Trai asks DTH players to cut rates by April 4

In a move that will lower the bill of the five-million direct-to-home consumers by 5-8 per cent, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked channels to reduce the bouquet rates on DTH platform by April 4.

The move will affect the subscription revenue of Star TV, Zee Group, Sony-One Alliance, Sun Network, ESPN-Star Sports, among others, who will have to significantly reduce prices for selling signals to DTH players.

However, this will help DTH operators lower the subscription fees. The average monthly fees per subscriber is about Rs 250 at present.

According to Trai's pricing formula for broadcasters, pay channels can charge DTH operators up to 50 per cent of the per subscriber rates they charge from the cable operators in the rest of the country (non-CAS homes).

This means that if Star TV's bouquet of 14 channels is priced at Rs 88 in non-CAS areas (70 million cable TV homes), it can charge only Rs 44 or less from existing DTH operators like Tata Sky, Dish TV and new entrants like Big TV, Bharti and Sun Direct.

But all broadcasters are charging more from DTH companies than from non-CAS cable homes.

Explaining this industry analyst said: "As DTH platform is digital, there is 100 per cent collection of fees, while in the cable sector, the under-declaration (cable operators declare a lower susbcriber base than the actual) is 25-35iv class="inline-block" id="div_arti_inline_advt">