Tag: Trai

TRAI tariff order: MSOs welcome its direction

NEW DELHI: At least two multisystem operators (MSOs) have welcomed the broad drift of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2016. The draft, released on Monday, seeks to bring in transparency to an otherwise disorganized sector.

Indiantelevision.com spoke to a bunch of executives from broadcasting, cable TV, and even the TRAI advisor on the proposed regulation. Most said it was too early to comment as they had not got the time to study it.

S N Sharma, who surprised many earlier this year by returning to the national multi-system operator (MSO) DEN Networks as its chief executive, said “It is a good draft; we welcome it. It brings a lot of transparency and ease, especially in the life of the consumer. We, as an MSO, look for a fair share of revenue, and hope to get the same.” He said he still had to study the draft in full, and would give further comments later.

S.N.Sharma CEO,DEN Networks Limited

Regional MSO Ortel Communications President & CEO Bhibhu Prasad Rath, welcoming the draft, said “We believe that this draft regulation, if implemented, will bring in path-breaking changes to the industry structure with a lot of transparency and non-discrimination.”

Rath added: “Currently, there is widespread discrimination in the content deals done by some broadcasters with various DPOs (distribution platform operators). The prices of the same channels or bouquet of channels vary widely from one DPO to another across the country. The new proposed regulation intends to bring in uniformity in the cost structure so that a level-playing field will be created while we all compete in the same market.”

Rath also noted that the other major issue that the regulations attempts to address is the unbundling of channels. “Currently, many broadcasters offer around 80-90% discount / incentives on a bouquet deal as compared to the sum of a la carte prices of the respective channels. This, in my view, is unreasonable and intended to discourage a la carte subscription. The proposed regulation, by capping the bouquet discount at a maximum of 15%, will be a big relief to consumers who want to subscribe to channels on a la carte basis and will encourage DPOs to pass on to the benefit to consumers.”

“Overall, this regulation, in addition to bringing in non-discriminatory and transparent practices in the industry, will go a long way in implementing digitization in its true spirit where “choice” is in the hands of the consumers,” he concluded.

“I think it is a fabulous piece of proposed regulation,” says HITS consultant Castle Media director Vynsley Fernandes. “I think the TRAI has really outdone itself. I can only see the industry opening up and growing from hereon.”

However, National Cable and Telecommunications head and founder of Home Cable Network of Delhi, Vikki Choudhry was the dissenting voice. Said he: “This draft order is still not a cost-based tariff fixation, TRAI was supposed to conduct an exercise according to the Supreme Court and TDSAT orders. This draft tariff is completely anti-consumer. When the present tariff (rates) were coming down by 70 per cent, the regulator has further provisioned an increase of about 45-55 per cent for the Pay TV broadcasters.”

(In May this year, TDSAT had said it thought TRAI “will be well advised to have a fresh look at the various tariff orders in a holistic manner and come out with a comprehensive tariff order in supersession of all the earlier tariff orders.”) Sunil Gupta, advisor to TRAI, responding to this allegation said: “We have protected the interests of the consumer: why should he pay even one extra rupee for a channel he does not want to watch? This draft brings the power of choice to the consumer’s hands. He can choose to have a lower cable TV bill or higher.”

Gupta further added that the new category of premium channels will allow broadcasters to offer specialized channels at higher MRPs – even Rs 100 – if the consumer wants them at this price, thus overall increasing the ARPUs of all those in the value chain.

Gupta also said that the interconnection paper for local cable operators and multi-system operators would come out soon. The entire industry value chain should read this and understand we have protected everyone’s interests – the cable TV operators, MSOs, broadcasters, customers. The ARPUs of the entire industry would go up in the coming months, he said.

Also read:

Tariff Hike Case: SC rejects appeal challenging TDSAT order; asks TRAI to out new tariff

October 12, 2016
TRAI may check broadcasters & distributors’ monopolistic behaviour

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India may intervene in case any monopolistic behaviour of significant market power (SMP) is observed or brought to its notice in future although it has decided not to regulate the market power at present.

It said in its draft tariff orders that it will keep a watch on the developments after implementation of the new framework. It has noted that the monopolistic behaviour is well demonstrated by both, broadcasters as well as distributors of television channels. However, it says that it is prescribing a new framework for television broadcasting sector.

In the consultation paper that has led to this draft, stakeholders had been asked to suggest whether there was a need to identify significant market powers. The stakeholders were also asked to suggest the criteria for classifying an entity as the a significant power.

A majority of broadcasters felt that the issue of identifying SMPs was in the purview of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and there was no need for TRAI to do so. They also said the CCI provides adequate safeguards for preventing anti-competitive behaviour. A few broadcasters however favoured the idea of SMP identification and have given suggestions on identifying SMPs.

A few distributors of television channels submitted that there was no need to identify SMPs while the others believed that such a distinction be made. Some distributors suggested that vertically integrated entities in the distribution sector be subjected to additional regulations.

Also read

I&B ministry to take up cable TV monopoly recommendations

Prasar Bharati’s monopolistic-era mind-set has to change: CEO Jawhar Sircar

October 12, 2016
TRAI may check broadcasters & distributors’ monopolistic behaviour

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India may intervene in case any monopolistic behaviour of significant market power (SMP) is observed or brought to its notice in future although it has decided not to regulate the market power at present.

It said in its draft tariff orders that it will keep a watch on the developments after implementation of the new framework. It has noted that the monopolistic behaviour is well demonstrated by both, broadcasters as well as distributors of television channels. However, it says that it is prescribing a new framework for television broadcasting sector.

In the consultation paper that has led to this draft, stakeholders had been asked to suggest whether there was a need to identify significant market powers. The stakeholders were also asked to suggest the criteria for classifying an entity as the a significant power.

A majority of broadcasters felt that the issue of identifying SMPs was in the purview of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and there was no need for TRAI to do so. They also said the CCI provides adequate safeguards for preventing anti-competitive behaviour. A few broadcasters however favoured the idea of SMP identification and have given suggestions on identifying SMPs.

A few distributors of television channels submitted that there was no need to identify SMPs while the others believed that such a distinction be made. Some distributors suggested that vertically integrated entities in the distribution sector be subjected to additional regulations.

Also read

I&B ministry to take up cable TV monopoly recommendations

Prasar Bharati’s monopolistic-era mind-set has to change: CEO Jawhar Sircar

October 12, 2016
The TRAI broadcasting & cable tariff order simplified

MUMBAI: The industry could not have asked for a better Dusshera gift. On the eve of 11 October 2016, India’s telecom and TV distribution regulator The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced two draft legislations – The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2016 and Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2016 – that definitely look like progressing the stuck-in-quicksand-of-uncertainty broadcast TV and cable TV sector. More than that, they could possibly inject a modicum of organization, professionalism and structure to an otherwise disorganized-free-for-all TV distribution business.

The first of the draft legislation attempts to put in place a pricing framework for the heavily conflicted cable TV distribution sector. The second seeks to upgrade the quality of services that MSOs, cable TV operators provide to the consumers. Both have been much-awaited pieces of legislation.

The third which seeks to iron out the much-maligned and disputed subscription revenue stream that flows between broadcasters, MSOs, cable TV operators and consumers is expected to be announced soon.

Let’s look at the pricing draft whose purpose TRAI says is to ensure:

–       transparency, non-discrimination, non-exclusivity for all stakeholders in value chain
–       affordable TV services for customers
–       adequate choice to consumers
–       balance the commercial interests of broadcasters and distributors of television channels to enable the distributors of television channels to recover their network cost and the broadcasters to recover their content cost.

The TRAI wants the new Tariff Order or the MRP pricing regime to become effective from 1 April 2017.In the new scheme, the authority has in detail defined the role of broadcasters, LCOs and MSOs or HITS operators. This is an attempt to simplify the order for everyone to be able to understand it.

The role of the broadcaster

Under this, broadcasters will have to first declare their channels as a pay channel or a free to air channel, on an a la carte basis, and in one of the following seven genres: devotional, general entertainment, infotainment, kids, movies, news and current affairs and sports. The TRAI has defined a ceiling on the maximum retail price (MRP) for each of the genres: devotional (Rs 3), general entertainment (Rs 12), infotainment (Rs 9), kids (Rs 7), movies (Rs 10), news and current affairs (Rs 5) and sports (Rs 19).

Each pay channel has to have a MRP that can vary depending on the region, but which cannot be changed before the expiry of six months of it being declared. These rates will be platform agnostic – that is, uniform across the platforms (cable TV, DTH, HITS and IPTV) across a relevant geographical market, and will have to be declared on each broadcaster’s website and be transparently available to the TRAI, TV distributors and consumers.

The pay channels of a network or its subsidiary or holding company or subsidiary of the holding company can be packaged into a bouquet. This can be done while taking the precaution that the bouquet’s MRP is not less than 85 per cent of the sum of the MRPs of the a la carte pay channels forming a part of the bouquet. Similar conditions of holding prices for six months and in geographical areas also apply to bouquets.

The TRAI has introduced a category called a premium channel. Broadcasters are free to notify any channel as premium channel in their reference interconnect order (RIO). There shall be no price cap on maximum retail price notified by broadcasters for customers. For HD channels, the regulatory authority has, however, stated the price cannot be more than three times the MRP of the corresponding channel transmitted in SD. For those HD channels that do not have a corresponding SD channel, the benchmark will be the ceiling on the MRP of the genre it is in. These independent HD channels will have a price ceiling of three times the ceiling of the MRP of the genre.

As far as pay per view or VOD goes, the TRAI says it will bring it under its purview at a later date as these services are in their infancy in India and have minimal adoption.

The television distributor’s role

On the television distributor side, the TRAI has made them responsible to provide all channels on a la carte basis and it has also proposed to formalize a minimum subscription fee of Rs 130 per month per set top box from a subscriber for 100 SD channels. Now if an HD channel is included in this, it will be equal to 2 SD channels.

The TRAI has stated that TV distributors cannot change the bouquets formed by broadcasters or its price, but they can form bouquets themselves of pay channels of different broadcasters provided that their price is not less than 85 per cent of the sum of the MRPs of the pay channels forming part of the bouquet. Free to air, HD and SD variants of the same channel and premium channels are not permitted to be included in these bouquets.

The authority says that the composition of the 100 channel basic tier should be left to the subscriber’s volition. It can consist of FTA, pay, premium channels, broadcast bouquets or even television distributor package bouquets. But it has to have the government mandated channels and at least five channels of each of the seven genres. If the subscriber opts for pay TV or premium or HD channels or broadcast or TV distributor bouquets, he will have to pay the retail price for these separately.

Subscribers wanting channels beyond the basic tier can opt for other channels by paying the TV distributor Rs 20 – excluding taxes- for each slab of 25 channels and the broadcaster the MRP of each channel.

The TV distributors also have another responsibility. The electronic programming guide on the network must display the details of all channels and their MRP genre wise for easy navigation. Broadcasters who are relying on TV distributors to collect and remit the pay channel revenues will provide a 20 per cent distribution fee to them, which the latter can share with the LCOs who are actually doing the collection. Additionally, TV channels can also offer a maximum 15 per cent MRP discount to TV distributors to encourage them. Parameters for discounts will be disclosed by broadcasters in the RIOs that will be transparent and uniform for all distributors of television channels.

October 12, 2016
The TRAI broadcasting & cable tariff order simplified

MUMBAI: The industry could not have asked for a better Dusshera gift. On the eve of 11 October 2016, India’s telecom and TV distribution regulator The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced two draft legislations – The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2016 and Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2016 – that definitely look like progressing the stuck-in-quicksand-of-uncertainty broadcast TV and cable TV sector. More than that, they could possibly inject a modicum of organization, professionalism and structure to an otherwise disorganized-free-for-all TV distribution business.

The first of the draft legislation attempts to put in place a pricing framework for the heavily conflicted cable TV distribution sector. The second seeks to upgrade the quality of services that MSOs, cable TV operators provide to the consumers. Both have been much-awaited pieces of legislation.

The third which seeks to iron out the much-maligned and disputed subscription revenue stream that flows between broadcasters, MSOs, cable TV operators and consumers is expected to be announced soon.

Let’s look at the pricing draft whose purpose TRAI says is to ensure:

–       transparency, non-discrimination, non-exclusivity for all stakeholders in value chain
–       affordable TV services for customers
–       adequate choice to consumers
–       balance the commercial interests of broadcasters and distributors of television channels to enable the distributors of television channels to recover their network cost and the broadcasters to recover their content cost.

The TRAI wants the new Tariff Order or the MRP pricing regime to become effective from 1 April 2017.In the new scheme, the authority has in detail defined the role of broadcasters, LCOs and MSOs or HITS operators. This is an attempt to simplify the order for everyone to be able to understand it.

The role of the broadcaster

Under this, broadcasters will have to first declare their channels as a pay channel or a free to air channel, on an a la carte basis, and in one of the following seven genres: devotional, general entertainment, infotainment, kids, movies, news and current affairs and sports. The TRAI has defined a ceiling on the maximum retail price (MRP) for each of the genres: devotional (Rs 3), general entertainment (Rs 12), infotainment (Rs 9), kids (Rs 7), movies (Rs 10), news and current affairs (Rs 5) and sports (Rs 19).

Each pay channel has to have a MRP that can vary depending on the region, but which cannot be changed before the expiry of six months of it being declared. These rates will be platform agnostic – that is, uniform across the platforms (cable TV, DTH, HITS and IPTV) across a relevant geographical market, and will have to be declared on each broadcaster’s website and be transparently available to the TRAI, TV distributors and consumers.

The pay channels of a network or its subsidiary or holding company or subsidiary of the holding company can be packaged into a bouquet. This can be done while taking the precaution that the bouquet’s MRP is not less than 85 per cent of the sum of the MRPs of the a la carte pay channels forming a part of the bouquet. Similar conditions of holding prices for six months and in geographical areas also apply to bouquets.

The TRAI has introduced a category called a premium channel. Broadcasters are free to notify any channel as premium channel in their reference interconnect order (RIO). There shall be no price cap on maximum retail price notified by broadcasters for customers. For HD channels, the regulatory authority has, however, stated the price cannot be more than three times the MRP of the corresponding channel transmitted in SD. For those HD channels that do not have a corresponding SD channel, the benchmark will be the ceiling on the MRP of the genre it is in. These independent HD channels will have a price ceiling of three times the ceiling of the MRP of the genre.

As far as pay per view or VOD goes, the TRAI says it will bring it under its purview at a later date as these services are in their infancy in India and have minimal adoption.

The television distributor’s role

On the television distributor side, the TRAI has made them responsible to provide all channels on a la carte basis and it has also proposed to formalize a minimum subscription fee of Rs 130 per month per set top box from a subscriber for 100 SD channels. Now if an HD channel is included in this, it will be equal to 2 SD channels.

The TRAI has stated that TV distributors cannot change the bouquets formed by broadcasters or its price, but they can form bouquets themselves of pay channels of different broadcasters provided that their price is not less than 85 per cent of the sum of the MRPs of the pay channels forming part of the bouquet. Free to air, HD and SD variants of the same channel and premium channels are not permitted to be included in these bouquets.

The authority says that the composition of the 100 channel basic tier should be left to the subscriber’s volition. It can consist of FTA, pay, premium channels, broadcast bouquets or even television distributor package bouquets. But it has to have the government mandated channels and at least five channels of each of the seven genres. If the subscriber opts for pay TV or premium or HD channels or broadcast or TV distributor bouquets, he will have to pay the retail price for these separately.

Subscribers wanting channels beyond the basic tier can opt for other channels by paying the TV distributor Rs 20 – excluding taxes- for each slab of 25 channels and the broadcaster the MRP of each channel.

The TV distributors also have another responsibility. The electronic programming guide on the network must display the details of all channels and their MRP genre wise for easy navigation. Broadcasters who are relying on TV distributors to collect and remit the pay channel revenues will provide a 20 per cent distribution fee to them, which the latter can share with the LCOs who are actually doing the collection. Additionally, TV channels can also offer a maximum 15 per cent MRP discount to TV distributors to encourage them. Parameters for discounts will be disclosed by broadcasters in the RIOs that will be transparent and uniform for all distributors of television channels.

October 12, 2016
Offer Premium channels as a la carte, don’t bundle: TRAI

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which issued draft DAS tariff earlier today, decided that a broadcaster will be free to declare any of its channels as ‘Premium’ so long as its maximum retail price is notified to the subscriber.

TRAI considered all the issues relevant to the classification and pricing of ‘Premium channels’ recognising the fact that encouragement of quality content through a rational classification and a distinctly different ‘Premium’ pricing policy will benefit all.

TRAI decided that the premium channels shall be offered only on a-la-carte basis to subscribers and shall not form a part of any bouquet or package in the entire value chain.

The distributors of television channels will also display MRP of Premium channels in their EPG and also provide a special flag in EPG for easy identification of Premium channels by subscribers.

It noted that, with a maturing TV audience, a demand was felt for content that may not have a mass following. This is borne by the fact that there have been an increasing number of channels that cater to a niche audience. A number of niche channel issues like redefinition, classification criteria, tariff fixation, gestation and related facets were posed for consultation.

It noted that most stakeholders responded enthusiastically to the idea of redefining ‘Niche channel’ in the new scenario and their regulation in a manner that is different from mass viewing channels like general entertainment, etc. The stakeholders also expressed concerns about possible misuse if genre price cap is totally withdrawn for certain category of the content while submitting their suggestions for classification of such niche channels.

TRAI noted that broadcasters provide popular content for mass viewing to get large viewership of their channels, and hence more revenue from advertisements. This has resulted in minimal investments in the development of content which is viewed by a select class of viewers. Such content is not limited to niche channels only; there is other type of content which has a select viewership such as education, health, and women welfare etc.

The advertisement revenues for Premium channels may also be relatively limited due to the limited viewership. Therefore, TRAI is of the view that the MRP of a premium channel will be under forbearance. It can be argued that forbearance may allow the broadcasters to fix high MRP for premium channels. However, high MRP may deter customers to subscribe to such channels impacting the subscription as well as advertising revenue of a broadcaster. This will compel broadcasters to price their premium channels reasonably.

The categorization of a ‘Premium channel’ will be agnostic of the content, format (SD/HD etc). Once a broadcaster has reported a channel as a ‘Premium channel’, it will continue to do as long as the broadcaster chooses to, subject to a minimum period of six months. Any reported change in the category of a ‘Premium channel’ to other genre would then be subject to the reporting related to the genres and associated ceilings.

October 10, 2016
Offer Premium channels as a la carte, don’t bundle: TRAI

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which issued draft DAS tariff earlier today, decided that a broadcaster will be free to declare any of its channels as ‘Premium’ so long as its maximum retail price is notified to the subscriber.

TRAI considered all the issues relevant to the classification and pricing of ‘Premium channels’ recognising the fact that encouragement of quality content through a rational classification and a distinctly different ‘Premium’ pricing policy will benefit all.

TRAI decided that the premium channels shall be offered only on a-la-carte basis to subscribers and shall not form a part of any bouquet or package in the entire value chain.

The distributors of television channels will also display MRP of Premium channels in their EPG and also provide a special flag in EPG for easy identification of Premium channels by subscribers.

It noted that, with a maturing TV audience, a demand was felt for content that may not have a mass following. This is borne by the fact that there have been an increasing number of channels that cater to a niche audience. A number of niche channel issues like redefinition, classification criteria, tariff fixation, gestation and related facets were posed for consultation.

It noted that most stakeholders responded enthusiastically to the idea of redefining ‘Niche channel’ in the new scenario and their regulation in a manner that is different from mass viewing channels like general entertainment, etc. The stakeholders also expressed concerns about possible misuse if genre price cap is totally withdrawn for certain category of the content while submitting their suggestions for classification of such niche channels.

TRAI noted that broadcasters provide popular content for mass viewing to get large viewership of their channels, and hence more revenue from advertisements. This has resulted in minimal investments in the development of content which is viewed by a select class of viewers. Such content is not limited to niche channels only; there is other type of content which has a select viewership such as education, health, and women welfare etc.

The advertisement revenues for Premium channels may also be relatively limited due to the limited viewership. Therefore, TRAI is of the view that the MRP of a premium channel will be under forbearance. It can be argued that forbearance may allow the broadcasters to fix high MRP for premium channels. However, high MRP may deter customers to subscribe to such channels impacting the subscription as well as advertising revenue of a broadcaster. This will compel broadcasters to price their premium channels reasonably.

The categorization of a ‘Premium channel’ will be agnostic of the content, format (SD/HD etc). Once a broadcaster has reported a channel as a ‘Premium channel’, it will continue to do as long as the broadcaster chooses to, subject to a minimum period of six months. Any reported change in the category of a ‘Premium channel’ to other genre would then be subject to the reporting related to the genres and associated ceilings.

October 10, 2016
TRAI releases draft tariff & consumer DAS regulations

MUMBAI: The draft cable TV tariff and quality of services (consumer protection) orders have been talked about for a long time. But the wait is over now as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released two of them a short while ago on its website. Called the Consultation on the draft Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital addressable systems) Regulations, 2016 and the Consultation on the draft Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2016 both seek to keep the consumer at the centre of cable TV ecosystem.

The Tariff order states that broadcasters will have to qualify a channel as a pay TV or a free channel. They will have to offer pay channels on an a la carte basis and they can also offer them on a bouquet basis provided the maximum retail price of such bouquet of pay channels shall not be less than eighty five percent of the sum of maximum retail prices of the a-la-carte pay channels forming part of the bouquet. Additionally, the
broadcaster will have to ensure that the maximum retail price of such bouquet of pay channels in a relevant geographical area shall be uniform for all distribution platforms in that area; that it should not contain any free to air channel or HD or SD variants of the same channels or any premium channels.

The quality of service regulations have addressed almost every aspect of the cable TV ecosystem going forward fixing the responsibility of the broadcaster, the cable TV platform, the distributor and consumer. It covers everything from subscriber management systems to disconnection and reconnection of services to a la carte pricing to package pricing to the tariffs that can be charged by both cable TV operators, MSOs, and broadcasters to billing to creating consumer awareness about DAS.

The digitalization of cable TV has been in a bit of a limbo specially in Phase III areas as it has been a High Court order to mandate the switch off of analogue signals. With this draft regulations, coming in, the industry should have some idea about the direction the cable TV ecosystem is headed, once implemented.

For further details keep logged in.

October 10, 2016
TRAI releases draft tariff & consumer DAS regulations

MUMBAI: The draft cable TV tariff and quality of services (consumer protection) orders have been talked about for a long time. But the wait is over now as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released two of them a short while ago on its website. Called the Consultation on the draft Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital addressable systems) Regulations, 2016 and the Consultation on the draft Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2016 both seek to keep the consumer at the centre of cable TV ecosystem.

The Tariff order states that broadcasters will have to qualify a channel as a pay TV or a free channel. They will have to offer pay channels on an a la carte basis and they can also offer them on a bouquet basis provided the maximum retail price of such bouquet of pay channels shall not be less than eighty five percent of the sum of maximum retail prices of the a-la-carte pay channels forming part of the bouquet. Additionally, the
broadcaster will have to ensure that the maximum retail price of such bouquet of pay channels in a relevant geographical area shall be uniform for all distribution platforms in that area; that it should not contain any free to air channel or HD or SD variants of the same channels or any premium channels.

The quality of service regulations have addressed almost every aspect of the cable TV ecosystem going forward fixing the responsibility of the broadcaster, the cable TV platform, the distributor and consumer. It covers everything from subscriber management systems to disconnection and reconnection of services to a la carte pricing to package pricing to the tariffs that can be charged by both cable TV operators, MSOs, and broadcasters to billing to creating consumer awareness about DAS.

The digitalization of cable TV has been in a bit of a limbo specially in Phase III areas as it has been a High Court order to mandate the switch off of analogue signals. With this draft regulations, coming in, the industry should have some idea about the direction the cable TV ecosystem is headed, once implemented.

For further details keep logged in.

October 10, 2016
Jul-16: Airtel takes lead in wireline broadband subs additions in CY-16

BENGALURU: There’s action in the broadband space – both wireless and wired. Indian telecom major and DTH player Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) has been on a net add spree in July 2016, overaking MSO and wireline broadband services player Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd (ACT) in wireline subscriber additions in the calendar year 2016 (CY-16) up to now. This is according to telecom subscription data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the period ended 31 July 2016 (July-16).

The data, released on 7 October 2016, reveals that Airtel had added 2.1 lakh net broadband wireline subscribers as compared to 1.9 lakh net subscribers added by ACT since 31 December 2015 (Dec-15, or 1 January 2016). Until Jun-16, ACT lead in net subscriber additions in CY-16.

Among the five top wireline broadband internet players in India, the public sector telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) lead by far with 98.6 lakh total number of wireline broadband subscribers. However, BSNL has seen its broadband subscriber base shrink by 60,000 in CY-16.

The largest private sector wireline broadband internet services player Airtel had 18.8 lakh subscribers as on 31 July 2016, followed by another public sector player, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), with 10.8 lakh subscribers. Not far behind was ACT with 10.5 lakh subscribers, followed by You Broadband (You BB) with 5.6 lakh subscribers. MTNL has also seen a reduction of 40,000 subscribers in CY-16, while You BB has seen its wireline broadband subscriber base increase by 60,000 during the same period. Please refer to Fig 1 below for wireline subscriber data in CY-16.

Among these top five, only BSNL and Airtel could be termed as national players at present. BSNL, Airtel and MTNL also provide wireline telephony voice and data and mobile services while Airtel also has a direct to home (DTH) segment. ACT started off as an MSO with operations concentrated in a few major cities and towns located mainly in South India. It started internet services (ACT Broadband) a little later and has grown its broadband internet subscriber base over time thorough organic growth as well as through acquisitions to the extent that it is quite likely the biggest private wireline broadband player in South India. You BB offers broadband operations in a few cities in Maharashtra, Gujarat, the NCR region, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

In CY-16, the all-India wireline subscriber base has increased by 9.8 lakh, with the top five players contributing 3.6 lakh subscribers or a little more than a third at 36.73 percent. The subscriber share of the top five wireline broadband internet players has declined from 85.28 percent (142.8 lakh) as on Dec-15 to 82.56 percent (144.4 lakh) as on Jul-16. Please refer to Fig 2 for the month-on-month change in wired broadband internet subscribers during CY-16.

Other wireline broadband players in India

MSOs in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their average revenue per user (ARPU) numbers.

Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO, Hathway, Siti Cable, Den Networks and Ortel Communications, respectively whose financial results are available in the public, domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

Overall broadband subscriber numbers for July 2016

Overall, as per the data received by TRAI from the service providers, the number of broadband subscribers (including wireless, mobile, dongles) remained stagnant at159.80 million (15.980 crore) at the end of both Jun-16 and Jul-16.

Wireless broadband subscriber numbers that use mobiles and dongles for internet access have increased month-on-month by 4.92 per cent to 148.93 million (14.893 crore) in July-16 from 141.94 million (14.194 crore) in June-16. Fixed wireless subscribers that access the internet through Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, point-to-point radio and VSAT have declined 1.06 percent in July-16 to to 0.54 million (5.4 lakh) from 0.55 million (5.5 lakh) June-16.

The top five service providers constituted 84.83 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of July-16. These service providers were Bharti Airtel (44.41 million or 4.441 crore), Vodafone (33.6 million or 3.36 crore), Idea Cellular (28.19 million 2.819 crore), BSNL (20.92 million 2.092 crore) and Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (14.74 million 1.474 crore).

Decline in telephone subscribers in July 2016

It must, however, be noted that the number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 1,059.86 million (105.986 crore) at the end of June-16 to 1,058.85 million (105.885 crore) at the end of July-16, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.10 percent.

The urban subscription increased from 609.45 million (60.945 crore) at the end of June-16 to 610.22 million (61.022 crore) at the end of July-16 whereas the rural subscription declined from 450.41 million (45.041 crore) to 448.63 million (44.863 crore) during the same period.

The monthly growth rates of urban and rural subscription were 0.13 percent and -0.40 per cent, respectively during the month of July-16.

The overall tele-density in India declined from 83.20 at the end of June- 16 to 83.04 at the end of Jul-16. The urban tele-density declined from 153.22 at the end of June-16 to 153.18 at the end of July-16, and the rural tele-density also declined from 51.41 during the same period. The share of urban subscribers and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of July-16 was 57.63 per cent and 42.37 per cent, respectively.

TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

October 8, 2016