New Delhi: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has permitted Direct-To-Home (DTH) manipulators to make a decision on the channels that they wish to air even within a bouquet, which is provided by broadcasters. At present, DTH operators are left with no option but pay for complete bouquets as broadcasters do not offer channels on a la carte basis.

The new rules released by TRAI ordered that broadcasters permit DTH operators to decide and choose channels on an a la carte basis. Broadcasters have also been mandated to spell out the rates of individual channels and the different bouquets on their internet sites.

While releasing the plans for this segment, Trai has, however, declined to explicate the tariff cap for pay channels. Simultaneously, the regulator has also brought out a chain of checks to make sure that broadcasters do not charge too much for individual charges and also for bouquets.

This comprises a norm that says that that the final aggregate rate of pay channels picked by the DTH operators will not go beyond 1.5 times the rate of the complete bouquet.

In addition, separate costs of a pay channel in a bouquet can also not be over three times the average pay channel rate of that bouquet.

Called as the Amendments to subsisting Interconnection Regulation for facilitating DTH Service, the new standards that comes into effect from December 1 states, “All broadcasters will compulsorily offer all their channels on a la carte basis to DTH operators. Additionally, they may also offer bouquets, but they will not compel any DTH operator to include the entire bouquet in any package being offered by DTH operators to their subscribers.”