Channels, cable firms end row

After nearly five days, television broadcasters and cable operators on Thursday night ended the deadlock over implementing pricing under the New Tariff Order 3.0 (NTO 3.0). Major channels are likely to be back on viewers’ screens on Friday.

“Yes, the deadlock seems to be over, and we are waiting for the broadcasters to switch on the signals,” said a senior executive of a large multi system operator (MSO).

Last Saturday, major television broadcasters including Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony Pictures Networks India had switched off signals to cable operators. The move came on the back of broadcasters increasing their bouquet and popular channels’ prices between 10% and 15%, under new amendments to the tariff order, or NTO 3.0, that cable operators felt would pinch their low-income consumers especially in small towns and were hence, not willing to implement.

The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF), a lobby group of the multi-system-operators (MSO), had already petitioned the Kerala high court against NTO 3.0, and asked for interim relief from disconnection notices issued by broadcasters.

To be sure, neither side was gaining much, media industry experts had pointed out. While broadcasters were losing access to almost 45 million homes, and advertising and subscription revenue in turn, cable platforms could have seen switch to either DTH (direct-to-home) or OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms as popular channels remained out of reach for their customers.

Further, it is already a challenging time for broadcasters with the IPL slated to stream for free on Jio platforms and the Ramzan season, when several segments of the population do not consume entertainment content in general, scheduled to begin.

Last month, direct-to-home (DTH) operators such as Tata Play, Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV had already begun to implement the new pricing regime that was to start 1 February. Under the new amendments, or NTO 3.0, broadcasters were allowed by the sector regulator to increase the price of channels, which are part of a bouquet, to ₹19 from ₹12 earlier.