DTH Services Under The Scanner

The Maharashtra government is determined not to repeat the failure story by foregoing its share of revenues in the form of entertainment duty. The revenue department, after its failure to regularise the cable industry which even today refuses to issue receipts to subscribers have taken steps to make sure it gets its share of profits from the DTH service providers. 

Rules:-

It is now mandatory for DTH service providers to seek permission from the collector of each district they wish to operate in.

They will have to issue receipts, mentioning their registration number, to customers for installation fees, monthly subscription and maintenance work.

Copies of the receipts have to be saved and produced on demand.

They have to intimate change in their subscriber base by the 5th of every month.

They have to renew their license every year in November. If the DTH service provider wants to discontinue his service, then he should intimate the revenue department one month in advance.

Based on the number of connections, they have to pay the applicable entertainment duty by the 10th every month.

Defaulters will invoke penal provisions under the Mumbai Entertainment Duty Act, 1923 with repeated defaulters liable to face criminal action under provisions of Section 5.

Quality Monitoring:

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed monitoring of quality of service (QoS) of DTH broadcasting. According to Nripendra Mishra TRAI Chairman, the quality of service comes as a natural corollary considering the growing subscriber number. The DTH subscribers accounts for over 4 million. So far, only telecom services-both fixed and mobile-were being monitored by the regulator on a quarterly basis.

TRAI recently brought broadband services under the QoS system. The number of broadband connections has grown to over 1.7 million, and with that consumer complaints have also grown in number, forcing the regulator to issue quality bench-marks for broadband. From now on, over 90% of the customers of an ISP must be “satisfied” with the service over a quarter, to meet the quality benchmark.

Star-Zee in TDSAT Again:-

Entertainment major Star India and its rival Zee group-promoted Direct-To-Home service Dish TV have again locked horns in broadcast tribunal TDSAT.

Star India on 09 Nov. filed a petition before Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appelate Tribunal, alleging that Dish TV, owned by Zee group-promoted ASC Enterprises, was not disclosing its actual DTH subscriber base and was not paying charges accordingly.

Acting on the petition, the tribunal, headed by Justice Arun Kumar, issued a notice to ASC and directed it to file its reply within four weeks.

Star alleged that ASC was not submitting figures of its actual subscriber base monthly. As per broadcasting rules, every DTH player has to submit exact figures of its subscribers to broadcasters every month.

“They have submitted only cheques... We have not encashed those cheques so that no fresh cause of action arises,” the Star counsel said.

The entertainment major requested the tribunal to allow them to encash two cheques, which was accepted by TDSAT.

Star further alleged that Dish TV was not disclosing the entry level of subscribers and was showing it as zero.

DTH has an edge:-

Viewers debating between cable and DTH now have a third option namely IPTV. So television can now be watched through cable, satellite or telephone line. IPTV clubs together internet, fixed telephony and cable into one service delivered over telephone lines.

But so far, DTH is fast gaining popularity as it allows consumers to watch DVD quality pictures straight from satellite and also offers exclusive features like choice of commentators, highlights on demand and player statistics to a cricket fan. Moreover its value-added services are reasonably cheap. IPTV’S video-on-demand services are priced higher than DTH players. While Dish TV charges Rs.45 for a movie-on-demand, Tata-Sky offers the service at Rs.70 per movie. IPTV will charge Rs.200 per movie.

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/dth/item/1418-dth-services-under-the-scanner.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/articles/dth/item/1418-dth-services-under-the-scanner.html