DishTV, Tata Sky seek govt help on Trai move

DTH service providers upset over telecom regulator's proposal to make upgradation of STB mandatory.

Dish TV and Tata Sky, the two major DTH companies, have sought compensation from the government for the upgrade of the existing DTH set-top boxes due to the mandatory upgrade proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

SEEKIGN COVER

If Trai's recommendations are accepted, it will affect the existing 5 million DTH subscribers of Dish TV and Tata Sky

The two operators have sent representations to the ministry of I&B

Interoperability means a consumer can change his DTH operator without changing the set-top box

According to sources, the two operators have separately sent representations to the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) after a recent recommendation by Trai, which seeks revision of interoperabilty norms for DTH set-top boxes.

If Trai's recommendations are accepted, it will affect the existing 5 million DTH subscribers as both Dish TV and Tata Sky will have to upgrade their set-top boxes to make them interoperable with the new DTH service providers such as Big TV (Reliance Communications), Sun Direct (Sun Network) and Bharti Telemedia'.

This might cost the two companies Rs 500-750 crore, the sources said. Interoperability means when a consumer decides to change his DTH operator, he can do so without changing the set-top box.

But with new players using the MPEG-4 technology, around 5 million DTH subscribers of MPEG-2-compliant set-top boxes will be affected.

"If a consumer of BIG TV decides to shift the service from Dish TV or Tata Sky, he will not be able to do so as MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 set-top boxes are non-interoperable. Under the law, all DTH operators need to have technical interoperable set-top boxes. This will give undue advantage to the new DTH companies," said a DTH expert.

According to the recent Trai recommendations, while the government has asked the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to review the current interoperability norms for DTH set-top boxes, new players such as BIG TV can go ahead with their DTH service launch.

If this happened, the existing DTH lincesing norms would be violated, said technical experts from Dish TV and Tata Sky.

"The existing DTH licensing norms clearly state that all DTH players will have to seed only those set-top boxes that are technically interoperable. To make our set-top boxes interoperable, we spent an extra $4-5 a box. Now, if the reverse-interoperability is not enforced, there will be a dilution of DTH licensing norms as well as huge financial implications for us," said Anshuman Sharma, chief legal and regulatory affairs officer, Tata Sky.