IBF files petition against TRAI amendment order; HC to hear plea on Tuesday

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) amendments to the new tariff order (NTO) that came into effect in February 2019. The high court will hear the plea on Tuesday.

Major broadcasters including Sony Pictures Networks, Star TV Network, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. and Viacom18 have allied under the IBF umbrella to take on the regulator.

Broadcasters accused the regulator of trying to micro-manage the ecosystem in a press conference on Friday 10th January, reporting that if the amendments are implemented it would mean shutting down their niche channels.

The regulator has stated that the bigger broadcasters are driving regional channels to extinction by overpricing their a-la-carte channels by as much as 200% and bundling their niche channels with their driver channels, making the objective of the entire NTO exercise illusory.