(23 January 2008 3:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: Broadcast regulator Trai has recommended a license fee for mobile TV players and broadcasters are planning to challenge this legally.

The license fee formula that Trai has placed before the government antails a rate of 4 per cent of gross revenue for each year or 10 per cent of the reserve One-Time Entry Fee (OTEF) limit for the concerned licence area, whichever is higher.

This key issue has been left intact in the original draft recommendations, and broadcasters are going to challenge this legally, but they will first start with a letter to the information & broadcasting ministry, protesting that their representation has been overlooked.

Trai has stuck to its original recommendation that the composite foreign investment limit including FDI of 74 per cent for mobile television service has been recommended by the authority, which has also upset the broadcasters as the FDI cap on the cable industry is much lower.

The recommendations add that the general disqualifications which have been adopted for private FM radio may be used for mobile television service as well.

The tenure of mobile television licences has been kept by Trai as 10 years, with the proviso of the licence being automatically extended for a further period of 10 years at the option of the licensee with payment of additional fee.

However, the licensee should not either directly or indirectly assign or transfer its rights under the licence in any manner to any other party except with prior approval of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Trai has recommended.

It says also that a mobile television licensee should not allow any broadcasting company or group of broadcasting companies to collectively hold or own more than 20 per cent of the total paid-up equity in its company at any time during the license period.

The choice of broadcasting technology should be left to the service provider with the condition that the technology to be deployed for providing mobile television follow a standard approved by a recognised standardisation body.

In case the handset is provided by the licensee, it should be ensured that if the subscribers desire to migrate to any other licensee using the same technology and standards, they should be able to do so without changing the handsets.

Licences for the terrestrial transmission route only should be offered for the time being, recommends Trai.

Trai has recommended that apart from Doordarshan, private mobile TV operators may be assigned at least 1 slot of 8 MHz each for mobile TV operation in UHF Band V from 585 MHz to 806 MHz. Such spectrum would enable each mobile TV operator to offer about 15 video channels through the terrestrial broadcast route.

For better utilisation of spectrum, Trai has said that the sharing of terrestrial transmission infrastructure of Doordarshan should be permitted on mutual agreement basis in a non-discriminatory manner.

Similarly, the mobile TV operators will also be obliged to offer their infrastructure for sharing.

The licences for mobile television services should be granted through a Closed Tender System on the basis of OTEFs quoted by the bidders, and the reserve OTEF for a particular licence area should be 50 per cent of the highest financial bid submitted for that particular licence area.

Trai feels that the allocation of spectrum to mobile television licensees should be automatic for successful bidders and should not require any further selection process. Such licensees would be required to pay the usual spectrum usage charges, as stipulated by the WPC in consultation with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

A mobile TV licence may be made mandatory for any telecom licensees including UASL/CMTS licensees, if such licensees wish to use broadcasting technologies for offering mobile television services. For this purpose, any telecom licensees (UASL/CMTS or any other licensees) satisfying eligibility conditions would be permitted to participate in the bidding process, like any other eligible company.

Among the other recommendations on licensing issue is that a state should be the licence area for a mobile television terrestrial service licence.

"Some of the smaller states can be combined to form an appropriate licence area in order to enable financially and operationally viable model," Trai says.

However, Avnindra Mohan, who has been leading the broadcasters in the fight for what they feel is a level playing field, told indiantelevision.com that they would challenge this on legal grounds, first starting with a representation to the ministry.

There are too many inconsistencies and grounds of denying a level playing field to other players in the TV broadcast industry, Mohan says, adding that these are not acceptable.

It may be recalled that Zee Turner had sent an elaborate reaction earlier while the final consultation process was on, but Mohan now says that all the suggestions have been blackballed by Trai.