Pay-channel broadcasters get relief on DTH deals

Pay-channel broadcasters have managed to get relief on future commercial agreements with Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers. Now, broadcasters like Star TV, Sony TV, Zee TV, ESPN, and Sun TV, among others, need not disclose the nature of their deals undertaken with one DTH operator to another DTH service provider.

According to senior executives of Star TV, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has clarified that broadcasters may indulge in their own commercial agreements with the DTH companies without the bearing of an earlier TDSAT judgement in the ASC versus Star TV case of 2006 that had directed Star TV to offer its bouquet of 14-channels to Zee's DTH company Dish TV at 50 per cent of the cable TV rates.

The Trai had recently brought out a paper on the interconnection regulations for DTH platform carrying detailed parameters for broadcasters, including mandatory requirements for offering their channels a-la-carte (individual channels) and bouquets with declared prices for each channels.

"However, the commercial agreements between broadcasters and DTH operators will have to be within the broad parameters of the interconnection paper," a source in Trai said. Also, Trai is not likely to bring out any additional clarifications on this matter, source added.

Broadcasters under the umbrella of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) had gone to Trai to seek clarifications on the new interconnection regulations it had brought out recently.

"The Trai paper does not mention the benchmark for commercial rates for buying channels by the DTH companies. We have been told by Trai chairman that we are free to enter into commercial agreements at rates mutually agreed between the DTH companies and the broadcasters," said Paritosh Joshi, president, ad-sales & distribution, Star TV India.