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Tdsat hearing: MSOs object to basic service tier conditions in Trai tariff order
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has negated the very concept of a basic service tier (BST) for a bouquet of free-to-air television (FTA) channels, by giving a “confusing and faulty” Tariff Order, an MSO counsel told Tdsat while arguing against the order.
The order says that a subscriber will be provided a BST of 100 free-to-air (FTA) channels at a fee of Rs 100 but goes on to add that “it shall be open to the subscriber to choose any combination of free to air channels up to 100 channels, in lieu of the BST offered by the multi-system operator.”
This nullified the meaning of BST, counsel for MSO Delhi Distribution Company Navin Chawla, told Tdsat (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), which is hearing cases challenging the Trai Tariff Order of 30 April.
Chawla pointed out that the order also wants the BST offered by the MSO to include at least five channels of the each genre, namely news and current affairs, infotainment, sports, kids, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment in Hindi, English and regional language of the concerned region.
He argued that if five channels for every language was provided, then the number of channels with all the genres would easily cross 100.
He claimed Trai had done no study to find out whether an average viewer wanted 100 channels in the BST.
In any case, he said a similar order of 2007 had been challenged by the MSO Alliance and others before Tdsat, which had held that that the order had failed to specify tariffs and had only given a ceiling and slabs and that Trai needed to revisit the exercise to fix the tariffs in a holistic manner. Tdsat had also clearly stated that tariff meant the cost that the consumer has to pay.
Chawla said merely because the matter had gone in appeal before the Supreme Court which has ordered status quo till final disposal was no reason for Trai to commit the same flaw five years later. “Each word remains the same and we are back to square one,” he claimed.
He said in any case, no formula for revenue sharing could be laid down unless all the beneficiaries were named. In this case, there had been no reference to the broadcaster and only the MSO and local cable operators (LCOs) had been named. Furthermore, he said a revenue sharing can only be talked about when a systematically worked out revenue figure is given.
He said Section 11(2) of the Trai Act 1997 stated: “The Authority may, from time to time, by order, notify in the Official Gazette the rates at which the telecommunication services within India and outside India shall be provided under this Act including the rates at which messages shall be transmitted to any country outside India”.
Thus, the Act was very clear that the Authority should lay down the tariff that a consumer will have to pay, but this had clearly been overlooked by the Authority which had merely indulged in ‘patchwork’ and not fulfilled its duty. He said a new system like the digital addressable system needed a new Tariff formula, but Trai had merely amended the Tariff Order of 2010.
Chawla claimed that no exercise had been undertaken to work out the costs incurred either by the MSO or the LCO.
He said soon after Trai was given charge of broadcasting in 2004, it had frozen the channel-wise rates in January that year since it was new to the field. That directive had not led to any litigation, and therefore, a similar formula could have been adopted. He said this suggestion had been given to Trai when it held consultations with stakeholders before issuing the latest Tariff Order.
Chawla said that in any case, fixation of the BST should have been the domain of the MSO and the government should have interfered only if all the genres were not supplied to the consumer.
He also challenged the rationale for keeping the overall number of channels at 500. He said that an MSO would have to spend money to put up the technology for receiving so many channels, even if the viewers did not want so many channels. No rationale had been given even for the 100 in the BST or how public interest would have been affected if the number had been different.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
