TRAI Chairman R S Sharma has rubbished the IBF’s (Indian Broadcasting Foundation) claims that amendments in the NTO 1.0 and NTO 2 .0 will severely impact broadcasters interests and viability of the pay TV industry.
Sharma has said that TRAI has taken the right steps in the interests of the audience and industry and no one should be compelled to watch channels they don’t want to see. “Our own data points that 90% of the people watch only about 50 channels out of the 800-900 channels in the country’’ said Sharma as he added that as compared to television, OTT platform allows much more freedom to watch content and one of the reasons for the audience shifting away to OTT platforms.
“So it cannot be attributed to provisions of the NTO 2.0 or NTO 1.0 which is not against the interests of the industry or unreasonable. TRAI has taken the right steps in the interests of the audience and industry. No one should be compelled to watch channels they don’t want to see,” said Sharma in a live conversation with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now during the Visionary Talk Series held by the public policy and governance analysis platform.
The TRAI Chairman was responding to a question on IBF’S statement where it has raised concerns that amendments in the NTO 1.0 and NTO 2.0 will severely impact the ability of broadcasters to compete with other unregulated platforms and adversely impact viability of the pay TV industry. It also says that many channels have had to close down resulting in job losses.
Refraining from commenting further as the matter is subjudice in court, the regulatory authority chairman however said, “IBF’s statement is rubbish and only to bring fear in the minds of people.”
“What right do you have? You have approached the court. There is a rule of law and regulation. The Hon’ble court will decide on the issue. Are you fighting the battle of legality or of perception of the public? This is not fair. There is a law which can be challenged on an appropriate fora and that challenge has been done. We should wait for the decision of the Hon’ble court and accordingly go about it. Creating baseless, unmindful fears in the minds of people does not serve any purpose” Sharma said.
However, the cable industry is very much dissatisfied with the decision of TRAI since the rich people who can afford a second tv connection are benefited at the cost of the cable operators’ NCF. The Digital MSO is also burdened with enhancement of the channel carrying capacity of the headend. TRAI has not taken into consideration the feelings of the cable industry before announcing NTO 2.0.
