| NEW
DELHI: A general consensus has emerged in the broadcasting industry that individual
pay TV players would legally challenge the sector regulator’s directive on
fixing pay channel prices at Rs 5 in CAS notified areas. A pay broadcaster today
admitted that at a meeting held today under the aegis of Indian Broadcasting Foundation
(IBF) there was “unanimity” that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India (Trai)-mandated prices should be challenged. Says Star Group India CEO
Peter Mukerjea, "Taking legal recourse is certainly an active option as fixing
of prices of non-essential services (like cable TV) is tantamount to encroaching
on our fundamental right of doing business."“Since no industry body
can move a court or a disputes tribunal challenging the pricing, it has been decided
that individual companies will legally challenge Trai’s order,” a member
of the IBF today said after the meeting. However, it has also been clarified
that the onus of challenging the Trai tariff order will lie on individual broadcasters
and “every pay broadcaster” need not necessarily legally dispute it. “A broadcasting company
will have to take its own call on the matter,” another broadcaster-member
of the IBF added after today’s meeting, which also discussed draft points
on a proposed broadcast legislation being contemplated by the government.Broadcasters
are also seeking legal opinion on how to approach the whole issue of pricing and
whether it would make more sense to approach disputes tribunal TDSAT or high courts
in various parts of the country. However, with the TDSAT presently being
headless and not taking up industry issues, the tribunal might not be top priority
for the broadcasters. Over the next 15 days, expect a spate of cases in
various courts challenging the Trai tariff order on cable TV pricing in CAS areas.
Unless, of course, the regulator and the government step in to mitigate another
legal imbroglio that threatens to engulf rollout of CAS from 1 January 2007.
Also
Read:
Demands for channel
price ceilings to be extended to non-CAS areas
Broadcasters
look set to move court against pay channel price ceiling in CAS
CAS:
Govt populism may force low prices
Trai
fixes CAS pricing: RS 5 per pay channel | 
