Cable networks associations and the Cable Operators Federation of India have threatened a national stir from April 20 against the bouquet pricing of Rs 71.33, excluding taxes, for 30 free-to-air channels announced by the CAS Task Force Committee.
The panel, headed by Rakesh Mohan, joint secretary, broadcasting, information and broadcasting ministry, submitted its recommendations on wednesday. According to the operators, such a low price is not commercially viable.
"We are waiting for the CAS panel, which announced the basic tier price, to submit a final report on the issue to the government. If our interests are not protected, we are going on a strike," Roop Sharma, president of the Cable Operators Federation of India, said.
Cable operators have been demanding an FTA bouquet pricing of Rs 180 for 30 channels. They had earlier rejected the price of Rs 45.90, excluding taxes, proposed by the finance ministry.
A recently released report by J P Morgan on CAS said: "The FTA price is what the local cable operator keeps with himself and will not be shared with any other body. The cable operators feel that their costs justify a price of over Rs 150 per subscriber per month."
However, the report said the final price of the FTA bouquet will be around Rs 70 to Rs 80 per subscriber per month. According to Sharma, the taskforce has fixed the low FTA rates under pressure from broadcasters and multi-system operators. "The taskforce has only taken into consideration the broadcasters' point of view and not the ground level realities of last mile operators," he said.
Explaining the economics, she said after adding entertainment tax, service tax and MSO charges, the subscribers, as per the new FTA rate, have to pay anything between Rs 90 and 100 for the FTA bouquet, which includes Doordarshan's channels (minus DD sports), Sahara, MTV, BBC, Aaj Tak.