The tribunal has directed Hathway to pay Taj Television for Zee & Turner channels at the rate of Rs 21.50 cost per subscriber (CPS) for the period from April to July. This excludes the Sports channels, for which Hathway has a subsisting agreement with Taj Television. Hathway has to pay RIO rates to Taj for availing its channels. The tribunal has also directed Hathway to pay Star India at the CPS rate of Rs 23.00 for the period from April to September. TDSAT has additionally directed Hathway to pay a CPS of Rs 4.0 per subscriber for the Star Sports channels. Therefore the total payment to Star would be at a CPS of Rs 27.0 per subscriber. Hathway will have to pay RIO rates to Star as Star had given an affidavit to the tribunal that they shall be giving channels to all MSOs on RIO basis.
As per sources, this judgement has been a big blow for Hathway. They would be paying a heavy price for getting into a legal fight with two of the largest content aggregators – Taj Television and Star. While on one hand, Hathway lost the carriage fees that they could have earned from these broadcasters, on the other hand, they are required to pay a higher content cost for the same channels. Industry sources pointed out that in the current scenario, it would be difficult for Hathway to compete on the ground by procuring the two channel broadcasters on RIO basis.
Hathway’s decision to take Zee & Turner channels on RIO seems to have misfired. To make matters worse, Hathway has seen a steady loss of subscribers to alternate distribution platforms, since angry consumers are switching to other DTH operators & MSOs to get their daily dose of shows. The local cable operators have also been unhappy with non-availability of Zee content to its subscribers. Reportedly, Hathway had to offer discounts to LCOs due to lower collection from customers, who were unhappy due to non-availability of some channels.
Insiders alleged that Star is not happy with the judgement as they were expecting a much higher payout for their sports content, given the heavy investments they were making on the sport business. Amidst all, Taj Television seems to have a steady increase in ratings, despite channels not being available on many Hathway networks, and the revenue has also been higher.
