Television viewers in a tizzy over new broadcasting tariff regime

It has been a couple of weeks days since the implementation of the new tariff framework for broadcasting, but the confusion among TV users is far from over with regulator Trai stepping in every now and then to smoothen the rollout.

The new framework came into effect from February 1 this year and gave cable TV and DTH users an option to pay only for what they choose.

There have been numerous instances where consumers have complained of tariffs going up after opting for TV channels under the new framework, not being able to exercise their option, blackout of pay channels by certain service providers and only bouquets available on a few platforms.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) secretary S K Gupta told DNA Money, "This regulation empowers consumers to choose what they want and pay accordingly. The market dynamics will correctly discover the price of channels considering advertisement revenues and TRP (television rating point) ratings. The quality of content will improve."

Responding to various concerns raised by users on the price increase, he said, "If consumers select channels they want, generally, it will result in a reduction of prices. In the next two-three months, market forces are expected to reduce the prices of TV channels and ensure quality content on TV."

According to estimates, the prices of bouquets being offered by some service providers have come down in the last four weeks. And some eight channels, which were earlier pay channels, are now free to air in the new regime.

There have been weekly meetings at Trai and big issues are being looked into daily. Even complaints on Twitter are being monitored daily and some selected queries, which are found genuine by the team, are being responded to. The meeting of all stakeholders was called by Trai on Tuesday to take a status check. Till date, out of 100 million cable TV homes and 67 million DTH homes, about 65% of the subscribers of the cable services and 35% subscribers of the DTH services have exercised the options.

On the brighter side, experts believe this development could lead to distributors starting to give discounts in the coming months to combat competition from OTT (over-the-top) players and sustain in the market. This can benefit the TV channel subscribers whose bill amount could get reduced. Consolidation could be witnessed in the MSO (multiple system operators) and LCO (local cable operators) space in the coming months," CARE Ratings said in a report.

Of late, OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, ZEE5, among others, have taken the market by storm and users have latched on to them to watch content offerings across segments including regional. OTTs are one of the major growth drivers for data consumption, but it has given tough competition to the TV industry.

On Tuesday, Trai said the users who have not opted for their choice yet can do so by March 31 and has asked the operators to move such users to a 'best fit plan' which should not increase the current monthly spend for users.

Also, the top broadcasters with quality content could see themselves benefiting from the tariff order as they possess loyal audience which brings along pricing power. "The unpopular channels will have to increasingly focus on creating attractive content so as to propel viewers to choose their channel, as now content is going to be the king and is essentially what will drive channel selection by TV viewers," the CARE report said.

Some unpopular channels with low ratings, which were earlier offered in a bundle with other popular channels, will now be at a disadvantage and if they are unable to generate enough subscription and advertising revenue, they could go off the air.

It could well take another few months before stability is restored in the broadcasting industry on the new framework.

ONE MORE EPISODE

• In a country with 1.3 billion population, about 66% of the total 298 million households have a TV connection
   
• This brings an opportunity size of another 100 million more homes. In 2018, TV households grew around 7.5% on-year