Remove license fee for DTH or impose a license fee on cable TV players too: Airtel

Remove license fee for DTH operators or charge authorization fee for all, said Bharati Airtel Limited (BAL) in its latest submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the advisory on service authorizations for broadcasting services under the Telecom Act, 2023. he said. .

Adopting the same service-same rules approach, the telecommunications company said in its presentation: “Today, in the entire value chain of the broadcasting industry, it is only DTH operators that are subject to license fees. This creates an uneven playing field and is discriminatory and goes against the basic premise of the government’s effort to have a balanced regulatory framework. License Fee is not paid even though DTH Operators offer the same service to the same market by other competitors such as Cable and HITS operators.”

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Airtel also pointed out that TRAI has acknowledged the need for a level playing field in its recommendations on “License Fee and Policy Issues for DTH Services” in 2023. At that time, it was proposed to reduce the DTH license fee from 8 per cent to 3 per cent immediately and then to zero by FY 2026-27. However, this proposal was not included in the final DTH License Draft.

Besides the above recommendation, the telco also suggested additional measures for the period until the license fee is abolished. Airtel said that the definition of Gross Revenue (GR), Applicable Gross Revenue (ApGR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) for the telecom sector should also be applied to DTH license holders. It was also stated that the license fee applied to content revenue should be paid by the Broadcaster, which is the ultimate beneficiary, and not by the DTH Operator acting as distributor.

Earlier in October, it was reported that Airtel was planning to acquire Tata Play, one of India’s largest DTH players, to gain a solid foothold in the digital TV space and gain a competitive advantage over rival companies such as Reliance Jio.

Airtel and Jio locked in dispute

Contrary to Airtel’s argument of level playing field, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd in its presentations said that waiving license fee for DTH operators will give a competitive advantage to such service providers.

“While it is proposed to waive the license fee for DTH services that use the spectrum free of charge, fixed line services that cannot benefit from the advantages provided by DTH must pay a license fee to the State. In addition, mobile operators providing IPTV/content services in the wireless field are required to obtain spectrum through auction and also pay the spectrum usage fee and license fee. Any move to waive or reduce the license fee for DTH will further exacerbate this disparity and further skew the competitive balance in favor of DTH,” Jio said.

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Regarding the proposals to reduce the license fee for DTH, Jio said that the proposals do not take into account the competitive advantages provided to DTH over fixed line, Cable TV services and mobile services, especially due to liberal spectrum allocation.

It may be noted that Airtel flagged similar concerns about satcom users having an advantage over legacy telcos during TRAI’s discussions on spectrum allocation.