Section 74 in Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2017
74. The Authority has considered the demand of distributors of television channels to let the price forbearance at retail level continue in the new framework also. The Authority has noted that distributors of television channels get channels or bouquets of channels from broadcasters within prescribed limits of discounts. In order to address this concern, the Authority has decided to continue the forbearance at the retail level and provided freedom to distributors of television channels to fix the distributor retail prices of a-la-carte pay channels for their customers by offering discount on the MRP of pay channels declared by the broadcasters. Distributors of television channels are also free to form and price the bouquets from a-la-carte pay channels of different broadcasters with a condition that the distributor retail price of such bouquet of pay channels shall not be less than eighty five percent of the sum of distributor retail prices of the a-la-carte pay channels and bouquet of pay channels formed by broadcasters forming part of that bouquet (refer example 2). Further, in order to protect customer/ viewer interests DPOs also have to ensure that any pay channel having MRP of more than Rs. 19/- cannot become part of any bouquet.
