(9 February 2008 6:20 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has warned some broadcasters who have "manipulated offers" in the a la carte system for non-Cas (conditional access system) areas, asking them to correct the pricing chart.

The violation, according to a senior Trai official, is the quoting of higher rates for some individual channels which were earlier priced lower.

"This is not permissible under the tariff regulation. There are some serious cases of such manipulations that have been noticed and we have sent letters warning those broadcasters," the official revealed.

Asked whether the situation was serious, the official observed: "We are not looking at the smaller channels, but at the bigger broadcasters. If one such big player tries to manipulate, I should say the situation is serious, and we have some cases of that sort," the official said.

One of Trai's key formulations laid down in the October 4 tariff order is that the a la carte rates of each pay channel forming a part of any bouquet shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of that bouquet.

Some multi-system operators (MSOs) had alleged that on checking out the rates offered by some broadcasters, many violations of this formula have come to light.

However, the Trai senior official said: "You are now asking for details, but let me tell you, that has not been done by anyone, and MSOs must realise that no broadcaster would do it simply because they would be caught instantly and mathematically; that is not true."

Reacting to MSOs accusing the Trai of pussyfooting on implementation, the official said: "There are more than 100 such a la carte offers from across the country and thousands of interconnect offers, and every one of them have enormous amount of details.

"We have limited human resources, and with what we have, to undertake a faultless scrutiny will take a long time. Let me say that the process will only be completed within three months, not before that."

Trai has started the scrutiny process on the a la carte rates for non-Cas areas. "MSOs and broadcasters are free to work out their deals on the basis of what the latter have offered. If there are problems, the MSOs can complain to Trai. We, though, are yet to receive any complaint," the official said.