Follow on Google News News By Tag Industry News News By Place Country(s) Industry News
Follow on Google News | Vertical Monopoly of Pay Broadcaster and MSOs who are their Distributors, must endDigitalisation process, although a boon for them, will not succeed unless the government took adequate and strong measures to end the monopoly of large MSOs who are also acting as distributors for many broadcasters.
By: COFI Ministry has been asked to iron out many contentious issues that have cropped up after TRAI issued the Tariff Order and Interconnect Order on 30th April. According to COFI President Mrs Roop Sharma, digitalization initiative is likely to suffer serious setback as certain content providers and their distributors are not providing or are not likely to provide content to the Independent MSOs or Cable Operators who wish to do digitalization on their own after getting registered with the Ministry as there are conflicting interests involved. 1) Various broadcasters/ 2) It is in the interest of these distributors who also have interest in cable networks as MSOs that their supporting broadcasters deny the content to the third party independent MSOs and Cable Operators so that the monopoly of their associated MSOs is maintained and perpetuated. 3) COFI has drawn the attention of the Minister to the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of M/s Star India Pvt Ltd Vs. Sea TV Network (2006) 4SCC 130, in which it was clearly held that appointing an MSO as distributor of a broadcaster would be clearly anti competitive as this would amount to creating exclusivity or monopoly of one service provider in an area and thereby denying content to other competing MSOs in that area. It was further held by the Court that such an appointment of competing MSO as distributor is clearly prohibited by TRAI regulations. In majority of the cases when a broadcaster or their authorized distributors appoint cable operators or MSOs as their authorized distribution agent then they create a monopoly on the ground which has adverse impact on the small and independent MSOs. 4) COFI has suggested that in the interest of proper implementation of digital initiative, the MIB and TRAI, while reiterating the law declared by the Sea TV judgment as stated above, should issue an advisory to all broadcasters and their distributors such as Media Pro, MSMD, Sun 18 etc. that they should give an undertaking that they will not appoint any person or entity directly or indirectly who is involved in cable networking operations/business either by himself or his family members and close relatives. 5) It has been further suggested that all broadcasters should give the name and address of the distributors to MIB and TRAI. 6) All MSO’s /Independent MSOs should give a declaration that they do not hold any agency on behalf of any broadcaster either directly or indirectly. 7) It should be made a part of the cable rules that holding distributorship of any broadcaster by an MSO whether directly or indirectly tantamount to creating a monopoly and exclusivity on the ground which is in violation of the Downlinking Permission and ‘must provide regulations’ It has also informed the minister that companies like Media Pro ( a joint venture of Star TV, DEN, Zee and Turner), MSMD have appointed MSOs as their distributors also in various cities and states like Kanpur, Hyderabad, Gujarat etc. and are now not giving content to independent MSOs as they wish to protect their networks. The Minister has been requested to take up this issue immediately as it will create a conducive environment for successful implementation of digital cable. Roop Sharma (9810069272) End
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Account Phone Number