Bombay HC’s verdict on 24 August All parties to wait, MSOs dissatisfied

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The Bombay high court’s verdict on the NTO 2.0 case between broadcasters and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is expected on 24 August. Until then, all parties have agreed to wait before taking any further decision.

During a hearing last week, the court asked both parties to follow “gentlemen’s word” and TRAI also assured to not take any action against broadcasters who haven’t yet implemented NTO 2.0. During Friday’s hearing, the case was listed before the original bench comprising justice AA Sayed and justice Anuja Prabhudesai.

While the legal battle is ongoing since long, TRAI citing a regulatory vacuum released a fresh directive on 24 July irking the broadcasters who have already been battling with the impact of the pandemic. It asked broadcasters to publish details including maximum retail price per month of channels and maximum retail price per month of bouquets of channels, the composition of bouquets and also amended reference interconnected offer (RIO) and other details on their websites by 10 August.

With constant changes in regulations, the pay-TV sector in India continues to face uncertainty. Major broadcasters have come together to fight the implementation of the amended new tariff order (NTO 2.0) as directed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). However, distribution platform operators (DPOs) have already complied with the network capacity fee (NCF), multi-TV charges, etc., under the new directive and express dissatisfaction over the partial implementation.

While broadcasters are reeling under Covid2019 impact, TRAI came out with a directive to implement NTO 2.0 by 10 August. As the petition against it was already sub judice, the broadcasters went to the Bombay high court challenging the directive. The court asked both parties to go by “gentlemen’s word” and TRAI assured it would not take any action till the next hearing.

TRAI made all DPOs to implement the order on 1 March. But DPOs could not implement new pricing without broadcasters publishing it. Hence, many DPOs reached out to TRAI saying that either broadcasters should comply with all the rules or the authority should roll back pressure on DPOs. One of the large broadcasters already published new pricing with 10-15 per cent hike but was continuing with the old reference interconnect offer (RIO).

NTO 2.0 is not very favourable for DPOs, too, as making a discount on second box compulsory is harsh on the operators.  But what if the order comes in favour of the implementation of NTO 2.0? Here, the DPOs echo broadcasters’ view that executing it amid a pandemic would be very difficult. While approximately 15 million pay-TV subscribers cut the cord during NTO 1.0 implementation, the MSOs posed the most important question – will more subscribers drop off now?

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