Section 21 in Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Interconnection (Digital Addressable Cable Television Systems) Regulations, 2012
21. The issues are what should be the provisions in the interconnection regulations in respect of advertisement free channels and what should be the revenue sharing arrangement between the broadcasters and distributors in respect of such channels. Some broadcasters and an MSO stated that existing requirements/stipulations of Interconnect Regulations, viz. 'must provide' should not apply to advertisement free channels and the broadcasters & respective service providers should be free to enter into agreements on mutually acceptable terms in order to provide incentives to all the players in the value chain to create, develop and market new innovative and non-mass-market advertisement based television content. Majority of other stakeholders, who have responded to these issues, say that the provisions of the existing interconnection regulations should be applicable to advertisement free channels also so that consumers are not deprived of such channels. Some cable operators are of the view that provisions of the interconnection regulations as applicable to the notified CAS areas should be applied for the advertisement free channels. As far as the sharing of the subscription revenue of the ad-free channels is concerned, all the broadcasters have expressed the views that it should be left for the commercial negotiations between the service providers. Some of the other stakeholders have suggested that revenue share be decided in the same way as any other pay channel while others have suggested different percentages for broadcaster, MSO and LCO, however, without any justification for this suggestion.
