New Delhi, May 7: The chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India J S Sarma has said that cable viewers in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will be able to watch digital TV with effect from July 1 this year.
Cable TV operators will be providing service by converting analogue signals to digital signals in all these four metros through set top boxes, he said.
In an interview to India TV, the TRAI chief said, viewers in these metros will be able to watch their favourite channels by selecting them according to their choice and pockets. This will be a great advantage to the viewers".
Asked how many channels will viewers be able to watch in metros from July 1, Sarma said, viewers can choose any channel of their choice from nearly 500 channels.
"This can be done through two methods. One, the MSOs can provide the packages and viewers can chose from those packages, but here the viewer has the right to choose each channel of his choice. In such cases, the viewer will pay separately for the channel of his choice."
Asked about placement fees charged from broadcasters by cable distributors, the TRAI chief said, carriage fees have been allowed in the new provisions, but that does not meen that the MSOs can charge placement fee for upgrading or downgrading a channel. This will be illegal, he added.
Giving examples, the TRAI chief said, "News channels will be in the news zone, and kids channels will be in the kids zone. They cannot put the news channel with sports channels. MSOs (multi system operators) or local cable operators cannot put a particular channel at a particular number slot. This will be treated as illegal", he said.
"We are not saying that you put the channel at number 100, or 101 or 130, we are not putting restrictions, but you cannot move the channel out from the channel zone, like putting a news channel in the midst of 3 sports channels", he said.
News Broadcasters Association had raised concerns over the carriage fees being levied by MSOs and cable operators. The TRAI chief said, under the new provisions, carriage fees in the cable sector will be within a limit, and they would not allowed to charge as they wish.
Carriage fees are paid by broadcasters to MSOs or local cable operators to reach the viewers.
The TRAI chief said: "I do understand that channels will have to pay carriage fee from 50 paise to a rupee per subscriber in a year", meaning if there are 9 crore subscribers with an MSO, the channel will have to shell out Rs 9 crore as carriage fee, though it has not been finalized.
Sarma said, TRAI will keep a watch on MSOs or operators charging exorbitant carriage fees.
"We have asked the MSOs to reveal how much carriage fees they charge, these fees will be applicable to channels uniformly. Secondly, we have told them that the file relating to agreement and carriage fee rate should be with us. If we feel that too much carriage fee is being charged, we can intervene."
News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has raised the concern that the new TRAI provisions will now make levying of carriage fee as legal and the distributors will be able to extract carriage fees exorbitantly from the broadcasters.
Asked about digitalization in the rest of the country, Sarma said, it will cover all major cities and towns in two to three years and the MSO model will reach the rural areas by then.
"I think in the next 2-3 years, the MSOs will be able to give more services, like video on demand, local advertisements and entertainment. I think, in the near future, their business model will change."
When it was pointed out that there had been opposition in recent years to set top boxes in several states, Sarma said: " All stakeholders have now said they are in favour ot digitalization. This is a significant thing, and there is no opposition. It will help broadcasters, MSOs, cable operators and consumers alike."
