Broadcasters hail judicial review of tariff rules

NEW DELHI: A sia's pay TV industry association Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) on Tuesday welcomed the judicial review of broadcast regulator Trai's proposed tariff regulations.
Th e draft Trai rules will establish a controlled price regime by mandating a la carte channel supply, setting a price ceiling in each genre-sports, news, general entertainment-that broadcasting organisations can charge to multichannel program distributors.This is likely to limit discounts, prescribe rigid carriage fees, and stipulate a compulsory distribution fee to be paid by broadcasting organisations to multichannel program distributors.
These rules had been opposed by various broadcast organisations with Star India and Vijay TV challenging the powers of Trai to regulate tariff in the Madras HC. The HC is currently reviewing the clash between the rights of copyright owners around the world and new tariff regulations. Trai had in response filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the Madras HC order that directed it to maintain status quo on draft tariff order and regulation. On Tuesday, Supreme Court ordered Trai not to give effect to the rules until the underlying issues are considered by the HC, with a hearing now set for January 19.
CASBAA CEO Christopher Slaughter said that the new rules would be a major negative factor for the business environment in the $17 billion Indian media industry. "India's pay-TV regulations have long been among the strictest in the world," he said. "The proposed new rules are highly intrusive and would make the environment much worse. Such a heavy-handed regulatory regime will inevitably hit foreign companies' interest in investing in India."
Indian law gives copyright owners the ability to price and sell their creative works.