NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today issued a consultation on monopoly/market dominance in cable TV services, wanting to know if stakeholders agree that the State should be the relevant market for measuring market power in the cable TV sector or suggest alternatives.

In the first place, TRAI which claims to have issued the paper at the instance of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, wanted to know if stakeholders agree that there is a need to address the issue of monopoly/market dominance in cable TV distribution and how the ill effects of monopoly/market dominance can be addressed.

Asking a series of fifteen questions, TRAI has said it wants written comments on the consultation paper by 24 June and counter comments, if any, by 1 July.

TRAI has sought to know whether, to curb market dominance and monopolistic trends, restrictions in the relevant cable TV market should be based on area of operation or based on market share.

Those who feel it should be based on area of operation will have to specify how the area of a relevant market ought to be divided amongst MSOs for providing cable TV service.

Those who feel it should be based on market share, what should be the threshold value of market share beyond which an MSO is not allowed to build market share on its own. Furthermore, how this can be achieved in markets where an MSO already possesses market share beyond the threshold value. Furthermore, TRAI wants comments on the suitability of the rules defined in the paper in this connection.

Stakeholders have to give their views about the threshold values increase indicated by the regulator, or suggest defining restrictions.

TRAI wants to know if ?control? of an entity over other MSOs/LCOs be decided according to the conditions mentioned in the paper or suggestion on alternatives.

Stakeholders wanting different restrictions to curb market dominance have been asked to suggest these.

TRAI has also sought to know whether the parameters listed by it in the paper are adequate with respect to mandatory disclosures for effective monitoring and compliance of restrictions on market dominance in Cable TV sector, and the periodicity of such disclosures.

The regulator wants to know of any amendments to be made in the statutory rules/executive orders for implementing the restrictions.

NEW DELHI: Community radio stations can re-transmit All India Radio?s (AIR) new bulletins.

However, the Government has once again turned down the demand for airing of local news bulletins.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Uday Kumar Varma said: ?Even for FM which is a far more commercial venture, we have not allowed news which they can create on their own, but we have in the proposed policy said that they could perhaps use the AIR news. I am willing to offer that to you.?

Varma said it was not possible to permit creation of local news as the Ministry did not have the mechanism to monitor the channels. He said creation of local news was a very sensitive issue. ?You will realise that in a country like India, where we have no mechanism to know what is going on, if some damage is done, we?ll not know for a long time.? On the other hand, he said, it could also be argued that people who ran Community Radio stations are responsible and could be trusted.

On the spectrum fee front, the Government has taken a decision to waive them for community radio stations, though the orders in this connection will be announced as soon as the Telecom Ministry completes the necessary formalities. The spectrum fee of Rs 19,000 had recently been increased to Rs 91,000 and posed a major burden on the CR stations.

?Our feedback is that the spectrum fee has been waived but there are certain procedures which are required. Those procedures are underway and soon - I really can?t make a commitment because it is not in my hands - but it is expected that the complete waiver of the spectrum fee will become a reality very very shortly,? said Varma.