The much touted about new regulatory framework for broadcasting and cable services industry from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is turning out to be a costly affair for most viewers of cable TV and direct to home (DTH) users.
While many consumer viewers are finding their monthly bills almost double, the regulator continues with its stance that the new framework may actually decrease TV bills, provided you watch only up to 40 channels.
Umasankar Brahma, one of the readers of Moneylife says, "Before TRAI's new framework, I was a happy cable TV viewer with a monthly bill of Rs350 for all channels including the high-definition (HD) ones. But now with this rule, viewing some of my favourite channels is costing me around Rs600."
A Banerjee, another reader, says cost of viewing TV has, indeed, doubled after 1 February 2019. "On top of it, the TRAI authorities just do not care even to respond to the complaints mailed to the designated officer and the service provider clearly does not care about TRAI either. This is my sad experience," he says.
Earlier in February, ratings agency CRISIL had also mentioned about an increase monthly bill of most subscribers of television channels. "Our analysis of the impact of the regulations indicates a varied impact on monthly TV bills. Based on current pricing, the monthly TV bill can go up by 25% from Rs230-Rs240 to about Rs300 per month for viewers who opt for the top-10 channels, but will come down for those who opt up to top five channels," Sachin Gupta, senior director, ratings at CRISIL had said.
(Read: Cable TV and DTH Bills Will Go Up for Most Users)
CRISIL's analysis assumes a scenario where subscribers opt for the top-10 channels by viewership in addition to the free-to-air (FTA) ones.
However, instead of addressing the concern raised by the rating agency, TRAI chairman Ram Sevak (RS) Sharma said that the CRISIL report was prepared on an 'inadequate understanding' of the TV distribution market and it was incorrect.
In the report, ratings agency CRISIL had said, "The network capacity fee (NCF) and channel prices announced by broadcasters and distributors as per the TRAI's new guidelines could increase the monthly bill of most subscribers of television channels."
The regulator, in a statement, however, had claimed that its preliminary data analysis shows a reduction in TV bills. It says, "These are early days and detailed data-sets will be available only after a few weeks." Yet, the Authority has information from few large distribution platform owners (DPOs) and the preliminary data analysis reflects actual savings by subscribers to the tune 10% to 15% in metro towns and between 5% to 10% in non-metro (DAS3 and DAS4) areas. (
Read: TRAI Refutes Reports of Rise in TV Bills after New Broadcast Norms; Consumers Disagree)
TRAI’s formula to bring down cost for consumer is based on low usage. In its frequently asked questions (FAQ) page, TRAI says, “80% subscriber as per the viewing pattern given by BARC, either view or flip 40 or less number of channels.
Further, if a consumer carefully chooses channels of its choice for complete requirement of a family, the amount payable by him may be even less than the present payments being made per month.”
The problem with TRAI’s calculations is that it assumes that the customer will stick with TV channels that are priced low or almost free. Most of the popular TV channels across the segment are priced at higher levels or at Rs19 per month. So even if a viewer decides to select only 10 popular TV channels, she needs to pay at least Rs190, in addition to the fixed Rs130, excluding taxes.
Manu Ashar, a reader of Moneylife feels that TRAI as regulator is least concerned about consumer viewers. "TRAI keep on talking about how 80% of customers view only few channels. The idea of the rules was actually to give the customers freedom to choose, which is not available due to their absurd working of 'best fit package' and indirectly endorsing packages of various service providers by publishing them on the TRAI website. This defeats the idea of free choice."
Moneylife’s calculations and analysis had also shown that consumers will eventually end up paying more than they do now, if they wish to have a variety of options such as — news, entertainment, kid channels, sports and infotainment—that too in multiple languages. Since many families have members across generations, they will have to subscribe to multiple bouquets, since they are priced far lower than
a-la-carte options. But that too, restricts choice, since opting for a bouquet would mean, leaving out specific channels of other broadcasters. (
Read: How Much You Will Have to Pay for Cable TV and DTH?)
While extending the deadline for customers to select TV channels, TRAI had warned that those who fail to decide will be migrated to best fit plan.
According to the regulator, the 'best fit plan' will be designed based on consumers' usage pattern and language spoken. "It should preferably be a blended combination of various genres, while making 'best fit plan' for a subscriber, the distribution platform operators (DPOs) should ensure that payout per month of the 'best fit plan' generally does not exceed the payout per month of existing tariff plan of the subscriber," the regulator clarified.
After making several efforts, many consumer viewers have either selected the package offered by their cable operator or DTH service-provider. This, of course, costs more than what the users were paying. For example, a cable operator from Kalyan used to charge Rs300 for a bouquet of around 300 channels from all genres. However, after the new tariff regime, the same operator is providing a bouquet of less than 220 selected channels, including free-to-air channels, for Rs490 (including goods and service tax-GST) per month.
Customers of DTH services, who have paid in advance, are also in lurch.
"Earlier we were getting courteous service from DTH operators as they wanted our business. Our DTH call centre personnel now have been threatening to move our plan to best fit immediately if we do not opt for one without informing about the shifting of the end date to 31 March 2019,” says Vijaykumar Kilar, one of the Moneylife readers.
He says, “They (customer service executives at DTH) are extremely curt when we ask for an email explaining various options or a brief about the choices available.
They had collected our money for validity up to September 2019 and hence could take a stand of take it or leave it on consumers. Their argument is that everything is in the newspaper, and I should go to their website or visit each channel’s website to know the monthly charges. Most consumers who have paid for the full pack are in the dark. I really do not know whether the consumer has been benefited or the service levels will go down drastically as no one cares to retain a customer with the new norms."
Since there is no free TV channel per se (since even for FTA channels, we are paying money), Antony Terry, a reader of Moneylife makes an interesting observation. He says, "If we pay for each channel, will channels and broadcasters reduce the number of advertisements they show and thus help the viewers save their time? That is hard, right? So we have to pay extra money and waste our time watching the ads you show."
a single channel Under CNBC18, they are not agreeing.They insist for whole package of that channel group
HD channels are to expensive i do not get to choose Free to aur channels but imposed with regional channels of not my interest
The consumer is being taken for a ride again ...