TRAI Reduces NCF Charges: Now Get More Channels At Lesser Price

With an aim to protect consumer interest, telecom regulator TRAI has come up with new regulatory norms for cable and broadcasting services. The new regulatory rules will allow users to access more channels at a lesser price.

Under the new norms, TRAI has fixed Rs. 160 for all users so that they can avail free-to-air channels. The regulator stated that users with more than one connection will have to pay 40 percent of Network Capacity Fee (NCF). This is specially designed for the secondary connection.

"It has also been decided that channels declared mandatory by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will not be counted in a number of channels in the NCF. Distribution Platform Operators (DPO) has also been mandated that they will not charge more than Rs.160 per month for giving all channels available on their platform," the regulator said in a statement.

The authority has also allowed all DPO, to offer discounts on six months packs. On the other hand, TRAI intimated that it has also considered the fact that broadcasters are paying huge carriage fees to DPOs. The regulator has fixed Rs. 4,00,000 per month, as a carriage fees.

"The sum of the a-la-carte rates of the pay channels forming part of a bouquet shall in no case exceed one and a half times the rate of the bouquet of which such pay channels are a part," TRAI said. Adding to that," The a-la-carte rates of each pay channel (MRP), forming part of a bouquet, shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of the bouquet of which such pay channel is a part."

Furthermore, the regulator has decided that all the channels which are priced at Rs. 12 or less, will be allowed to be part of that bouquet. The new norms are part of the 2017 tariff orders on broadcasting services.