India is set to reach the deadline for the third phase of digital addressable system, however, issues between MSOs and broadcasters have delayed the digital rollout .The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is trying to resolve some of the issues plaguing the DAS Phase III.
According to Trai advisor Sunil Kumar Singhal, Around 61 multi-system operators have approached broadcasters for interconnection deals. The process is taking time as the parties haven’t negotiated content rates. Singhal was speaking at the eighth task force meeting.
During the meeting, Singhal also said that the telecom regulator has asked MSOs to devise “means to have rational rates for Phase-lll as the rates for Phase-l & II cannot be workable in these remaining Phases.”
The Trai advisor said that the large MSOs might enter into interconnect agreements with broadcasters by mid-June. Most leading broadcasters have placed forms on their websites. MSOs can access these forms and submit their requests with the broadcaster.
An MSO representative at the meeting said that Trai should include a non-discriminative clause, which will help the operators choose channels on a a-la-carte basis. “We have been insisting on a-la-carte and not bundling of channels and any delay in the implementation of DAS will result in losses to both MSOs and broadcasters,” informed the TRAI advisor, reports Indian Television.
The DAS Phase III is expected to cover 38.8 million television households in 630 districts. The deadline for the project is 31, December, 2015. Indian might miss the DAS deadline again as MSOs haven’t been able to seed enough STBs for the digital TV rollout. Issues around content pricing has also delayed the project.
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