Mumbai: Many direct-to-home consumers who paid for quarterly, half-yearly or annual packs are feeling cheated after their service providers terminated their contracts under a new tariff regime that allows subscribers to pay only for channels they choose. Following this, Trai issued a directive on May 1, asking DTH operators to honour the long-duration packs if a consumer hadn’t selected channels.However, Tata Sky approached the Delhi high court against Trai’s directive and got a stay on Wednesday. The matter will come up for hearing on July 11.“The problem is multi-fold,” said a senior executive in a DTH company who did not wish to be identified. The new broadcast framework ended the earlier revenue-sharing model between DTH companies and broadcasters, making it unviable to offer 200-300 channels for the same price.A senior broadcaster said DTH operators are suffering because all broadcasters have decided to charge subscribers on the basis on the new tariff order. “If they want to, or have to, give channels as per the old arrangement, they will have to shell out money from their pockets,” he said.

Source: Economic Times May 17, 2019 00:56 UTC