Lok Sabha Question No. 3301 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-22
Subject: Monthly Rental of Set Top Box
Ministry: INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
Asked by: RAM CHARITRA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3301 (TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.03.2017)

## MONTHLY RENTAL OF SET TOP BOX

## 3301. SHRI RAM CHARITRA NISHAD:

## Will the Minister of INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  broadcasting  regulator  has  proposed  that  television  households should  pay  Rs.  1.30  as  monthly  rental  per  set  top  box  for  100  standards Definition Channels and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  the  regulator  has  also  proposed  a  genre-wise  ceiling  on  the  channel prices and the details thereof; and
- (c) whether the distributors of TV channels can form bouquets only from a la carte channels of broadcasters and if so, the details and the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING {COL RAJYAVARDHAN RATHORE (Retd.)}

- (a): Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)  has issued a tariff order namely 'The Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2017' on 3rd March, 2017, which provides that:
-  Network  Capacity  Fee  charged  by  a  distributor  of  TV  Channels  from subscribers for  the  distribution  network  capacity  for  initial  100  Standard  Definition (SD) channels shall not exceed Rs.130/- (excluding taxes) per month.
-  Within  the  capacity  of  100  SD  channels,  in  addition  to  channels  to  be mandatorily  provided  to  subscribers  as  notified  by  the  Central  Government,  a subscriber  will  be  free  to  choose  any  Free-to-Air  (FTA)  channel,  pay  channel,  or bouquet of pay channels offered by the broadcasters or bouquet of pay channels offered  by  the  distributor  of  television  channels  or  bouquet  of  free-to-air  channels offered by the distributor of television channels or a combination thereof.

 No separate charges, other than the Network Capacity Fee, to be paid by the subscribers for subscribing to free-to-air channels or bouquet of free-to-air channels.

A subscriber has to pay separate charges, other than the Network Capacity Fee, for subscribing to pay channels or bouquet of pay channels.

(b): TRAI has not prescribed any genre wise ceiling on the prices of pay channels.

(c): The distributors of TV channels can form bouquets from a-la-carte pay channels and bouquet of pay channels of broadcasters. The details are as under:

'It  shall  be  permissible  for  a  distributor  of  television  channels  to  offer  bouquet(s) formed from pay channels of one or more broadcasters and declare distributor retail price(s) , per month, of such bouquet(s) payable by a subscriber:

Provided that such bouquet shall not contain any pay channel for which maximum retail price per month declared by the broadcaster is more than rupees nineteen:

Provided  further  that  the  distributor  retail  price  per  month  of  such  bouquet  of  pay channels  shall  not  be  less  than  eighty  five  percent  of  the  sum  of  distributor  retail prices per month of a-la-carte pay channels and bouquet(s) of pay channels forming part of that bouquet:

Provided  further  that  the  distributor  retail  price  per  month  of  a  bouquet  of  pay channels offered by a distributor of television channels shall, in no case, exceed the sum of maximum retail prices per month of a-la-carte pay channels and bouquet(s) of pay channels, declared by broadcasters, forming part of that bouquet:

Provided further that such bouquet shall not contain any free-to-air channel:

Provided also that such bouquet shall not contain both HD and SD variants of the same channel.

A full text of the tariff order is available at  TRAI  website under the link: http://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Tariff\_Order\_English\_3%20March\_2017.pdf.

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