New Cable TV Rules Deadline Extended To January 31st; Why TRAI Postponed This Migration?
TRAI has repeatedly said that the new Cable TV rules will not increase the cost to consumers.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI has informed all that the date for implementing new Cable TV regulations and rules is January 31st now.
Hence, January 31st shall be the last date, till when consumers have been allowed to migrate to the new system. Effective February 1st, new Cable TV Rules will come into force.
Why TRAI decided to postpone the execution? Keep reading to find out more!
TRAI: January 31st Last Date Now
TRAI officials along with representatives from major cable TV operators, broadcasters had a meeting recently, wherein the plan to implement the new Cable TV rules.
TRAI informed them all that the new regulations will be implemented, without any doubt. But in order to give consumers more time to understand and evaluate options, the deadline has been extended.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Secretary S K Gupta said, “We had a meeting of broadcasters, DTH operators, and MSOs (multi-system operators) today (Thursday). Everyone confirmed their readiness to implement new regulations. However, they requested that some more time may be given to seek options from subscribers for smooth and interruption free migrations,”
We had earlier reported that TRAI had postponed the deadline to implement new Cable TV rules indefinitely. That was based on the press release shared by TRAI earlier.
However, now the dates have been revealed and it is clear that TRAI wants to help the consumers for making this migration.
Distribution platform operators (DPOs) will now inform the customers about the new plans, and the new options, and accordingly, they can make the decision.
Why TRAI Postponed The Deadline?
Primarily, the reason was mass confusion and mass chaos regarding this new cable TV rules. Social Media is abuzz with rumors of various dimension, and consumers are either confused or unaware of the changes.
TRAI has already informed one and all that cable TV charges won’t increase that much after the new rules come into force, and the overall power to choose channels will make the costs come down.
Besides, the other major reason for postponing the deadline is that broadcasters have not been able to properly display and show the new plans, on their websites.
As per reports, the initial deadline was December 28th night, and till 2 hours of that, no updated information was visible on the websites of the broadcasters.
Hence, TRAI has made a wise decision to postpone the overall execution and allowed consumers, cable operators, and broadcasters with enough time to take action.
What Changes After January 31st?
5 Main changes are:
- Rs 130 per month has to be paid every month, for 100 FTA or Free to Air Channels
- Consumers need to pay Rs 20 more to access 25 SD channels
- Broadcasters will allow consumers to select packs of pay channels, based on which the actual cost will be derived.
- Free and Pay channels cannot be clubbed into one by distributors
- SD and HD channels cannot be clubbed into one by distributors
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
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