All Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) have been asked by TRAI to ensure compliance with the relevant rules regarding the listing of genre-specific channels in the electronic program guide.
According to the FCC, every broadcaster must disclose the genre of its channels, which must be either ‘Devotional’ or ‘General Entertainment’ or ‘Infotainment’ or ‘Kids’ or ‘Movies’ or ‘Music’ or ‘News and Current Affairs’ or ‘Sports’ or ‘Miscellaneous.’
It is required for the distributor to display all of the television channels available on its platform in the electronic program guide in such a way that all television channels One television station appears only once, and all languages in a genre are listed in order.
Each television channel available on the distribution network must be assigned a unique channel number by each distributor of television channels.
All multi-system operators must comply with the Interconnection Regulations, which include assigning a unique channel number to each television channel available on the distribution network and indicating the genre of television channels as declared by the broadcaster in the interconnection agreement, as well as submitting data to the authority.
And, in response to the said letter, the Authority examined the data obtained from multi-system operators and found that some of the multi-system operators had continued to violate Regulation 18 of the Interconnection Regulations and Regulation 38 of the QoS Regulations, respectively.
As a result, the Authority, in exercising its powers under section 13 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997), read with clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11, hereby directs all Distribution Platform Operators (Multi System Operators, DTH Operators, HITS Operators, and IPTV Operators) to
(a) Comply with regulation 18 of the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 and regulation 38 of the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 by ensuring that all television channels of a particular language in a genre are displayed consecutively in the electronic program
(b) within fifteen days of the date of this Direction, submit a compliance report via email to interconnect-bcs@trai.gov.in.”
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