Telecom Disputes Settlement And Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to look into the possibility of fixing prices of television channels under the Direct to Home (DTH) service following a similar arrangement for Conditional Access System (CAS)."For CAS, you have come out with an order of Rs 5 per channel but for DTH, you do not have any plans like that," Justice Arun Kumar, chairman of TDSAT, said.In the absence of any firm pricing formula, DTH companies would continue to fight among themselves, he said while hearing a case between DTH platform TataSky and content provider Zee-Turner."Now, we have to take a larger prospective. Ultimately, customers are suffering," he said and asked Trai to file a reply within two weeks. Kumar also sought Trai's view on channel pricing formula for non-CAS areas.Since pay channel prices under CAS are regulated, DTH firms have also been forced to lower costs in areas where CAS is being implemented. However, in areas outside CAS, overall costs of DTH are still perceived as high.
