TRAI gives more time to reply to consultation paper related to NTO 2.0

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has extended the deadline to receive comments and counter-comments from the stakeholders on the TRAI Consultation paper on “Issues related to New Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable services” up to June 6 and June 13, 2022, respectively.

TRAI released the Consultation Paper on May 7, 2022. The last date of receiving comments on the issues raised in the Consultation Paper from the stakeholders was fixed as May 30, 2022, and counter-comments as June 6, 2022.

TRAI said, “Keeping in view the requests received from the stakeholders for extension of time for submission of comments on the above-mentioned consultation paper, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of comments and counter-comments up to June 6, 2022, and June 13, 2022, respectively.”

The comments and counter-comments may be sent, preferably in electronic form, on the email ID advbcs-2@trai.gov.in and jtadvbcs-1@trai.gov.in.

Earlier this year in February, the regulator had postponed the NTO 2.0 implementation deadline to June 1, 2022. Soon after that, the broadcasters had withdrawn their petitions in various courts in order to pave the way for an amicable solution to the contentious issues.

In November last year, the broadcasters had increased the prices of their most popular channels including sports channels beyond Rs 20 per month, thus offering these channels only on an a-la-cart basis.

Immediately after new tariffs were announced, TRAI said it received representations from Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs), Associations of Local Cable Operators (LCOs) and Consumer Organisations.

DPOs highlighted difficulties likely to be faced by them in implementing new rates in the system and migrating the consumers to the new tariff regime through the informed exercise of options impacting almost all bouquets, especially due to upward revision in the rates of pay channels and bouquets declared by broadcasters.

To deliberate on the various issues related to the implementation of the New Regulatory Framework 2020 and suggest a way forward, a committee consisting of members from the Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) & DTH Association was constituted under the aegis of TRAI.

The Committee listed several issues related to New Regulatory Framework 2020 for consideration. The stakeholders, however, requested TRAI to immediately address critical issues which could create impediments to the smooth implementation of Tariff Amendment Order 2020.

In order to address the issues as identified by the stakeholders’ committee; the regulator has floated a fresh consultation paper for seeking stakeholders’ comments on points/issues which are pending for full implementation of the New Regulatory Framework 2020. This paper primarily discusses issues related to discounts given in the formation of the bouquet, the ceiling price of channels for inclusion in bouquets, and discounts offered by broadcasters to DPOs in addition to distribution fees.

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