarantee. They also mentioned in the submission that other distribution platform operators like MSOs, LCOs, HITS are not paying such fees which already creates a non-level playing field. Dish TV also mentioned that the requirement for payment annual fee can be imposed on cable platforms who are not required to pay any kind of entry or license fee to the government.

    The maximum number of PS channels that can be offered by DTH operators:

    According to the submissions made by the DTH players, there should not be any cap on the number of PS channels offered by the service providers. One of the reasons that has been highlighted is that DTH operators provide pan-India service and need to cater to customers of varied tastes and languages. Moreover, at a time when the broadcasters are having their own over-the-top platforms, limiting the number of PS would harm DTH operators in the competition.  

    “If the authority still feels that a limit is required, then it should be sufficient for us to grow further beyond the number of channels that we already have, and the limit should also be flexible going forward so that we may not be required to approach MIB and TRAI for cap enhancement. Additionally, for maintaining parity, similar caps should also be placed on MSOs/ LCOs,”  Tata Sky commented.

    Is there a need to revisit/review the earlier recommendations of the Authority dated 11th November, 2014, relating to keeping recording of all PS channel programs for a period of 90 days and maintaining a written log/ register of such program for a period of 1 year by the DPO from the date of broadcast and the role of Authorised Officer and the State/ District Monitoring Committee and MIB as monitoring authorities:

    Article 8 of the DTH license condition mandates DTH operators to maintain the recoding of the programs carried on the platform for a period of at least 90 days at its own cost which is also applicable on PS carried by the operators. In addition to that, all the content transmitted by DTH operators are monitored by the Electronic Media Monitor Center which is entrusted with the responsibility to check the compliance of the ‘Programme and Advertisement Code’ under the Cable TV Network (Regulation) Act, 1995. Hence, they are of the view that there is no requirement for prescription of any additional compliance maintaining a written log/ register of such program for a period of one year by the DPO. 

  • Most-watched regional news channels

    Most-watched regional news channels

    BENGALURU: Regional news is has more per capita consumption in respective languages than Hindi or English news . Further, the consumption of all regional news channels is larger than Hindi news.

    Data across three separate periods has been considered in this paper – For the current period, data for a 26-week period, starting week 13 of 2019 until week 39 of 2019, has been used. For the pre-NTO period, data across 23 weeks between week 35 of 2018 and week 5 of 2019 has been considered. For the post-NTO period, due to BARC’s adoption of an earlier method of treatment of landed pages and outliers, data across 17 weeks between week 23 and 39 of 2019 has been considered.To arrive at the per capita viewership or consumption, the author has considered the 17 weeks average (post NTO) and the 23 weeks average (pre NTO) number divided by the respective population of the respective market as per BARC India, Households and Individuals Universe Estimate – 2018 (BARC Population Estimates 2018).

    Why these specific periods?

    BARC started publication of viewership data in the public domain of news channels in the four South Indian languages in week 1 of 2019. Four additional regional news channels besides the four South Indian languages in the public domain were added in week 35 of 2018. Later, BARC had stopped publishing data in the public domain between weeks 6 and 12 of 2019 to enable viewership to stabilise. Hence the only stable data available in the public domain before the implementation of NTO was between weeks 35 of 2018 and week 5 of 2019, or for a 23-week period. After recommencement of publishing data in week 13 of 2019, BARC reverted to an older method of treating landed changes and outliers in week 23 of 2019.The latest data available at the commencement of writing of this article was week 39 of 2019, hence average viewership for this period of 17 weeks has been considered. For overall viewership trends in the current period, data between weeks 13 and 39 or for 26 weeks (roughly half a year) has been considered.

    Markets and Demography

    BARC has specified the following demographics of the news channels for the data that it releases in the public domain:

    Hindi news: Hindi Speaking Markets, both urban and rural or HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals.

    Telugu news: Andhra Pradesh or AP/Telangana (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Kannada news: Karnataka (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Tamil news: Tamil Nadu/Puducherry (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Malayalam news: Kerala (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Oriya news: Odisha (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals.

    Assamese news: Assam / North East / Sikkim(U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals.

    Bangla news: West Bengal or WB  (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    Marathi news: Mah/ Goa (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals.

    English news: All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals.

    BARC considers HSM or Hindi Speaking Market as All India without the four South Indian markets. Hence, the author has subtracted the NCCS 15+ population of the four South Indian markets from the All India NCCS 15+ population to arrive at the HSM 15+ population numbers. In the case of per capita consumption for South India, the author has taken the sum of average weekly impressions of the top 5 channels for each language and then added the four sums to arrive at the total average weekly impressions for South India, this total average has then been divided by the 2+ population figures for each of the four languages/six states as per BARC Population Estimates 2018. In the case of English news, the author has calculated the NCCS 22+ Males population by extrapolating the overall male and female ratio and the ratio of the 22+ individuals with the all India population with the sum of BARC numbers for NCCS A 22+ and NCCS B 22+. To arrive at the per capita consumption of news on the top 5 channels for the country, the 23 week average of the 10 languages has been divided by the 2+ population of India as per the above mentioned BARC Universe estimates. Individual HSM (R) and HSM (U) viewership numbers have not been considered to arrive at the per capita consumption of news on the top 5 channels for the country.

    Per Capita news Consumption post and pre implementation of NTO

    Please refer to the chart below for per capita news consumption of the top 5 channels of each language.

    Current Status

    The charts below covers data between weeks 13 and 39 of 2019, the last week for which BARC data was available at the time of writing of this report. This report covers approximately six months of calendar year 2019. BARC had stopped publication of data in the public domain after week 5 of 2019 to enable ratings to stabilise after the implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order and recommenced publication of the same in week 13 of 2019. Hence, here onward this paper looks at news-watching trends of top 5 news channels across 10 languages.

    The unit of viewership measure in all cases in the charts below is thousand weekly impressions. Please refer to the figure below:

    As is obvious from the chart above, viewership of the top 5 regional news channels of 8 languages is far higher, by an average of about 46.33 percent,than the viewership of Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) during the 26 weeks under review).

    Most-watched regional news channels

    Here below is a chart showing the viewership data for news channels in the eight languages mentioned above in their respective markets. As is obvious, Kannada news has a much bigger viewership even in absolute numbers than other languages.

    Most-watched Assamese news channels

    Five channels were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 Assamese news channels during all the weeks between weeks 13 and 39 of 2019. News Live was the most-watched Assamese news channel by far.

    Most-watched Bangla news channels

    There were five channels that have consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Bangla news channels during all the 26 weeks under review in this paper. As is obvious, ABP Ananda was the most-watched Bengali news channel, followed by Zee 24 Ghanta. Please refer to the figure below:

    Most-watched Kannada news channels

    BARCs weekly lists of Top 5 Kannada news channels between weeks 13 and 39 also had five channels that were consistently present during the entire period. TV9 Kannada was by far the most-watched Kannada news channel followed by Public TV during the period under consideration in this paper. Please refer to the figure below

    Most-watched Malayalam news channels

    Seven channels, each of them at least once, appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Malayalam news channels during the period under consideration. Of these 7, three have consistently appeared in the Malayalam news channels lists during all the 26 weeks under review. These three channels were – Asianet News, which is by far the most-watched  Malayalam news channel, followed by Manorama News and Mathrubhumi News. Please refer to the chart below:

    Most-watched Marathi news channels

    In the case of Marathi news also, five channels consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Marathi news channels. ABP Majha was the most-watched Marathi news Channel. During 15 of the 23 weeks under consideration, TV9 was the second most-watched Marathi news channel. However, since week 32 of 2019, Saam TV has been ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Marathi news channels. Please refer to the chart below.

    Most-watched Oriya news channels

    Seven channels, each of them at least once, appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Oriya news channels during the period under consideration. Of these 7, three have consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly Oriya news channels lists during all the 26 weeks under review. They are OTV, which was the most-watched Oriya news channel, followed News7 and Kanak News at second and third place respectively. Please refer to the figure below:

    Most-watched Tamil news channels

    Six channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Tamil news channels at least once. Three of these channels have consistently appeared during all the 26 weeks under consideration in BARC’s Top Tamil news channels list. Polimer News was the most-watched Tamil news channel by far and was followed by Thanthi TV and Puthiya Thalaimurai at second and third place respectively. Please refer to the figure below:

    Most-watched Telugu news channels

    Six channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Telugu news channels at least once between weeks 13 and 39 of 2019. Three of these channels have consistently appeared during all the 26 weeks under consideration in BARC’s Top Telugu news channels list. TV9 Telugu was the most-watched Telugu news channel during the 26 weeks under consideration in this paper. NTV news was at second place followed by V6 news at third place. Please refer to the chart below:

    Closing Remarks

    Media groups and news networks such as the ABP Group and Associated Broadcasting Company Private Limited (TV9) have channels in more than one language that are among the Top 5 channels in that market or language.  Many of them have news channels in other languages/markets also.

    Television news is an important genre. India has multiple languages and small and big networks, independent channels – television broadcasters to be more precise – cater to viewers’ tastes by beaming in content that they prefer. News is an important genre, and there are news channels galore across languages – some of them have even been crowned as ‘views’ channels. The FICCI M&E 2019 report says that 43 percent of the 885 private TV channels in India were ‘news channels’. The FICCI report says that news, which commands a 7 percent share of viewership garnered a disproportionately high share of advertising volumes. The lion’s share totaling 77 percent of the viewership was taken by escapism – or movies and GECs. Yet, Hindi regional news was amongst the top 10 genres and had 5 percent of the advertisement share in terms of volumes of advertisements or insertions.The report also says that contrary to popular perception, TV viewership is high amongst youth (15-30 years) even in the digital age. Youth contribute 32 percent to total viewership with a 30 percent and 32 percent split between urban and rural India.

    An earlier BARC report says that news events cannot escape the lure of drama. And drama includes elections and election results, deaths of celebrities, high court and supreme court verdicts on celebrities and sensitive issues, major changes such as demonetisation announced by the central government, major public holidays such as Independence and Republic days, important events such as the Uri surgical strikes that pertain to terrorist attacks and counter-attacks, etc. Data for election results week – week 21 of 2019, could not be considered in this paper for analysis of per capita consumption because of the change in BARC’s methodology two weeks after election results week. However, week 21 data has been considered in other parts of the report.

  • BARC week 40: Dangal most watched channel across genres

    BARC week 40: Dangal most watched channel across genres

    BENGALURU: Two channels – Enterr 10 Television’s free to air (Free or FTA) Hindi GEC Dangal and the Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV having been vying for the top slot in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists of Top 10 Channels across genres as mentioned by us earlier.
    During the Indian cricketing bonanza tourney, the IPL, it is Star India Hindi Sports channel Star Sports 1 Hindi that often held onto the numero uno status. Between week 13 and week 40 of 2019, it is Dangal that has held first rank in BARC’s weekly lists for 16 of the 28 weeks. Dangal has held on to first place for four consecutive weeks until week 40. Further, since B4U Movies exited BARC’s weekly list across genres on all platforms in week 38 of 2019, Dangal is the only FTA channel in its fold. The other 9 channels have been pay channels. Dangal retook the numero uno mantle in BARC’s Across Genres on all platforms weekly list.

    It must be noted that BARC had stopped publishing viewership data in the public domain since week 6 of 2019 to allow ratings to stabilise after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) New Tariff Order. BARC recommenced putting up ratings in the public domain only in week 13 of 2019.

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 40 of 2019

    Six Hindi GECs, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the Hindi Movies and Telugu genres comprised BARC’s Weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres for week 40 of 2019 (Saturday, 28 September 2019 to Friday, 4 October 2019, week or period under review). From the networks’ perspective, there were three channels each from Star India and Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun Tv Network, Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 40 of 2019.

    The list of channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 40 of 2019 was the same as in week 39 with some shuffling of ranks. Please refer to the figure below:

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 40 of 2019

    Except for Dangal, BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 40 of 2019 had the same nine channels as the above across genres on all platforms list. The tenth channel in week 40 of 2019 was different from week 39 – Zeel’s Kannada GEC Zee Kannada exited the list to be replaced by Viacom18’s Kids genre channel Nick in week 40 of 2019.

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 40 of 2019 had five Hindi GECs, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the Hindi Movies genre, Kids genre and Telugu genres. From the network’s perspective, there were three channels each from Star India and SPN, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from the Sun Tv Network and Zeel.

    Please refer to the figure below

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 40 of 2019

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 40 of 2019 had the same channels as in week 39 with some shuffling in ranks. 

    Three channels each from Hindi Movies genre and Bhojpuri genre, two channels from the Hindi GEC genre and one channel each from the Marathi and Sports genres made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 40 of 2019. There were three channels each from B4U and Enterr 10 Television, two channels from Zeel and one channel each from SkyStar and Star India networks.

    Please refer to the figure below.


     

  • TRAI organises international training programme on ‘Emerging Trends in Broadcasting’ with ITU

    TRAI organises international training programme on ‘Emerging Trends in Broadcasting’ with ITU

    MUMBAI: The   Intemational  Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are jointly organizing an Intemational Training Program during 9th -11th October 2019 in New Delhi on "Emerging Trends in Broadcasting".

    This training program was  inaugurated today by the Chairman TDSAT, Hon'ble Mr.  Justice Shiva Kirti  Singh, in  a well  attended opening session. Delivering the inaugural  address, he emphasised the importance &  benefits of  converged networks  and  emerging technologies in   broadcasting  sector. Dr.   R.S.   Sharma,  Chairman TRAI  while   delivering his  keynote address, presented an   overview of  the  existing broadcasting sector, new   trends & technologies and the challenges arising out of  convergence. The  inaugural function was  graced by Shri Amit  Khare, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting   (MIB)   besides   Authority   and   senior   officers  of    TRAI. Shri Amit  Khare, Secretary, MIB gave  his  perspective on  the  main theme of the event. Shri Sunil Kumar Gupta, Secretary, TRAI delivered the welcome address. He  spoke about  the  training programme and  on   joint initiative between ITU & TRAI in organizing such events. Shri Sameer Sharma, Regional Director of Asia Pacific Region,  ITU spoke about the  mandate of ITU in conducting these training programmes and he also thanked TRAI for hosting this in  New Delhi,  India.

    This  training  programme  is   being attended   by   delegates  from  17 countries,  mainly from   Asia-Pacific region. Besides,  there  will  be  a large number of  domestic participants at this programme, representing various stakeholders such as government departments, broadcasters, distributors of DTH & cable industry, variou s OTT players, academia etc

    With advent of new  technologies and imminent convergence of devices & service provisioning, the broadcasting sector in India is  in  a high growth phase.  The  broadband penetration is also on  the  rise in  the  country.  With more private players rolling out their OFC  networks, the availability of Triple Play and Quadruple play services is becoming a reality. Stakeholders such as

    Broadcasters,  TSPs, ISPs, Multi  system Operators, DTH  operators etc. are adopting innovative business models to  enhance their service offerings. The emerging convergence and new  services are   presenting new  regulatory and policy  challenges for  regulators of telecom and broadcasting sectors. In  this context, this ITU-TRAI International Training Program 2019 aims to address the policy  and regulatory issues which are  emerging.

    This  training program will  have several sessions spread over  3 days dealing with   technology related topics such  as 'Business Models for  OTT', 'Broadband over  Cable TV network', 'Broadcast off-load technologies', 'AI, ML and Cyber Security' etc.

    The training programme will address several pertinent issues related to present  status,  trends,  new    technologies  in    broadcasting  sector,  ITU assistance in  the APAC region on  digital broadcasting transition. Also,  how broadcasters   and  telcos  could  embrace  OTT   while  carrying out  their traditional broadcasting over  the air  and IPTV delivery on  their networks respectively  while   deploying  or  offering  CDN  services and  their business model.

    The  program will  also cover   the emerging trends and developments happening in  the  area of media consumption devices, how  it is effecting the delivery and pattem of consumption of media and also how  to introduce the latest developments in  the  field  of  rating and measurements of viewership delivered through different means and platforms.

    This training programme will assist in building institutional capacity by sharing experiences and successful case studies for  potential collaboration in all   these emerging areas. The   Program  will  highlight  the   building blocks required to ensure that regulatory measures remains relevant and appropriate for the new  environment. It will bring together international experiences with a focus on  Indian's experience and the  lessons learnt.

    TRAI has collaborated with  ITU in conducting many such international training programmes in  the past on  various telecom subjects.  However, this is the first of its kind of event on  emerging trends in  broadcasting by ITU and TRAI with  the focus on  the subject of OTT.

  • TRAI mandates DPOs to let subscribers view, modify subscription through TRAI app, portal

    TRAI mandates DPOs to let subscribers view, modify subscription through TRAI app, portal

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has mandated DPOs to allow consumers to also use the TRAI app or portal for their subscription-related updates. This includes accessing channels/ bouquets available, ease in the selection of channels and bouquets (addition/ deletion) of their choice, viewing subscription and modifying the same through the TRAI app /portal by sharing APIs with TRAI.

    The authority is in the process of finalising the API specifications which will be communicated separately to the DPOs. DPOs are to share/exchange the information through API with the TRAI whenever the authority asks for the same for ensuring integration with the TRAI's APP or portal.

    In a release, TRAI stated that during the consultative process of TRAI’s Draft Regulation (Second Amendment) to The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) Regulations 2017, stakeholders were generally of the view that they have no objection/hesitation in sharing their APIs with TRAI as their data is secure with the regulator and there will not be issues like leakage/misuse of consumer information and privacy of data.

    The authority has issued the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2019 (6 of 2019). TRAI's prevailing regulations/orders for the television and broadcasting sector gave freedom to consumers to select television channels they want to watch.

    To ensure proper implementation of the new framework, TRAI has made a number of efforts such as a series of meetings with Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs), publicity in electronic and news media, interactions with customer groups etc. Despite this, TRAI was in receipt of several complaints from the consumers that they are not able to choose the TV channels conveniently on the web portal/ apps of the DPOs.

  • DPOs say broadcasters misusing TRAI tariff order with heavy discounts

    DPOs say broadcasters misusing TRAI tariff order with heavy discounts

    MUMBAI: Distribution platform operators (DPOs) believe that broadcasters have misused the flexibility available to them to give a discount on the sum of a-la-carte as high as 90 per cent. The operators have shared their views on Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) consultation paper (CP) on ‘Tariff related issues for Broadcasters and Cable services. The industry has also given mixed views over the implementation of the 15 per cent cap on discount for a-la-carte by broadcasters.

    TRAI had released the consultation paper seeking responses from stakeholders to review the new tariff regime on 16 August 2019. In its consultation paper, the authority informed that it has observed that broadcasters are offering bouquets at a discount of up to 70 per cent of the sum of a-la-carte rates of pay channels constituting those bouquets. “It indicates that in absence of any restriction on the discount on the offering of bouquets, broadcasters are making prices of a-la-carte channels illusory thereby impacting the a-la-carte choice of channels by consumers and giving huge discounts on bouquets to push even those channels which are not the choice of subscribers,” said TRAI.

    Tata Sky in its responses to TRAI expressed disappointment of not revisiting the entire new regime. It said, “We are glad that TRAI has finally acknowledged these misgivings, however, to our  disappointment, TRAI, instead  of conducting a  holistic exercise of revisiting the new regime in entirety has chosen to selectively focus only on  few issues thereby limiting the scope of the exercise.”

    “Having acknowledged the serious misgivings in the regulations, the current consultation is a piece-meal and isolated effort and not the appropriate way forward,” opined Tata Sky.

    It also suggested that TRAI should allow the price forbearance models at the wholesale and the retail level. Further, the channel pricing framework and methodologies should be left to the parties involved, allowing the market forces and negotiation between the parties to decide the same.

    Tata Sky also informed the authority that it is against implementation of any kind of cap overpricing. It suggested, “The DPO bouquet is much more subscriber-friendly as it caters to the needs of the subscriber for availing channels from multiple broadcasters within a pack rather than having to subscribe to multiple bouquets/ or channels.”

    However Bharati Telemedia, in its responses, said, “We are of the view that at this stage, no changes should be made to any of the provisions of the tariff order including the provision w.r.t discount on sum of a-la-carte channels forming part of bouquets offered either by the broadcaster or the DPOs. Any changes at this stage will be equivalent to migration and this may not be the ideal time to cause any interference as it will also lead to unnecessary disturbances and customer dissatisfaction.”

    DEN Networks said that some broadcasters are indulging in heavy discounting of bouquets by taking advantage of non-implementation of 15 per cent cap on discount which has created a non-level field vis-à-vis other broadcasters.

    DEN Networks also expressed that popular channels are being unnecessarily clubbed with non-popular channels to push their uptake. It said, “The broadcasters who have large number of channels in their repertoire, are engaging in a practice of forming large number of heavily discounted bouquets (with minor changes) to push popular channels with non-driver channels. It can be seen that the channels which were FTA before the implementation of the new regulatory framework have been converted into pay channels with the price range of Rs 0.10-0.50/- just to push them with in a bouquet with popular channels of the broadcaster.”

    The operator believes that the non-implementation of 15 per cent cap on discount clubbed with the ceiling of Rs 19/- on the price of MRP of a-la-carte channels forming part of such bouquets is responsible for pushing unwanted channels along with popular channels.

    All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) in its responses to TRAI said, “The non-implementation of the said proviso has given leverage to the broadcasters to offer their bouquets at discount which is as high as 70 per cent of the sum of a-la-carte channels forming part of such bouquets. This flexibility of giving discounts without a cap, created a non-level playing field for the distributors because the bouquets were priced on a discriminatory basis.”

    Sharing similar views, AIDCF and GTPL Hathway said, “The flexibility available to broadcasters to give discount on sum of a-la-carte channels forming part of bouquets has been grossly misused by the broadcasters. The same has also been acknowledged by the authority. It is pertinent to mention that the broadcasters have not only offered huge discounts as high as 90 per cent on their bouquets but have also created confusion in the minds of consumers, by offering  numerous bouquet(s) comprising of few popular  and bulk of non-popular channel(s) with a clear intent to push their non-popular channels.”

  • Broadcasters want mandatory DD channels to be part of NCF base pack

    Broadcasters want mandatory DD channels to be part of NCF base pack

    MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati and other private broadcasters want the 25 DD mandatory channels to be part of 100 FTA channels permitted in the Network Capacity Fee of Rs 130. The public broadcaster is of the view that the channels notified by the central government should be made available to subscribers without any additional monetary burden on the subscribers.

    The public broadcaster has shared its comments only related to the question of whether 25 DD mandatory channels be over and above the One hundred channels permitted in the NCF of Rs 130 in Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s consultation paper on tariff-related issue for broadcasting and cable services.

    Private broadcasters like Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Television, Discovery Communications, Times Network and IBF have shared similar views on the question raised by TRAI.

    TRAI had received several consumer complaints wherein consumers have shown concerns about the mandatory DD channels within one hundred channels. Consumers are of view that since NCF is prescribed to cater for 100 SD channels capacity, subscribers must be allowed the freedom to select 100 SD channels. Mandatory 25 channels of DD are an additional burden on the consumers. They are of the opinion that either customers should be given freedom not to choose any/all DD mandatory channels or these channels should be over and above the 100 channels selected by the subscriber.

    Therefore, the authority had asked the industry in its consultation, Whether 25 DD mandatory channels be over and above the One hundred channels permitted in the NCF of Rs. 130/-? To which Prasar Bharati commented that 25 channels notified by the central government should be available to all even if the subscribers is not able to renew its subscription still they should be able to avail public broadcasting services.

    It further said, “Since the STBs are not yet technically interoperable Prasar Bharati is of the view that in case a subscriber does not renew its subscription, the notified channel should continue to be available to such subscribers in order to benefit the subscribers to avail public broadcasting services. This will ensure dissemination of any information of national importance to the subscribers, whether his connection is active or not at that time. However, for such subscribers, any repair or maintenance charges towards customer premises equipment shall be payable by the subscriber as per rates prescribed by the operator. This will also help containing e-waste.”

    “These channels are primarily public service broadcasting channels intended to inform, educate and entertain the masses of India. In fact, the intent of the government, and rightly so, is to provide these channels of the public service broadcaster and channels of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to the citizens of India, free of cost, through any possible means of licensed/authorised delivery mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary that, in provisioning of these channels by various DPOs to their subscribers, no condition should be prescribed by them which affects reachability of such channels to the masses,” it opined. 

    IBF said, “It should be a part of the 100 channels. In view of the aforesaid regulatory regime already existing, it is in the best of interest of the subscribers, the authority allows the system to grow at the current existing practices and then review after a period of two years.

    Discovery Communications said, “In our opinion, the system currently introduced and in place should be continued and tested for a longer period of time. There should not be any changes made in the NCF pack even before the new regime is fully implemented. In our view, TRAI should allow the current NCF pack to continue with 25 DD channels for at least 2 years before it starts reviewing the regime again. Therefore, in our opinion, the 25 mandatory DD channels should continue to be included in the 100 FTA channels permitted in the NCF of Rs 130.”

    Times network said, “The Doordarshan channels are important channels and they should be included in the basic tier. A consumer would not mind watching these channels/ having access to these channels or paying small amount of NCF charges for the same keeping the national interest in mind.”

    Zee TV also said that the 25 DD mandatory channels should be provided to each and every subscriber by the DPO within the initial 100 channels only.