The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said it is abandoning its voluntary restraint in the implementation of new TV channel pricing rules announced on January 1 as channel broadcasters are taking advantage of the same to push through price increases. TRAI has so far not taken any action against those who did not implement its […]
GTPL Hathway, the country’s second biggest cable feed provider, has been forced to postpone the launch of its hybrid Android set-top-box for the second time after the COVID-19 pandemic hit its supply line. The company had originally planned to launch a new Android-based set-top-box, similar Tata Sky Binge+ and Airtel XStream, on April 1, but […]
Five regional Hindi news channels were among the 15 that found themselves in the results of the 46th e-auction for broadcasting on the DD Free Dish DTH platform. These channels have won the right to transmit their signals on the country’s largest TV channel distribution system for a period of one year from July 1. […]
FYI TV18, the most watched ‘lifestyle’ channel in India, will shut down on July 8, TV18 group said, while announcing an increase in the prices of several of its channel packages and the conversion of a free channel into pay. FYI SHUT DOWN The move to shut down FYI TV18 makes the channel the latest […]
Prasar Bharti, India’s public broadcaster which operates DD Free Dish satellite TV service, has given five slots on the DTH platform to major private sector broadcasters such as Star India, Sony Pictures Networks, TV18 Broadcast and Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Two slots have been allocated to Zee Entertainment Enterprises, while one each has been allocated to […]
Government of India has “requested” cable and DTH operators to not disconnect those subscribers who do not recharge or pay their monthly bill during the COVID-19 lock-down. The request has been made based on two justifications: First, doing so will help keep the people indoors, and second, it will help counter fake news that spreads […]
Prasar Bharati has set up a committee to explore an alternative way of allowing private TV channels to use its DD Free Dish DTH service without going through an auction process. Traditionally, private channels have to pay crores of rupees per year if they want to get a slot on the free satellite broadcasting (DTH) […]
Four pay channels — Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, Colors Rishtey and Sony Pal — are likely to go ‘free to air’ for two months from today. These channels had earlier been put in a ‘promotional scheme’ while remaining pay channels, with their prices slashed from Rs 1-2/month to Rs 0. This was intended to increase […]
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar today refused to intervene in the alleged blocking of news channels critical of the state government of Andhra Pradesh. The unofficial ban on two news Telugu news channels — TV5 and ABN Andhra Jyothi — in the coastal state, allegedly for being critical of the YSRCP government — has […]
Dish TV, the oldest Direct-To-Home satellite transmission service in India, is preparing to improve its line-up on channels in a bid to retain market share in the face in rising competition. The company, which has two separate beams — one for South India and one for the rest of the country — has started removing […]
In what has to come as a major disappointment to big cable operators in the country, the Kerala High Court has given an interim green signal for TRAI to apply nearly all the provisions of the tariff order as it continues to hear the case. Earlier, it had asked TRAI not to take any punitive […]
Airtel Digital, one of the top television channel distributors in India, has partially complied with TRAI’s tariff order as amended on January 1 this year. The company has complied with some provisions of the rules, such as reducing the network charge for up to 200 channels, while compliance with other parts of the tariff order […]
Most cable and DTH operators in India have failed to comply with TRAI’s tariff order issued that came into effect today in perhaps the first such incident in the industry’s history. As of today, the amended provisions of the Telecom Services Tariff Order, notified two months ago, have come into place. However, as of 8 […]
Tata Sky, the DTH service from the Tata Group, has become the first DTH platform to put into effect the amended TRAI tariff order, with only hours to go before the March 1 deadline. Other DTH operators are likely to follow suit in the next few hours. NCF REDUCED The first step towards implementing the […]
With the Bombay High Court giving no specific direction or stay on the implementation of the amended TRAI tariff order, the country is all set to see the introduction of the second version of the tariff order on Sunday. Over the past three days, the Bombay High Court had been holding a marathon hearing on […]
The Indian broadcast and telecom regulator TRAI has refused to postpone the implementation of the amended tariff order on television channel pricing in court. The Bombay High Court had, on Wednesday, asked TRAI to state whether it was open to pushing back the date for the implementation of the amended tariff order by one month […]
Bombay High Court today asked Telecom Regulatory Authority of India if it was willing to postpone the implementation of the amended TV channel pricing regulations by one month. This follows a change in the bench hearing a petition against the new rules filed by some industry stakeholders, including Indian Broadcasting Foundation. The judges who have […]
Siti Networks, the cable TV arm of the Zee Essel Group, has become the first major distribution platform to notify new cable TV prices that will come into effect from Sunday under TRAI’s revised tariff plan. The company has put up a declaration on its website in which it has updated the number of channels […]
Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom and cable company, has placed an order of around 5 lakh advanced set-top-boxes with Dixon Technologies, including those for deployment on Hathway and Den’s cable networks. Unlike the IPTV-enabled set-top-boxes being rolled out as part of the Jio Fiber network, many of these STBs sourced from Dixon are not meant […]
Broadcast regulator TRAI has sent a letter to all broadcasters, cable and DTH firms reminding them to take “preparatory activities” ahead of regulatory and pricing changes from March 1. From that day, no channel priced above Rs 12 will be allowed to be sold as part of a package. Cable and DTH firms will also […]
