Opinion | Chaos owing to Trai’s tariff order continues

A driver living in East Delhi’s Vinod Nagar probably sums up the impact of the new tariff order by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the television consumer, when he says that his monthly cable bill of ₹300 remains the same, but he’s getting fewer channels. Missing from his pack is sports and cartoon channels, which his children used to watch.

In a press note, Sakshi Suneja, assistant vice-president of Icra, an investment information and credit ratings agency, said any subscriber who wishes to view two or more popular general entertainment channels (GEC) and sports channels is likely to either witness an increase in the monthly bill by 13-23%, or a substantial reduction in the number of pay channels. While earlier, a monthly subscription of ₹230-240 would give access to 250-300 channels, now it would fetch only three GECs and one sports channel, in addition to free-to-air channels, she pointed out.