Falling revenues prompt FTA channels to seek a waiver of carriage fees

A consortium of Free To Air (FTA) channels has appealed to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to have their channels placed on Prasar Bharati’s DTH platform DD Free Dish.

As the advertising revenue has fallen over 80 per cent, FTA channels have been struggling to stay afloat. In a letter to Prakash Javadekar, I&B Minister, the consortium has said that commercial advertisements are the sole revenue stream for FTA to support its costs of content, operations, carriage, marketing and transmission.

The letter says that the channels are struggling to deal with the steep de-growth, and that the commercial viability and sustainability of FTA channels needs to be taken into consideration, especially with the government’s vision of making entertainment freely accessible to all socio-economical classes through the DD Free Dish platform.