(The Times of India via NewsEdge) The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a notification that it can fix a maximum cap on channel pricing if it feels the existing prices are too high under the conditional access system (CAS).
"If price declared by the broadcaster in respect to any of its pay channels is too high, [TRAI] may"&brkbar; fix and declare the maximum retail price of all pay channels," the notification stated.
If the broadcaster does not comply, the I&B ministry can suspend permission for programming.
Broadcasters will initially have to announce the nature of each of its channels, whether they are "pay" or "free-to-air," and also the maximum retail price of each of the pay channels in each of the notified areas.
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