Now get 100 SD channels at Rs 130 per months, says  TRAI

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI),consumers will be able to get 100 standard definition channels at Rs. 130 per month excluding taxes.

"The distribution of network capacity required for initial 100 Standard Definition (SD) channels can be availed by the subscriber by paying an amount not exceeding Rs 130, excluding taxes, per month to the distributor of TV channels," TRAI said in a statement.

The telecom regulator said that no separate charges other than this Network Capacity Fee (NCF), are to be paid by the subscribers for opting Free-to-Air channels or bouquet of Free-to-Air (FTA) channels.

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It said that beyond initial 100 channels, capacity cap will be availed by a subscriber in the slabs of 25 SD channels each, by paying an amount not exceeding Rs 20 (excluding taxes) per slab for a month.

Distributors are also permitted to form bouquets from a-la-carte pay channels and bouquet of pay channels of broadcasters.

However, distributor retail price of such bouquets of pay channels shall not be less than 85 percent of the sum of distributor retail prices of the a-la-carte pay channels, and bouquets of pay channels of broadcasters forming part of that bouquet.

A subscriber has to pay separate charges, other than the network capacity fee, for subscribing to pay channels or bouquet of pay channels, the regulator added.

Distributors of television channels have to offer at least one bouquet, referred to as basic service tier, of 100 FTA channels including all the mandatorily channels to be provided to the subscribers as notified by the Central Government. This bouquet will be one of the options available for subscription to customers. It will be the subscriber who will be free to exercise his option.

Any bouquet formed either by the broadcaster or by the distributor of television channels cannot have both HD and SD variants of same channel.