← Policy & Regulation: Pricing and Tariff Control (all topics)
NTO (New Tariff Order) broadcast tariff framework
What it is
TRAI's tariff framework for addressable television, introduced in 2017 and revised through NTO 2.0 and NTO 3.0. It requires broadcasters to declare a la carte MRPs for every channel, caps what may be included in a bouquet, and regulates the network capacity fee distributors charge
Subsequent amendments raised the permitted bouquet discount to 45%, removed the NCF ceiling and made FTA declaration mandatory
Impact on industries
- Gave consumers genuine a la carte choice and price transparency, replacing opaque bundles where subscribers paid for channels they never watched
- Broke bouquet economics for broadcasters - channels that survived on being bundled with popular ones must now justify themselves individually
- Repeated revision is itself the problem - four iterations in under a decade, with continuous litigation through TDSAT, High Courts and the Supreme Court
- Later amendments addressed distributor grievances by lifting the NCF ceiling and widening discount limits, partially rebalancing between broadcasters and platforms