MANU/TRAI/0033/2021

Department/Board : Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Press Release No. : 32/2021

Date : 16.06.2021

Details of 'New Regulatory Framework' for Broadcasting and Cable services

TRAI, in March 2017, notified the 'New Regulatory Framework' for Broadcasting and Cable services. The new framework-came into effect on 29th December 2018. TRAI's new regulations/orders for the television and broadcasting sector gave freedom to consumers to select television channels they want to watch.

2. Transparency and consumer protection are important mandate of TRAI. After issuing of New Tariff order for broadcasting services it was noticed that consumers were facing difficulty to opt for TV channels/bouquets of their choice on the web portal/Apps of their respective Distributed Platform Operators(DPOs). Therefore, the Authority launched TV Channel Selector App on 25.06.2020.

3. TV Channel Selector App provides reliable, robust and transparent systems to television subscribers for fetching the data from respective DPOs platform through APIs. The subscribers will be authenticated by OTP on their Registered Mobile Number(RMN). In case there is no registered mobile number of a subscriber with DPO, subscriber will get OTP on his/her TV screen. Channel Selector App is available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

4. TRAI has now developed TV Channel Selector Portal also to facilitate subscribers who either don't own smart phone or wish to use web browsers. The prominent feature of both the App & Portal is optimisation of the subscription before it is sent to DTH/Cable operator, so that subscribers can get best value for money. The portal has all the existing features of an App, along with download facility and help subscribers to:

a) Check their own subscription

b) View all Channels and Bouquets provided by their DTH/Cable Operator

c) Choose only the channels of interest and remove unwanted channels

d) Get optimized solution; Get best combination of user selected channels/bouquets in same price or in less price

e) Facility to add channels in the applicable NCF (Network Capacity Fee)