Major television broadcasters including Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony Pictures Networks India have switched off signals to cable operators going off air for nearly 45 million subscribers in India. While the broadcasters have hiked channel prices, the cable operators have not agreed for the rate increase. Broadcasters have increased prices in the range of 10-15 percent as the New Tariff Order (NTO) 3.0 allowed them to raise the prices of channels that are part of a bouquet to Rs 19, from Rs 12 earlier. The new pricing came into effect from February 1 this year.However, cable operators or multiple system operators (MSOs) are not ready to increase channel prices as they feel the increase is steep for their customers who are price sensitive.
MSO refers to an operator of multiple cable or direct-broadcast satellite television systems who provides signals to consumers’ houses through local cable operators (LCOs). MSOs have to share a part of network capacity fees (NCF) with LCOs. NCF is the amount customers are charged for distribution of TV channels. On the other hand, IBDF (Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation, an apex body of TV broadcasters said that 90 percent of operators including DTH (direct-to-home) and MSOs (multiple system operator) have signed up for NTO 3.0 but the remaining operators are holding back.DTH service is distribution of multi-channel TV programs by using a satellite system. "Broadcasters have, therefore, been left with little choice but to turn off the supply of content to these distributors. We remain hopeful of their cooperation and look forward to a scenario where content is seamlessly available to all television viewers across the country," Siddharth Jain, secretary general, IBDF, said in a statement.