Taking note of non-compliance?by?ESPN Star Sports to orders of broadcast regulator and?deviation from?mandated rates that should be charged from carriage platforms like DTH operators, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday, slapped a show cause notice on the sports broadcaster.
The regulatory body has granted three days time to the content distributor to respond to the notice, failing which the regulator may choose to either recommend the?ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I &B) to cancel the permission to transmit the channel or exercise its right under the Trai Act to initiate legal action. A ESPN spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.
Last month, ESPN had approached?Trai pleading that the regulator should make it mandatory for DTH operators to take all? three channels it broadcasts – Star Sports, ESPN and Star Cricket as part of their basic offering. Rejecting the broadcaster’s?contention, Trai had then directed ESPN to modify its reference interconnect offer ( RIO) within 15 days and offer to direct to home (DTH) service providers the same bouquet which are being offered?to non-CAS cable operators. Trai? had?also asked ?ESPN?to offer the bouquets/channels the DTH operators at 50 % of the rates at which such bouquets/channels are being offered?to non-CAS cable operators (MSOs and LCOs)? on ?non-addressable platforms??so that it can conform ?to Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) norms.
TDSAT had held last year and? earlier in its judgement of 2006 that the rates for DTH operators ?(addressable platforms) ?should be 50% of the rates at which the bouquets/channels are being offered to non-CAS cable distributors (non addressable platform). ESPN was also asked not to impose conditions in its revised RIO dated May 15, 2008?and to submit to the regulator?a report of compliance with the directions, along with a copy of its modified RIO.