| |
Cable operators
welcome Andhra Pradesh HC ruling on pay channels
The
recent verdict by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, restraining
all pay channels from charging subscription fees for channels
that consumers do not want, is a step forward in introducing
an addressable cable system, according to cable operators.
This order is likely to affect most of the broadcasters such
as Star TV, Zee, Sony, Turner Broadcasting and Doordarshan
as there’s no system to choose and differentiate between
the pay channels.
Reacting to the AP court ruling, Sainath Iyer of Zee Telefilms,
said, “The pay channels of Zee network are taken by the
MSOs and cable operators. We charge them and they pay us the
tariff for carrying our pay channels on the cable network.”
He added, “We don’t know how/whether they charge
their viewers. We don’t bill the viewers but we bill
the cable operators/MSOs. According to us, this ruling is
unsustainable.”
But cable operators are happy that such a ruling has come.
“The court order will reinforce our demand for an addressable
cable network where the consumer has a choice in deciding
and paying for the channels he wants to receive,” said
Rakesh Dutta, a member of the United Front Action Front. Suzail
Waris, head of Extravision under Spectranet, agreed. “The
legal judgement will make our demand for addressability more
forceful,” Waris said.
“It’s a major step forward for both the cable industry
and subscribers,” Dutta said. The AP court judgement
supports the case put forward by the cable operators for addressibility.
He added, “Now the Information and Broadcasting Minister,
Ms. Sushma Swaraj, has to execute the addressibility option
in the cable system, whereby the subscriber can choose what
he wants and pay for only that.” Recently, a group of
cable operators had met Swaraj and Prasar Bharati CEO, R.R.
Shah, to demand the addressibility option in the cable system.
More
News>>>>
 Guidelines
on DTH to be issued within a few days
ABCL
offers to pay Rs. 9 crore to Prasar Bharati to clear dues
Prasar
Bharati, Ford Foundation to build corpus of PSBT
Beating
KBC — SET’s programme rescheduling works
UTV
may rope in ESPN, Disney for Vijaya TV slots
Sony
Music India’s site launch in December
Have
FM licence, can join club
MTV
plans to go local
Creative
Eye’s bookbuilding offer oversubscribed 3.4 times
CNN
to launch two made in India programmes
Musicians
irked by Universal’s “works-for-hire” classification
TOP
|
