Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2020

TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART III, SECTION 4 TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA NOTIFICATION

THE TELECOMMUNICATION (BROADCASTING AND CABLE) SERVICES INTERCONNECTION (ADDRESSABLE SYSTEMS) (SECOND AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 2020 (1 of 2020)

New Delhi, 01/01/2020

F. No. 21-5/2019-B&CS.— In exercise of the powers conferred by section 36, read with sub-clauses (ii), (iii) and (iv) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11, of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997), read with notification of the Central Government, in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Department of Telecommunications), No. 39, —

(a) issued, in exercise of the powers conferred upon the Central Government under clause (d) of sub-section (1) of section 11 and proviso to clause (k) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the said Act, and

(b) published under notification No. S.O.44 (E) and 45 (E) dated the 9th January, 2004 in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3,—

the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India hereby makes the following regulations to further amend the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 (1 of 2017), namely: -

1. (1) These regulations may be called the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2020 (1 of 2020).

(2) (a) Except as otherwise provided in clause (b), these regulations shall come into force from 1st March, 2020.

(b) Regulation 3 and regulation 5 shall come into force from 15th January, 2020.

2. In regulation 4 of the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the principal regulations),

(a) after the proviso and before the Explanation to sub-regulation (3), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:- “Provided further that for a multi-system operator or Internet Protocol Television Operator or Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) operator the target market shall in no case be larger than a State or a Union Territory.”

(b) for sub-regulation (8), the following sub-regulation shall be substituted, namely: - “(8) It shall be permissible to the distributor of television channels to discontinue carrying of a television channel in case the monthly subscription percentage for that channel is less than the discontinuation threshold calculated as per Schedule VIII, in each of the immediately preceding six consecutive months:

Provided that the language of the television channel shall be the language as published on its website and declared to the Authority by the broadcaster, and after 1st July, 2020, it shall be the language specified in the downlinking permission of the television channel issued by the government.

Explanation: In case the downlinking permission issued by the government specifies multiple languages as the language of the television channel, then the language proportion of the television channel shall be calculated by adding the proportionate percentage of all such languages together for a target market.”

3. In regulation 7 of the principal regulations, (a) for proviso to sub-regulation (3), the following proviso shall be substituted, namely:- “Provided that the rate of distribution fee declared by the broadcaster shall be same for pay channel and bouquet of pay channels and shall be uniform across all the distribution platforms.”

(b) in sub-regulation (4), the words “or bouquet of pay channels” shall be omitted.

(c) in first proviso to sub-regulation (4), the words “or bouquet of pay channels, as the case may be” shall be omitted.

4. In regulation 8 of the principal regulations, (a) in first proviso to sub-regulation (2), after the words “twenty paisa”, the following words shall be inserted, namely:- “and the total carriage fee payable for such television channel per month, by a broadcaster to a distributor of television channels, shall, in no case, exceed rupees four lakh”

(b) in second proviso to sub-regulation (2), after the words “forty paisa”, the following words shall be inserted, namely:- “and the total carriage fee payable for such television channel per month, by a broadcaster to a distributor of television channels, shall, in no case, exceed rupees eight lakh”

5. In the Explanation to sub-regulation (12) of regulation 10 of the principal regulations, the words “or the bouquet of pay channels” shall be omitted.

6. In regulation 18 of the principal regulations, (a) for sub-regulation (2) and provisos thereto, the following sub-regulation shall be substituted, namely: - “(2) It shall be mandatory for the distributor to place all the television channels available on its platform in the electronic programme guide, in such a manner that all the television channels of a particular language in a genre are displayed together consecutively and one television channel shall appear at one place only.”

(b) in sub-regulation (4), for the words “for a period of at least one year from the date of such assignment”, the words “without prior approval of the Authority” shall be substituted.

(c) for second proviso to sub-regulation (4), the following proviso shall be substituted, namely:- “Provided further that if a broadcaster changes the genre or language of a channel then the channel number assigned to that particular television channel shall be changed in order to place such channel with the channels of the new genre or language in the electronic program guide.”

7. In the principal regulations, after Schedule VII, the following schedule shall be inserted, namely: -

“Schedule VIII (Refer sub-regulation (8) of regulation 4)

Calculating the discontinuation threshold for a television channel

1. The ‘discontinuation threshold’ for a channel shall be the number arrived at by multiplying the average active subscriber base of the concerned distributor in its declared target market with the ‘discontinuation multiplier’ for the language of that channel.

2. The ‘discontinuation multiplier’ for a language shall be five percent of the total percentage of the population speaking that language in the declared target market of the concerned distributor as per the latest Census data. (a) In case the declared target market of the concerned distributor is ‘All India’, the ‘discontinuation multiplier’ shall be calculated as per the following table (until more recent Census data is available):

Source: Census 2011 data: C-17 Population by bilingualism and trilingualism

(b) In case a distributor declares multiple states as target market under the provisions of the regulations, the discontinuation multiplier shall be calculated in proportion to the speaking strength of the language of that television channel in all the states constituting the target market.

(c) In case a distributor declares a State or a Union Territory as the target market under the provisions of the regulations, the discontinuation multiplier shall be calculated in proportion to the speaking strength of the language of the television channel in that state or Union Territory. (Refer Census Data of India, Statement 3: Distribution of 10,000 persons by language – India, States and Union Territories-2011; http://censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language-2011/Statement-3.pdf or latest census data)