DTH
TT Correspondent | 11 May 2012The Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) has said that digitalisation process will not succeed unless the government took adequate and strong measures to end the monopoly of large MSOs who are also acting as distributors for many broadcasters.
In a representation to the minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni, COFI said that though a boon for them, “the initiative is likely to suffer serious setback as certain content providers and their distributors are not providing or are not likely to provide content to the Independent MSOs or Cable Operators who wish to do digitalization on their own after getting registered with the Ministry as there are conflicting interests involved.
Ministry has been asked to iron out many contentious issues that have cropped up after TRAI issued the Tariff Order and Interconnect Order on 30th April.
The cable operators’ body said various broadcasters, their distribution companies like Media Pro, MSMD, ESPN Star Sports, Sun 18 have appointed various MSOs as distributors, who are also having their own cable networks. This is a clear case of conflict of interest.
“It is in the interest of these distributors who also have interest in cable networks as MSOs that their supporting broadcasters deny the content to the third party independent MSOs and Cable Operators so that the monopoly of their associated MSOs is maintained and perpetuated” it said.
4COFI has suggested that in the interest of proper implementation of digital initiative, the MIB and TRAI, while reiterating the law declared by the Sea TV judgment as stated above, should issue an advisory to all broadcasters and their distributors such as Media Pro, MSMD, Sun 18 etc. that they should give an undertaking that they will not appoint any person or entity directly or indirectly who is involved in cable networking operations/business either by himself or his family members and close relatives.
It has also informed the minister that companies like Media Pro (a joint venture of Star TV, DEN, Zee and Turner), MSMD have appointed MSOs as their distributors also in various cities and states like Kanpur, Hyderabad, Gujarat etc. and are now not giving content to independent MSOs as they wish to protect their networks.