← Policy & Regulation: Pricing and Tariff Control (all topics)
8% AGR licence fee on DTH operators
What it is
Under policy guidelines notified Sep 2022, DTH operators pay 8% of Adjusted Gross Revenue - gross revenue net of GST - as a quarterly licence fee. Cable operators pay no equivalent AGR-linked fee
TRAI recommended in 2023, reiterated in 2025, cutting it to 3% and phasing it out entirely by FY27. MIB separately raised demand notices covering roughly 17 years of dues, reported at around Rs 16,000 cr across four private operators
Impact on industries
- Retrospective demands are potentially existential - several thousand crore per operator against annual sector licence collections of only ~Rs 660 cr
- Creates an unlevel field against OTT and internet-delivered linear services, which carry no equivalent fee and compete for the same viewing
- The TRAI phase-out would materially improve DTH economics and is the single largest regulatory relief available to the sector
- Cable operators oppose the relief, arguing DTH already gets Ku-band spectrum administratively free while cable pays right-of-way charges - so the two distribution modes are lobbying against each other