Beeb will go off Prasar Bharati platform

NEW DELHI: BBC World will turn “pay and encrypted” from June 15. It essentially means that the channel will earn subscription -based revenues, in addition to its income from advertisements. Although channel officials refused to divulge the subscription price of the channel, industry sources said it is a little over Rs 5 per subscriber per month.

Under the current system, a viewer would not pay anything extra even if a channel turns “pay”. Rather, it is a payment to be made by cable operators to the broadcaster, which, in this case, is BBC World. But once conditional access system (CAS) is introduced in the country, viewers will feel the impact of pay channels. CAS is about enabling viewers to watch pay channels of their choice with the help of set-top boxes in their premises. In another distribution model, direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting, viewers have to pay for what they watch.

The immediate impact of BBC World turning pay will be on public broadcaster Prasar Bharati’s DTH platform.

Currently, BBC World is on Prasar Bharati’s DTH, but it will be off the platform after turning pay, confirmed Jeff Hazell, director of sales and distribution at BBC World. Prasar Bharati’s DTH carries only free-to-air channels. BBC World is in talks with other DTH platforms such as the Subhash Chandra-promoted Dish TV for carrying the channel.