Recent changes in how television channels are priced and distributed have given an advantage to large broadcasting companies, helping them push out smaller and regional channels, India’s biggest association of news broadcasters warned. If left unchecked, the current trends would result in a loss of plurality and the establishment of monopolistic market in the country, […]
An average Airtel Digital customer spent 4.1% more money on their DTH service in July-September period compared to the previous three months, beating back the seasonal effect of the monsoons and indicating that customers may be gradually spending more on their cable and DTH bills. The monsoon season tends to see smaller recharges by prepaid […]
Media regulator TRAI will come up with a modified set of rules to increase transparency in the pricing of television channels in the next 20-25 days, Chairman RS Sharma said on the sidelines of the open house discussion on the subject in New Delhi. Sharma’s statement comes in the wake of widespread complaints about broadcasters […]
Hathway Cable and Datacom, one of India’s biggest cable feed providers, has again turned profitable, but it also reported an increase of Rs 87 mn in its pay channel costs while subscription revenue increased by only Rs 37 mn. Given that subscription revenue increased only 1% while pay channel costs increased 7%, it is likely […]
When cellular telephony started in India, Bharti and Reliance took two divergent approaches towards launching cellular services — Airtel decided to focus on providing the services, leaving third party players to provide the hardware, while Reliance decided went with CDMA, a technology in which everything was more tightly controlled. Despite the obvious technological shortcomings of […]
Discovery Communications, India’s biggest provider of infotainment content, has taken broadcasting regulator TRAI to the Delhi High Court for the second time in three years for trying to bring down prices of individual TV channels. TRAI had earlier this month announced a move to force channel owners to bring the prices of their individual channels […]
Media regulator TRAI has shot off letters to most of the top cable TV feed providers in India, asking them to allow users to change their packs, and ensure that their business partners provide itemized billing to customers and pay tax to the government. It, however, remains to be seen how cable feed providers are […]
TV channel owners have indicated that they may again take media regulator TRAI to court over its latest move to ‘unbundle’ televisions channels. TRAI’s latest move, unveiled in a consultation paper earlier this month, is the second such in the last three years. Star India and Discovery Communications had taken TRAI to court in 2017 […]
Arasu Cable, the government-owned cable feed provider in Tamil Nadu, has become the first big player to drastically reduce the monthly network charge under TRAI’s new tariff order, throwing a challenge to the likes of Tata Sky, Dish TV, Hathway and Sun Direct. Arasu Cable’s new base plan of Rs 130 contains six broadcaster packs […]
Reliance Jio Chairman Mukesh Ambani said his company has come up with a set-top-box that will come with support for the existing digital cable TV business of local cable operators. This means that Jio Box will supply two services — the regular cable TV from the existing cable, and a new, high-end service via fiber […]
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Industries, is all set to unveil attractive broadband-cum-TV plans under Reliance Gigafiber at the annual general meeting of Reliance Industries at 11 AM. The plans have been a well kept secret, but according to early indications, the company will offer free cable TV and 200 […]
Reliance Jio GigaFiber, the new wired broadband and cable TV service from India’s biggest telecom operator by volumes, is likely to offer free cable TV and high-speed broadband for Rs 500 per month. The customer is likely to have to make an initial upfront payment of around Rs 3,000, which would enable him to avail […]
Flooded by complaints about cable and DTH players not allowing consumers to change their channel packs and subscriptions, India’s media regulator has come up with a proposal to allow consumers to change their channels and packs using the TRAI website. This will be achieved through a single app — similar to TRAI’s existing ‘channel selector’ […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which recently come in for a lot of pummeling from the small cable operators for its new tariff rules, has now emerged as a savior of the same set of operators as it has dismissed government’s suggestion of fixing a ‘net worth’ requirement for cable feed providers. Ministry of […]
Gujarat-based cable feed provider and broadband operator GTPL Hathway said it will try to retain a higher share of what consumers pay every month, and is not currently looking to bring its broadband business under the Reliance Jio brand. In its cable feed business, GTPL retains only about Rs 30 out of the Rs 130 […]
GTPL Hathway, one of the country’s largest cable feed providers and the biggest MSO in Gujarat, said it expects media regulator TRAI to make further changes to the TV tariff order introduced in February this year. Speaking to analysts after announcing the quarterly earnings of the cable feed provider, officials — including MD Aniruddhasinhji Jadega […]
The new TV tariff system introduced by TRAI, which gives channel owners the full power to price their channels, does not seem to have hurt the earnings of cable networks as much as feared. It was feared that because the pricing power over channels was taken away from distributors like cable and DTH operators and […]
One of the key aspects of the new tariff order of the TRAI that came into effect from February 1 was the uniformity of pricing among channels. The distributor — a cable or DTH operator — had to charge the same network fee for any channel, irrespective of content or ownership. So, whether it was […]
Cable and DTH users can now watch Star India’s sports and English channels at 30% lower cost as India’s largest broadcaster has introduced smaller, more affordable channel packs in these two genres. The move is seen as a reaction to the feedback given by the market to the company’s previous line up. Till now, Star […]
85% of the customers who have shifted to tariff packs under TRAI’s new tariff plan have gone with packages created by the cable operator, said Aniruddhasinhji Jadeja, founder and MD of GTPL Hathway, one of India’s largest cable networks. Jadeja said, as of Feb 12, close to 30% of the total subscribers have been moved […]
