The All-India Aavishkar Dish Antenna Sangh, an apex body of LCOs, has urged the government to nudge the broadcasters and MSOs to extend financial relief to the last mile operators because of the accrued losses owing to blackout of TV channels from about 45 million cable TV homes in the country, which has been induced by a face-off between the MSOs, broadcasters and the regulator.

In a letter to Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, Aavishkar Dish Antenna Sangh president Dr. Anil K. Rastogi blamed the government, broadcasters and MSOs for the cable TV blackout, which is now in its fourth day, and the resultant fiasco that has financially impacted the already downsized business of the LCOs, not to mention their relationship with consumers that has been soured too.

It is the stakeholders’ responsibility to own up to the mix-up and their duty to compensate the financially hit LCOs by deciding to forego the broadcast fee (owed to broadcasters) and the monthly fee that goes to the MSOs, Dr. Rastogi stressed in the letter.

Dr. Rastogi also alleged in the letter that without the tacit understanding of the government — the MIB and regulator TRAI — the big broadcasters couldn’t have taken the decision to discontinue signals to MSOs, which resulted in cable TV blackout in millions of homes in India.

He observed that the government should think about the negative impact of TV blackout would have on the good relationships that local and small cable operators had with consumers, apart from impacting the LCOs’ businesses.

The legal game that’s being played out in the name of tariff regulations is not only affecting the LCOs financially, but the wrath of consumers, borne mainly by cable operators as they work on the ground, has raised a question on the very existence of LCOs.

On behalf of thousands of small cable TV operators, Aavishkar Dish Antenna Sangh has urged the government to be alive to the difficulties of the consumers and LCOs and, hence, should consider scrapping the rules regarding digital addressable system or DAS to bring back conditional access system (CAS), which was started by former Minister of I&B, the late Sushma Swaraj, during the NDA government’s tenure in the early years of 2000 decade.

The TV blackout is the result of broadcasters refusing to give signals to those MSOs who did not sign the interconnect agreement with TV channels as per TRAI’s amended tariff guidelines of November 2022.

MSOs’ apex body AIDCF challenged last week TRAI’s amended interconnect regulations and tariff order in the Kerala High Court, which is presently hearing the case as fresh application was filed by AIDCF and KCCF.

Under the 2020 regime, the price of the “driver” channel in a bouquet was capped at Rs 12, but under the latest tariff order it has been increased to Rs 19, AIDCF has claimed in its petition.