Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman PD Vaghela has said that the regulator will move to a forbearance regime if the service providers in the broadcasting ecosystem work cohesively.

Speaking at the 11th CII Big Picture Summit, Vaghela said that the TRAI has taken note of the challenges faced by the TV broadcasting sector and is trying to overcome those challenges by aligning its regulatory framework. The TRAI, he added, will soon come out with amendments to its new tariff order (NTO) framework.

“Soon, we expect to issue amendments to the tariff order which was a demand by the industry. The interconnection regulation will be aligned with the stated policy of light-touch regulation. We expect the industry to respond with tariffs and prices that do not put undue pressure on the consumers,” Vaghela said.

Under the amended NTO framework, popularly known as NTO 2.0, the pricing of TV channels is capped at Rs 12 for inclusion in a bouquet. The regulator has also introduced twin conditions to bring linkage between a la carte and bouquet pricing. The TRAI has accused broadcasters of curtailing consumer choice by pushing bouquets through high discounting and keeping the a la carte price of the channels closer to the MRP cap.

The pay-TV base has been shrinking due to the migration of consumers to over-the-top (OTT) platforms and DD Free Dish. Despite the drop in pay-TV base, the broadcasters pulled their popular channels out of bouquets last year. The broadcasters had failed to get any reprieve from the Supreme Court while the TRAI insisted on implementing the NTO 2.0. The TRAI has postponed NTO 2.0 roll-out multiple times due to the fear of an increase in the monthly TV bills of consumers. The industry, meanwhile, is awaiting the TRAI's fresh tariff guidelines.

The TRAI chief also stated that the regulator will make forbearance the base policy while noting that this has not been possible so far, due to the conflicting interests of different stakeholders.

“If all the service providers work in a cohesive manner, TRAI will move towards forbearance. This is our stated objective. We would like to move to forbearance. Unfortunately, there are interests that are diametrically opposite to each other which makes our work slightly difficult. In the end, forbearance will be the base policy,” he stated.

He also informed that the TRAI will issue another consultation paper to look into other issues like Network Capacity Fee (NCF), multi-TV connection tariff, and revenue share among the stakeholders. “We have also identified other pertinent issues like NCF, multi-TV connection, and revenue sharing among various players. We are bringing out another consultation paper to take up these issues for consultation very soon.”

Vaghela further mentioned that “the government needs to come out with policies that are flexible in nature and allows new players to easily enter the industry while at the same time must not strangulate the traditional sector with numerous regulations.”

He added that during the last decade, the M&E sector in the country has undergone several radical changes and is experiencing a paradigm shift due to the advancement of technologies and innovations in the creation, distribution, and consumption of media.

He stressed that the traditional media would lose its ground unless it understands, adopts, and merges its own business models with society 5.0, AI, machine learning, and other technologies that are being unleased.

Vaghela also stated that the traditional media will lose ground if they fail to realign their business strategy in face of the technological disruption. “Government may intervene in the short period and government may try to create a level playing field. Unless the traditional media companies understand this reality and come out with products by using the new technology, they will go out of existence,” he averred.

He cited the example of the telecom industry where telcos that were relying on 2G and 3G technology have shut shop. “4G is here, but I don't know how long it will be there. Maybe, it will have relevance for 10 years. Eventually, 5G is going to take over. We must understand that there is a limit to which government will intervene, but that also means that the government should come out with policies that are flexible in nature and allows new players to come in and at the same time, it does not strangulate the traditional sector by having a lot of regulation,” he expounded.