After longstanding rift, Tata Sky finally complies with TRAI's new broadcast pricing rules

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Direct-to-home service Tata Sky has finally released its channel pack offerings complying with the new broadcast pricing regime by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that allow consumers to select and pay only for channels that they want to watch.

"The packs are completely compliant with the TRAI framework. All our effort in the last couple of months has gone into building a very user-friendly mechanism," Harit Nagpal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tata Sky told Mint.

Tata Sky had moved the Delhi High Court against the new pricing regime, which comes into effect on February 1, and had refused to release the individual maximum retail price (MRP) of channels as required by the new norms. Due to this, the company drew flak from the regulator.

In a letter to Tata Sky on January 15, TRAI said that a large number of complaints are coming in from the channels subscribers. "The subscribers are complaining that Tata Sky has not made any provision in its system to obtain the choice of subscribers as per the new regulatory framework," it said in the note.

But now Tata Sky will convey the prices of channels and its bouquet packs starting January 31 on its home channel. The company aims to reach out to all its customers by the end of this week. It still disagrees with the TRAI and the matter will continue in court. But it does not want any blackout or viewing disruption for its customers, Nagpal said.

Those who don't comply before the deadline will be sent text messages to either log in online or contact a dealer. Customers can choose a pack close to their existing bouquet, both in terms of cost and content. If not, they can add or reduce channels with their cost perpetually displayed on the website, the Tata Sky app and through dealers. The DTH operator will follow the Rs 19 mandated for a single a la carte channel and arrived at Rs 22.42, in some cases, after adding Goods & Service Tax.