News broadcasters agree to pay reasonable carriage fee

NEW DELHI: News broadcasters have agreed to pay reasonable carriage fees after the roll out of digitisation on 1 November, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) said on Thursday. It said news broadcasters are willing to pay MSOs 50 paise to Re 1 per set top box subscriber, per channel per year as carriage fee.

The NBA statement follows a meeting chaired by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairperson Rahul Khullar on 11 October with representatives of the MSO Alliance, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and the NBA to discuss the progress of digitisation and the issue of payment of carriage fees by broadcasters (inclusive of marketing fees, tiering fees, packaging fees or fees or charges under any other nomenclature) under the digitised regime.

Earlier, news broadcasters were concerned about unreasonable carriage fees continuing even after the switch to digitisation. While placement fee has been specifically prohibited by Trai, broadcasters were concerned about the lack of clarity with regard to carriage fees. Broadcasters were unsure whether they were required to pay carriage fee at all after digitisation, and if required, what would be the rates.

Khullar mentioned that his predecessor had indicated what reasonable carriage fees should be in a digitised regime and stated that boundaries had been laid down and he would expect carriage deals with news broadcasters to be within these bounds. He also exhorted broadcasters and MSOs to enter into agreements on carriage fees within the "next few days" so that all is set by the time digitisation rolls out in the four metros from the 1 November.

In view of this, the NBA said despite the earlier objection of news broadcasters to the payment of any carriage fees whatsoever, they are now agreeable to enter into agreements with MSOs for an initial period of one year, for the payment of carriage fees (inclusive of marketing fees, tiering fees, packaging fees or fees or charges under any other nomenclature) in the digitised areas, at a rate of 50 paise to one rupee per set top box subscriber, per channel per year, which is the reasonable rate and boundary set by the former TRAI chairperson and mentioned as such by the current chairperson at the meeting on 11 October 2012.

NBA said, "News broadcasters are grateful to the TRAI chairperson for taking proactive action in resolving the vexatious issue of carriage in a statesmanlike manner."

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