Mumbai, December 10, 2004: ASC Enterprises Limited, the first Direct to Home (DTH) Licensee in India and operating under the Brand Name DISH TV welcomes the Notification on Interconnect Regulations for Broadcasting and Cable Services notified by TRAI on 10th December, 2004.
According to clause 3.2 of the notification, every broadcaster shall provide on request signals of its TV Channels on non-discriminatory terms to all distributors of TV channels which may include, but be not limited to a cable operator, director to home operator, multi system operators, head end in the sky operator; Multi system operators shall on request re-transmit signals received from a broadcaster, on a non-discriminatory basis to cable operators.
Welcoming the move, Mr. Jawahar Goel, Vice-Chairman Essel Group said “We are happy that TRAI has recognized the need for a ‘must provide’ regime and this regulation would promote competition in the Broadcasting and Distribution Sector and shall provide a genuine choice to the consumers. The various clauses of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Notification, as reproduced below, clearly reflects this spirit.
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“3. In India, competition for delivery of TV channels is not only to be promoted within the Cable Industry but also from distributors of TV channels using other mediums like Direct To Home (DTH), Head Ends in the Sky etc. It is important that all these distribution platforms are promoted so that they provide consumers with choice.
“6 . The DTH services have to compete with Cable TV. If a popular content is available on Cable TV and not on the DTH platform, then it would not be able to effectively give competition to the cable networks. “
“9. . Moreover if a popular content is available on the cable network and is not available on the DTH platform, it would never be able to give an effective alternative to the cable services. Competition between cable and DTH will be enhanced if all the content is available on both platforms. Similarly the cable industry should not be denied content that is available on DTH. Therefore in the interest of consumers it is essential that all channels are available on all platforms on a non-discriminatory basis. This would promote competition amongst different platforms and thus would be beneficial for the consumers.”
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We believe that this regulation would not only provide a level playing field but would also act as a positive impetus for the growth and development of the entire distribution Sector as the consumer shall have access to the popular content through various distribution platforms deploying latest technologies which would surely add value to the services.
Adding further he said “DISH TV has already approached Star and Sony for providing their content/channels on its DTH platform. We sincerely hope that in the spirit of regulations they will positively respond within a period of 30 days as provided in the notification itself vide clause 3.6 of the regulation.”
Essel Group promoted DISH TV is India’s first DTH service provider offering close to 100 television channels spread across different genres of general entertainment, news, music, movies, sports, regional channels and many international channels. DISH TV started operations in October, 2003 and has close to 170,000 subscribers across India. DISH TV offers DVD quality audio and video along with a host of user-friendly features.