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.