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CASBAA says TV regulations threaten foreign investment

The association has appreciated the Madras High Court's intervention in the clash between the rights of copyright owners around the world and new tariff regulations proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

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CASBAA says TV regulations threaten foreign investment

CASBAA says TV regulations threaten foreign investment

The association has appreciated the Madras High Court's intervention in the clash between the rights of copyright owners around the world and new tariff regulations proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | January 17, 2017

casbaa-logoThe Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) applauded the judicial review on the proposed extension and tightening of India's pay-TV rate regulations. CASBAA is an Association of Asia's pay-TV Industry serving the multi-channel audio-visual content creation and distribution industry.

The Madras High Court is currently reviewing the clash between the rights of copyright owners around the world and new tariff regulations proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The court has ordered TRAI not to give effect to the rules until the underlying issues are considered. The hearing has been set for January 19.

Christopher-Slaughter Christopher Slaughter

Christopher Slaughter, CEO, CASBAA, observed that the new rules will be a major negative factor for the business environment in the $17 billion Indian media industry.  “India's pay-TV regulations have long been among the strictest in the world,” he said. “The proposed rules are highly intrusive and will make the environment worse. Such a heavy-handed regulatory regime will inevitably hit foreign companies' interest in investing in India.”

Indian law gives copyright owners the ability to price and sell their creative works. In filing the Madras suit, the petitioner broadcasting organisations denounced the TRAI regulation as contrary to these principles as enshrined in the law, and in international treaties to which India is a signatory. The TRAI rules would establish a controlled price regime by mandating a la carte channel supply, setting the ceiling, by specific genres, that broadcasting organisations can charge to multi-channel programme distributors, limiting discounts, prescribing carriage fees, and stipulating a compulsory distribution fee to be paid by broadcasting organisations to multi-channel programme distributors.

CASBAA has long expressed concern about India's previous rate regulations, which included a cable retail price freeze imposed in 2004 “until the market became more competitive” and was never revoked.

“Today, India's television content market is among the most competitive in the world,” said Slaughter. “Modern cable MSOs, six different DTH platforms and now online OTT television are all giving Indian consumers a wide range of viewing options.”

John Medeiros, Chief Policy Officer, CASBAA, said, “As convergence and greater competition sweep the TV economy, other governments around the world are eliminating rate controls, to give more scope to competition among traditional and new online providers. In the last few years, Korea and Taiwan have both undertaken to liberalise their pay-TV price controls, leaving India as the last market economy in Asia with a hyper-regulatory regime. The proposed new rules will take India in the opposite direction from the rest of the world.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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