The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) and Kerala Communicators Communication Ltd (a body of LCOs) have moved a fresh application in Kerala High Court alleging ‘arm-twisting’ by broadcasters using regulator TRAI’s ‘impugned’ tariff regulations and seeking immediate interim judicial relief.

The case, which lists Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) as respondents, has been listed for hearing on Monday, February 20, at 3 pm.

“The petitioners are constrained to move the present application as certain members of the IBF (Indian Broadcasting Foundation), with intimation and knowledge of the Respondent No. 1 (TRAI), have issued disconnection notices to MSO members of the Petitioner No. 1 (AIDCF) organization, seeking to arm-twist the members into signing new interconnection agreements, placing purported reliance on the Impugned TRAI Amendment Regulations 2022 and impugned TRAI Tariff Amendment Order 2022,” the new application stated.

The fresh application was moved as some MSOs got a disconnection notice from broadcasting companies earlier this week if the clauses of filing details by MSOs were not completed as per TRAI’s amended tariff regulation, popularly now referred to as NTO 3.0

“The concerted efforts of the Respondents are to ensure that the New Tariffs are passed on the consumer even before the decision of the present writ (that is listed for hearing by the court on February 22 when last taken up) and that new interconnection agreements are also executed so that even if the Petitioners are successful in the writ petition, the ordinary consumer will still have to suffer the price increase and the broadcasters would be unjustly enriched,” the application elaborated.

Forwarding some economic data by the petitioners, the application goes on to add: “Even INR 1 of price increase on average will result in a loss of INR 175 crores to consumers as there are 14.6 crore families that subscribe to pay TV channels in India. Therefore, the average estimated price increase of INR 30 to INR 50 per subscriber will mean a loss of INR 5,200 to INR 8,700 crores in a year and INR 20-25 crores per day.”