Reports are that DTH platforms too are now planning to charge a carriage fee, from TV channels.
Says Essel Group vice-president Arvind Mohan: "A DTH company incurs huge technical costs on infrastructure, maintaining billing systems and encryption technologies. DTH player have limited number of transponders and can carry limited number of channels, therefore it makes sense for a DTH player to charge a fee from the broadcaster." He added that since so many new channels are coming up, it's difficult to accommodate all of them.
Several new channels plan to launch as FTA channels in the next few months. These include atleast 3 channels from Peter Mukerjea's INX Media and others from Network 18.
Clearly, Tata Sky had Carriage fees on its mind, when it responded to the TRAI's consultation paper with "Any regulatory intervention for carriage pricing would be an exercise in futility, which could prove counter-productive and make DTH operations unviable. Nonetheless, it is submitted that DTH sector is in its infancy stage, it also has a very high licence fee structure, coupled with high (unregulated) content cost and investment in pan-India satellite network, and therefore, there are channels that need to be on DTH platform and vice versa. Thus at this stage of development, it is felt that the carriage issue ought to be left to the market forces."
Not surprisingly, broadcasters are unhappy with the carriage fee concept. Says Star India president (ad-sales & distribution) Paritosh Joshi: "DTH players have already begun charging a carriage fee from some of the smaller channels - they do so under the guise of calling it a 'technical fee' or by some other name. The DTH platform is just a delivery pipe. It is the content that broadcasters provide that makes the pipe work. You cannot ask somebody to pay up when it is they who provide the reason to be - no body wants a pipe that does not work." n
Satellite & Cable TV
Says Essel Group vice-president Arvind Mohan: "A DTH company incurs huge technical costs on infrastructure, maintaining billing systems and encryption technologies. DTH player have limited number of transponders and can carry limited number of channels, therefore it makes sense for a DTH player to charge a fee from the broadcaster." He added that since so many new channels are coming up, it's difficult to accommodate all of them.
Several new channels plan to launch as FTA channels in the next few months. These include atleast 3 channels from Peter Mukerjea's INX Media and others from Network 18.
Clearly, Tata Sky had Carriage fees on its mind, when it responded to the TRAI's consultation paper with "Any regulatory intervention for carriage pricing would be an exercise in futility, which could prove counter-productive and make DTH operations unviable. Nonetheless, it is submitted that DTH sector is in its infancy stage, it also has a very high licence fee structure, coupled with high (unregulated) content cost and investment in pan-India satellite network, and therefore, there are channels that need to be on DTH platform and vice versa. Thus at this stage of development, it is felt that the carriage issue ought to be left to the market forces."
Not surprisingly, broadcasters are unhappy with the carriage fee concept. Says Star India president (ad-sales & distribution) Paritosh Joshi: "DTH players have already begun charging a carriage fee from some of the smaller channels - they do so under the guise of calling it a 'technical fee' or by some other name. The DTH platform is just a delivery pipe. It is the content that broadcasters provide that makes the pipe work. You cannot ask somebody to pay up when it is they who provide the reason to be - no body wants a pipe that does not work." n
Satellite & Cable TV