Vidarbha Cable Operator Association on Tuesday said that the broadcasters including Zee, Sony, and Star and others have increased the prices of paid channels by 110 to 280 per cent under the New Tariff Order 3.0.
Subhash Bante, President of the association said that the broadcasters have increased the MRP of the paid channels. The broadcasters also announced bundles, in which both popular and unpopular channels are in the same bundle (bouquets).
However, the broadcasters effectively killed consumer choice by pricing these bouquets at heavily discounted prices as compared to the a-la-carte prices.
The consumers as well as the cable TV and DTH platforms have effectively no choice but to subscribe to the bouquets. Giving an example, he said that the smallest bouquet of nine channels offered by Sony was for Rs 31.
Now, even the a-la-carte price for just two channels – SonyandSonySab-atRs19 each amounted to more than the bouquet price which included the same two channels.
He also claimed that as multiple-system operators (MSO) have stopped broadcasting the channels, the broadcasters are showing old episodes on the channel. As a result, the broadcasters are losing advertising revenues.
Various cable associations across India have approached the courts against the decision and the issue would be resolved soon, he claimed.
Shaym Barve, Sanjay Lakudkar, Dhiraj Gawli, Prabhat Agrawal, Arvinder Singh Bhambra and others were present in the press coference.
