New Delhi: TRAI, in March 2017, notified the ‘New Regulatory Framework’ for Broadcasting and Cable services. The new framework came into effect on 29th December 2018. TRAI’s new regulations/orders for the television and broadcasting sector gave freedom to consumers to select television channels they want to watch.
Transparency and consumer protection are important mandate of TRAI. After issuing of New Tariff order for broadcasting services it was noticed that consumers were facing difficulty to opt for TV channels/ bouquets of their choice on the web portal/ Apps of their respective Distributed Platform Operators(DPOs). Therefore, the Authority decided to develop an App which will fetch data from DPOs through APIs developed by TRAI.
Accordingly, TRAI issued a draft amendment on 29th August 2019 for consultation with DPOs which mandates OPOs to share their APIs After due consultation process, the Authority mandated DPOs through the regulation dated 9th October 2019 to share APIs with TRAI So that consumer can edit and modify their subscription using an App developed by TRAI. TRAI has developed a TV Channel Selector App to provide reliable, robust and transparent Systems to television subscribers. The App fetches the data Of Subscriber from respective DPOs platform through APIs. The subscribers will be authenticated by OTP on their Registered Mobile Number(RMN). In case there is no registered mobile number of a subscriber with DPO, subscriber Will get OTP on his/her TV screen. The App facilitates subscribers to:
- Check their own subscription
- View all Channels and Bouquets provided by their DTH/ Cable Operator.
- Choose only the channels Of interest and remove unwanted channels
- Get optimized solution; Get best combination of user-selected channels/bouquets in same price or in less price
- Facility to add channels in the applicable NCF (Network Capacity Fee)
- Allow users to modify existing subscription
- Check real time status Of your subscription request
Channel Selector App is made available on both Google Play Store and Apple Store. Using the App customers of DTH/Cable Operator can see their subscription, modify (add/ delete channels) subscription and set new subscription. Another prominent feature of the App is optimisation of the subscription before it is sent to DTH/ Cable operator therefore subscribers can get best value for money.
In order to make App more user friendly, the users may provide feedback by clicking the “Feedback” option available on the App menu. This channel selector App is presently functional with major DTH operators and Multi System Operators (MSO/Cable Operators). However, efforts are being made to integrate other service providers also on the platform.
