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MSOs said that Trai ought to be transparent
and put up the prices offered by the broadcasters
or fall foul of section 11.4, which insists
on transparency.
"Trai
has invoked section 11.2, of suo moto intervention
when it says it is studying the offers made
to see if these are in order, but it can
do that as well as put up the offers on
its own website."
In
fact, the broadcasters are supposed to place
these offers prominently on their own website,
which is what the Regulation clearly says,
but instead, they have placed these in such
a manner that we had to use special software
to locate them, said a senior MSO leader.
"This
will not be possible for most small MSOs
and operators to do, so why is Trai not
doing what it has to do mandatorily, why
is the regulator not abiding by the regulation?"
the leader asked.
The
last report of the Commission's digitisation
sub-group (Go Digital) says three things
clearly for the broadcasting sector:
- Rationalise
the charges of providing content to the
consumers on a la carte basis on cable
- Change
present system of charging from bouquet
of channels to a-la carte of channel,
and
-
Roll out of CAS to be tied up with digitalisation
Thus,
what the Trai has done so far - step by
step has been following the guidelines and
roadmap and there is little hope that Trai
will revoke the Order.
"No
one plays around with the Planning Commission,"
says a senior government official, explaining
that without the Commission's approval not
a single penny is allocated to any ministry
for any of their projects.
The
MSOs are thus hoping that attempts of a
dialogue with broadcasters and persuading
the Trai to be more transparent would possibly
avoid some more complications coming up
in the case being heard at the TDSAT on
the Tariff Order of 4 October.
Incidentally,
MSOs are co-defendants in the same appeal
filed against Trai by broadcasters for repeal
of the Order.
Till
late evening, the concerned officials of
Trai could not be contacted for their comments.
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