Mumbai: All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has filed a writ petition against The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in Kerala High Court. According to the petition AIDCF claims that Trai has made U turn on the necessity of Rs 12 price cap.
The petition said, “By way of the Impugned Regulations Trai in violation of the Trai Act,1997 has amongst others, increased the rate of television channels for inclusion in the bouquet from Rs 12 to Rs 19 per channel even though the cap of Rs 12 had been fixed only vide amendments undertaken on 1 January 2020 but were not fully given effect to until the price-cap was upheld by the High Court of Bombay vide judgement dated 30 June 2021. In an arbitrary manner, Trai without any justification has taken a complete u-turn on the necessity of Rs 12 price cap for inclusion of channels in the bouquet.”
The petition further quotes Trai’s stand as noted in the judgement dated 30 June 2021 where trai said, "Rs 19- should be considered as a price of niche/premium channels and should not be allowed to be part of any bouquet and it is the consumers' choice that should be taken for subscription of such channels. The Authority has stated that the bouquet should be formed by bundling channels which are affordable and are in similar price brackets, and if high value channels are allowed to be part of the bouquets, the basic objective of the framework that the niche channel should only be given to the consumer on his free will, will be defeated. The Authority noted that as all top 4-S broadcasters haue priced their niche channel at Rs 19/-, the consumers are compelled to subscribe to either the bouquet or the niche channels, resulting in more payout from consumers in either case."
AIDCF further claimed in petition that, “ Without following the due process of consultation under Section 11(4) of the Trai Act, 1997, Trai has made changes to Regulation 7 (4) and Regulation 10 (12) of the Interconnect Regulations which will force consumers to subscribe to bouquets and increase effective cost to consumers.”
AIDCF argued that Trai has itself noted a constant decline in the cable television sector which if not stemmed, will lead to the destruction of an industry that provides employment to millions of people and a source of information, culture and awareness for the mass of the people.
“By allowing an unchecked increase in prices to the consumers the Respondent No.r are unwittingly ensuring that there is further reduction and exodus from the cable television sector. The Impugned Regulations if not stayed will have a direct impact on consumers and will result in an immediate increase in average and ordinary consumer payout form 20 to 30 per cent," said the petition.
On Wednesday, Trai informed the Kerala HC that it had not postponed the implementation of its 2020 regulations and tariff order regarding TV channel pricing because all parties, including the members of AIDCF, believed that it needed to be given another look.
