MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) tariff order in July for digital addressable systems including DTH was bound to land in the court.

Broadcasters have moved the Tdsat against the tariff order that was to be implemented on 1 September and would have put the cap for television content in address digital systems at 35 per cent of the existing analogue cable TV pricing. They are particularly disturbed by the loss in revenues they would suffer from DTH where the earlier ceiling was 50 per cent of cable TV rates.
 
Star Den, Zee Turner and Sun among others have approached the Tdsat and would consider moving the Supreme Court if the verdict is not favourable. Broadcasters are seeking relief from the Trai order and the matter is up for hearing on Monday.

“There is a huge amount of competition among the broadcasters. Trai has not taken that into perspective and there is no need for heavy regulations on pricing. While DTH operators are given a la carte choice, the regulator also should have allowed our pricing to be dictated by market forces. There is no way any broadcaster can price itself arbitrarily in today’s highly competitive environment,” said Star Den CEO Gurjeev Singh.

There is no rationale for the regulator to lower the content tariff for DTH operators, many broadcast executives said.