Direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting operators have opposed the idea of an a la carte package of channels — where all channels are priced individually, and not in packages or bundles of any kind — being made mandatory.
DTH players have said this in reply to a consultation paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on tariffs.
Bharti Telemedia has argued that competition and market forces are already providing the checks and balances, and forcing operators to offer channels on almost an a la carte basis. “The construct of offering (be it basic or top-up package or a la carte) may be left to the operator to design, as it is better equipped to react to the market requirement,” the company said.
The authority may not intervene in the matter of retail offering, in line with the precedent it has set so far, to the customer “as market forces and competition have sufficient checks and balances to effectively protect the interest of customers and will severely penalise inefficient operators,” said Bharti Telemedia.
It added that competition would not allow arbitrary or fanciful pricing. Leading DTH player Dish TV told Trai the industry must not be compulsorily required to make available all channels on an a la carte basis to subscribers.
“DTH operators are already making available a lot of channels on an a la carte basis to the consumers. Accordingly, it should be left to the industry and competition to decide the rates of the a la carte channels,” Dish TV has argued.
The company said it is important to reiterate that competition in DTH has been the primary reason why operators are offering packages from the range of Rs 125 per month to Rs 300 per month.
“There is no need to bring any regulation/change in the way the industry operates vis-à-vis the provision of a la carte channels to subscribers,” Dish TV said.
While admitting that “providing a la carte channels will be in the interest of customers,” Reliance Big TV said the DTH service is dependent upon availability of transponders which is limited and therefore they are restrained from offering all channels on a a la carte basis.
According to Reliance Big TV, although efforts are being made by DTH operators to offer channels in large number of packages including a few channels in ala-carte mode, offering of the same should not be made mandatory.
“The a la carte mode of service should be left on the operator. The competitive environment will take care of the consumers’ interest in this regard,” it has concluded.
Sun Direct, yet another player, has gone with the industry in saying that “it is technically unviable to provide all channels on an a la carte basis to subscribers and it may not be prudent business model to invest in state of the art infrastructure for providing individual channels to subscribers.”
Another player, TataSky, is yet to send its reply to the Trai consultation paper.
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