TRAI’s New Rule For Cable TV: Discovery Slashes Rates By 90%, Transparent Ratings Coming Soon

In the month of October this year, TRAI had announced the rollout of new rules for Cable and DTH users, pan-India.

Consumer groups had hailed these new directives, as it snatched the power of pricing from DTH and Cable networks (Tata, DishTV, Airtel), and placed it on the channels themselves.

Now, after a month, side-effects of this radical change have started emerging.

Will the cost of cable TV come down now?

Discovery Slashes Their Rates By 90%

Discovery Communications, which runs 13 channels in India – 4 in HD and 9 in SD, have announced up to 90% reduction in rates, effective December 29th, when TRAI order comes into force.

For example, DSport, which is charged Rs 75 by Tata Sky as of now, will be now charged Rs 4 after December 29th.

Now, as per the provisions of the new rules, Cable and DTH companies can charge an additional fee of ‘network charges’, up to Rs 1.3 per SD channel and Rs 2.6 per DH channel.

This means, at the max, your cable/DTH can charge Rs 130 extra for 100 SD channels, to compensate their loss. Hence, DSport can have a maximum charge of Rs 4 + 1.3 or Rs 5.30, which is still around 88% less than Rs 75, which is currently being charged by Tata Sky.

Other Channels Will Become Cheaper?

After December 29th, all channels are mandated to share their individual prices for SD and HD channels separately, and analysts are predicting that the price will come down.

Drastically.

Zee Entertainment too has announced their revised prices, where the entire pack of Zee Family Pack Hindi will cost Rs 45 per month, and HD version will cost Rs 60.

Ratings Will Be Transparent

Meanwhile, TRAI has released a new consultation paper, based on which, TV Ratings and Audience Measurement metrics will become more transparent, and more user-friendly.

TRAI has raised several crucial questions, related to the existing practices of audience ratings, and TV rating and via this consultation paper, they are seeking suggestions from the general public.

TRAI has questioned the entire working of BARC India, and the methodology via which TV ratings are determined, and households counted.

Overall, there are 17 crucial questions.

The general public is advised to give their opinions and suggestions before January 2nd and counter comments may be sent by January 16, 2019, to Arvind Kumar, Advisor (B&CS), TRAI on his mail id: [email protected].

Here is the Consultation Paper on Review of Television Audience Measurement and
Ratings in India.

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