KOLKATA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI ), the watchdog agency for cable television, has clarified that it is not mandatory for customers to subscribe to all 100 free-to-air (FTA) channels that are offered by the multi-system operator against a payment of Rs 130 as network capacity fee.Subscribers can instead opt out of up to 100 FTA channels and subscribe to an equivalent number of standard definition (SD) pay channels or half the number of high definition (HD) pay channels without having to fork out additional network capacity fee. Subscribers will only be charged the price of pay channels in addition to the network capacity. However, if a consumer opts for more than 100 channels, an additional network fee of Rs 20 will be charged for every additional slab of 25 channels.Till now, cable operators have been claiming that the pay channels have to subscribed over and above the 100 FTA channels, thereby adding to the network capacity cost. Hence, if a person wanted to opt for 26 pay channels, operators were telling subscribers that they would have to shell out Rs 40 more as network capacity fee in addition to the basic network capacity fee of Rs 130 for 100 FTA channels and the cumulative price of the pay channels. There is an additional GST component of 18%.Given the confusion, TRAI has issued an unambiguous clarification. It has capped the netwrok capacity fee at Rs 130 for 100 SD channels. Capacity of HD channel is treated as two SD chnanels. “Any consumer who opts for more than 100 channels, which Trai considers a rare possibility with only 10-15% consumers opting for such a high number, it can be done with the payment of additional Rs 20 for 25 extra SD channels or half the number of HD channels,” the TRAI directive states.If, however, a person does not want to remove FTA channels from basic service tier but wants to further add pay channels, the person would have to pay for the channels as well as additional network capacity fee.Industry sources said cable operators have been reluctant to tinker with the 100 FTA channels as that would mean additional work at the ground level and lesser income. Others pointed to a practical problem of being unable to provide consumers a list of FTA channels for them to make a selection.“Most MSOs are yet to give a list of the 100 FTA channels they will offer. The problem is some channels that are now in the pay category will also become FTA to stay relevant in the new regime. Unless the situation stabilises and we have a list, it will be difficult for consumers to opt out of FTA channels and include pay channels in their place,” a cable operator reasoned.Trai has also clarified that multi service operators (MSOs), direct-to-home (DTH) operators and others can offer bouquets but FTA and pay channels cannot be part of the same bouquet. Moreover, SD and HD variant of the same channel cannot be part of the bouquet, and channels with MRP over Rs 19 cannot be part of the bouquet.