With the New Tariff Order (NTO) by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) having come into effect from Friday, the cable TV operators have resolved to intensify their battle against the telecom authority.
Associations of cable TV operators on Sunday convened an emergency meeting over the issue to chalk out future strategy of protest. Adv Hitesh Mutha presided over the meeting.
Mutha said the cable operators have urged the government to postpone the implementation of new directives for six months, removing RS Sharma from his post and allowing customers to choose service provider.
He said, TRAI had claimed that the new directives would be beneficial for customers, but in reality it is going to burn a larger hole in the pocket of consumers. Broadcasters and MSO are taking advantage of some of the clauses in the new norms and have increased their tariff by four to six times.
With the NTO coming into force, cable TV subscribers, who have been paying a small lump-sum amount for a bouquet of channels, will have to shed money depending upon what channels they wish to watch like the DTH subscribers. While the price of a paid channel can range anywhere between Rs.0.50 to Rs.19, the broadcasters have priced most of the popular channels at the maximum.
Out of about 876 channels, 336 are paid ones and the rest are free-to-air. However, even out of the 540 free-to-air channels, only a 100 can be aired by the cable operators without charging any money from customers. Above this limit, Rs 20 has to be charged per channel. “As a result, the NTO ensures that cable TV subscribers in the city pay around  Rs 800 - Rs 1,000 per month for 412 channels, as opposed to the  Rs 200 - Rs 250 they are paying at present for the same number of channels,†he said.
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