Trai sets new rules on à la carte channel prices, network capacity fee

NEW DELHI : The telecom regulator, which also regulates broadcasters, has set a ₹160 price ceiling for all channels available on a distributor’s platform as it moved to reduce rising costs for subscribers, a fallout of its 2019 tariff order.

In a statement on 1 January, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that it had decided to modify certain provisions of the new tariff order (NTO), implemented in February 2019, to address the issue of huge discounts offered by broadcasters when channels are sold as a bouquet vis-à-vis sum of the cost of à la carte channels.

“One, the sum of the à la carte rates of the pay channels (MRP) forming part of a bouquet shall in no case exceed one-and-a-half times the rate of the bouquet of which such pay channels are a part; and two, the a la carte rates of each pay channel (MRP), forming part of a bouquet, shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of the bouquet of which such pay channel is a part,” Trai said in a statement on Wednesday.