Trai's new tariff order: Over 100 TV channels may shut if new order applied

Mumbai: TV broadcasters are worried that the sudden move by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, directing broadcasters to comply with the new amended tariff order (NTO 2.0), could trigger a collapse of scores of struggling channels—and has grave implications for the sector. Top industry leaders — Uday Shankar, chairman Star and Disney India and president — Asia Pacific Walt Disney, and Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE), India’s largest listed entertainment company — told ET separately that implementing NTO 2.0 could result in shutting down of 100-150 TV channels in the next couple of years.Shankar said under the new tariff order, any channel that doesn’t have massive reach can no longer be monetised. “It can’t get the portfolio benefit or the bouquet advantage. There are already a dozen or so channels which are likely to shut down and in the next couple of years, over 100 channels will shut down because it will not make any economic sense,” he said.77189181Goenka said if the regulatory environment stayed the way it is, at least “100-150 channels will shut down” as they will be economically unviable. The new tariff order, notified on January 1, has been challenged by top television broadcasters, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), and the Film & TV Producers Guild of India in the Bombay High Court. The court heard the mater and reserved its judgement, without providing any interim relief to broadcasters.On July 24 Trai directed broadcasters to amend their reference interconnect offer (RIO) in compliance with the provisions of NTO 2.0 and publish it on their websites by August 10. This was despite the fact that minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar had assured the IBF members in May that the government will ensure that NTO 2.0 will not be implemented anytime soon.NTO 2.0 severely impacts the broadcasters ability to price channels as Trai has reduced the cap on the MRP of individual channels to 12 per month. It also restricted the discount on channel bouquets to around 33%.“Without reach, channels cannot get ads. The only way channels could survive is on subscription revenues, and that’s becoming increasingly tough because of the NTO. So, I think, we’ll lose a lot of channels. And you can imagine what we will do to the content industry,” Shankar added. “I am not saying only English genre will suffer, regional channels are even more vulnerable.”Star India is shutting down popular and long running English entertainment channel Star World.

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